HAHA-UE • mother (very formal, polite, old fashioned)
HAHAGATAKE • a mountain in Chiran
HAI • yes
HAIKU • a form of poetry originated in Japan consisting of three lines with five, seven, and five syllables respectively, or some version thereof. Images of nature are common, as well as a revelation.
HANA • flower
“HARU NO UMI” • “The Sea in Spring,” a piece for koto and shakuhachi composed by Miyagi Michio in 1929. It was inspired by the image of the sea from his childhood, before he lost his sight.
HONSHU • the largest of the home islands of Japan
HOTARU • firefly, a nickname for the short-lived tokkō
ICHI/NI/SAN • one/two/three
IIE • no
ITAI • ouch; it hurts
JI • a bridge that supports a string on a koto; traditionally made of ivory. (There are thirteen bridges in all.)
JISEI • death poems, a Buddhist tradition in a variety of poetic styles, meant to convey the last thoughts of a person before death. Many jisei and final words are on display at the Chiran Peace Museum.
JIZO • Buddhist deity, protector of travelers and children, who leads the innocent across the Sanzu River to the land of the dead
KABUKI SEWAMONO • a type of play in the Kabuki style of theater, known for contemporary romances among other themes
KAGOSHIMA • a large city on the coast near Chiran
KAIMONDAKE • a mountain in Kyushu that resembles Mount Fuji
KAITEN • manned torpedoes used in kamikaze missions
KAMI • Shinto deities
KAMIFUSEN • paper balloon balls
KAMIKAZE • “divine wind”; also a name for tokkō pilots
KAMISHIBAI • “paper drama,” a form of storytelling using illustrations accompanied by a live, spoken narrative
KANNON • Buddhist goddess of mercy
KEMPEITAI • military police
KENDO • a martial art that typically uses bamboo or wooden swords
KIMONO • a traditional ankle-length robe with long sleeves
KINSHA • a type of silk
KIRI • a type of wood used for making kotos
KONNICHIWA • “good day,” a greeting typically used midday to early evening
KOTO • a stringed musical instrument
KUROBUTA-TONKOTSU • a local dish for which the famous Kagoshima pork meat, on the bone, is boiled for several hours with ingredients such as daikon radish, brown sugar, Kagoshima miso, and shōchū
KUROMATSU • a type of pine tree
KYUSHU • the southernmost of the four home islands of Japan
MANCHUKUO • a wartime puppet state created in China by Japan, which occupied a large part of Manchuria
MENKO • a card game
MISO • a seasoning made from fermented soybeans; a soup made with the same seasoning
MOMO • peach
MOMOTARO • literally “Peach Boy,” the hero of a traditional Japanese folktale
MONO NO AWARE • the concept of sadness in beauty because it fades
MONPÉ • loose trousers, traditional work pants that are wide at the hips and thighs, and gathered at the ankles
MURA • a rural region supervised by local government, similar to a county
NADESHIKO • a flower from the dianthus family (pronounced na-desh-ko)
NAGAJUBAN • a robe, often made of cotton, worn beneath a kimono
NATTO • fermented soybeans
NIGARI • a type of salt
NINGYO • a mermaid-like creature
O- • a prefix used to show respect for daily items in life (for example, o-cha for tea, o-mizu for water)
OBI • a wide sash worn with a kimono
OBON • an annual Buddhist festival to honor ancestral spirits
OCHA • green tea
OJI-SAN • uncle (middle-aged man)
OJII-SAN • grandfather or old man (over sixty)
OKARA • soy pulp that remains after making tofu
OKĀ-SAN • mother (not as formal as “haha-ue”)
OKAYU • rice porridge
OKINAWA • an island cluster south of the home islands of Japan; also the largest island in that cluster
OKONOMIYAKI • a popular local dish in Hiroshima featuring a savory layered pancake of noodles, vegetables, and meat, topped with a sauce
ONI • a demon in Japanese folklore
ONSEN • hot springs; spas or inns with hot springs
ŌTEMIZUSHA • large purification basin
OTŌ-SAN • father
SAKÉ • an alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice
SAKURA • cherry blossom
SAKURAJIMA • an active volcano overlooking Kagoshima Bay in Kyushu, Japan
-SAMA • a formal honorific suffix
SAMURAI • warrior nobility in early and medieval Japan
-SAN • a suffix added to a proper name to show respect
SANZU-NO-KAWA • “The River of Three Crossings”; the river into the afterlife in Japanese folklore, similar to the Greek River Styx
SATSUMAIMO • sweet potato
SAYOUNARA • goodbye
SENNINBARI • a thousand-person-stitch belt
SENSEI • teacher
SHAMISEN • a stringed instrument similar to a lute or mandolin
SHINMON • Main Gate
SHŌCHŪ • a local liquor made from sweet potatoes
SHŌJI • a traditional door or room divider made of translucent paper with a wooden or bamboo frame
SHOKUDO • a type of casual dining restaurant
SHŌNEN HIKŌHEI • Youth Pilot School
SHŌWA ERA • “the Period of Bright Peace”; the reign of Emperor Hirohito, from December 25, 1926, to his death on January 7, 1989
SODZU-BABA • an old woman who demands the clothes or skins of the dead once they’ve crossed the River of Three Crossings in Japanese folklore
SURIBACHI • a mortar, used with a surikogi for grinding food
SURIKOGI • a pestle, used with a suribachi for grinding food
TABI • traditional Japanese socks worn with thonged footwear, featuring a split between the big and second toe
TAI • unit
TANKA • a form of poetry based on haiku
TARO • boy
TATAMI • woven floor mats
TOKKŌ • special attack pilots, also known as kamikaze
TOKUBETSU KŌGEKI • “special attack,” the term from which the tōkko take their name
TONARI-GUMI • a neighborhood association, comprised of nine households, that handles civic duties
TORII • a gateway to a Shinto shrine
TOYOTAMA-HIME • a goddess, daughter of the sea god in Japanese folklore, descendant of the sun goddess, and grandmother of the first emperor of Japan
TSUBURAJII • a type of evergreen tree
-UE • meaning “upper” or “above”; a suffix to show extreme respect
“UMI YUKABA” • “If I Go Away to Sea,” a popular wartime anthem about the honor of dying for the Emperor
UNOHANA • sautéed okara with vegetables
YAMATO • an ancient name for Japan
YAMATO-DAMASHII • Japanese spirit
YAMATO NADESHIKO • the idealized Japanese woman
YASUKUNI SHRINE • an Imperial Shinto shrine in Tokyo dedicated to those who died in military service for Japan
YUKATA • a casual, lightweight kimono, often made of cotton
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
There is so much more history to share about the Tokkō Tai and Nadeshiko Tai. I fit what I could into the story. If, like me, yo
u love a good rabbit hole, I suggest the following books (as well as Bill Gordon’s website, kamikazeimages.net). They were invaluable to me in approaching Japanese history, culture, and in piecing together the imagined love story of Hana and Taro.
Cook, Haruko, and Theodore F. Cook, Japan at War: An Oral History
Davies, Roger J., and Osamu Ikeno (editors), The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture
Embree, John F., Suye Mura: A Japanese Village
Hashimoto, Akiko, The Long Defeat: Cultural Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Japan
Jowett, Phillip, and Stephen Andrew, The Japanese Army 1931–1945, volumes 1 and 2
Kawatoko, Takeshi, The Mind of the Kamikaze
King, Dan, The Last Zero Fighter: Firsthand Accounts from WWII Japanese Naval Pilots
Marsh, Don, and Peter Starkings, Imperial Japanese Army Flying Schools 1912–1945
Sheftall, M. G., Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze
Yamanouchi, Midori, and Joseph L. Quinn (translators), Listen to the Voices from the Sea: Writings of the Fallen Japanese Students
Yamashita, Samuel Hideo, Daily Life in Wartime Japan, 1940–1945
Yamashita, Samuel Hideo, Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies: Selections from the Wartime Diaries of Ordinary Japanese
Zaloga, Stephen J., and Ian Palmer, Kamikaze: Japanese Special Attack Weapons 1944–45
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
No book is written alone. This is especially true for historical fiction, where the lives of real people intersect with imagination. What reads true is because of the help I received. Any errors in these pages are my own. My deepest gratitude to everyone who helped me uncover and tell this story: authors Dan King and Samuel Hideo Yamashita for their books, their suggestions, and particularly Dan for his introduction to Takeshi Kawatoko. Kawatoko-san was my gracious guide through the Chiran Peace Museum. His book, The Mind of the Kamikaze, was full of details I could not find anywhere else. An exuberant thanks to Reiko Yoshimura, my intrepid guide across Kyushu. From Kagoshima to Chiran and beyond, she hunted down rivers and bunkers, and initiated conversations with every resident we met over the age of eighty. Without her help, I would never have found the tiny river where the Nadeshiko washed clothes, nor met the kind priest at the temple who could not recall ever seeing cherry blossoms there in his youth.
To the entire city of Chiran—from the women who served tea at the Samurai Gardens, to the kind people at the Chamber of Commerce, with their collection of photographs, and the little boy sitting cross-legged outside the old junior high school who pointed the way to the temple down the street, I was made to feel welcome. To the attentive, smiling staff at Tomiya Inn (and to the chef of the amazing multicourse meals!), I give gratitude. When I was introduced to the young woman behind the counter as the great-granddaughter of Tome Tomihara herself, I felt as though I’d fallen through the looking glass with wonders to be seen. A special thanks to Toshio Oba and his wife—two of the most genteel people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting in my travels.
Stateside, I owe many thanks to author Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, whose own deep research into World War II Japan has served as an inspiration and an education for my own. And thanks to koto player Reiko Obata, who answered my bizarre questions with kindness and insight (Can hair be turned into a koto or violin string? No), and introduced me to “Haru no Umi.” I found Reiko online and knew I’d struck gold when she mentioned her daughter is a violinist. The conversation my inquiries sparked was just the support I needed at the start of this book. I would also like to thank Los Angeles Philharmonic concertmaster Martin Chalifour and Metzler Violin Shop in Glendale, California. It was at a Metzler exhibition that I had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Chalifour play fifty different violins and discuss their various traits. It was from watching him that I shaped Taro’s own performances . . . and learned how easy it is to develop a crush on a violinist.
A long-overdue thanks to the two people who continue to keep me online (and in bookmarks!) in style—Torrey Douglass and Karen Bates. Your friendship, graphic design eye, tech savvy, and massive generosity overwhelm me.
I also owe thanks to Yasunari Kawabata for his masterful novels Snow Country and The Sound of the Mountain. I first read them in a Japanese Literature in Translation class as an undergrad at New York University. It wasn’t until many years later that I came to better understand the story structure known as kishōtenketsu. The earliest versions of this book were modeled on that Eastern style of storytelling. Forgive the alterations here and there, as I adjusted the shape to more Western tastes.
This book would not exist without my editor, Stephanie Pitts, or my agent, Kirby Kim. My copy editors, Ana Deboo and Yoko Oikawa, worked diligently to correct my errors—grammatical, historical, and linguistic. Any remaining flubs are all mine. Kristin Boyle and Maggie Edkins designed several covers, reimagining the face of the book until it shined. My thanks to G. P. Putnam’s Sons for wanting me to return to the Second World War. As our Greatest Generation passes on, it’s up to us to remember the history they lived.
I am forever grateful to my husband, Kelvin, for putting up with dozens of Japanese words stickered around the house as I practiced the language, and for reminding me to give people hope.
To the people who fought and died on all sides of this terrible war. May we learn from your sacrifice to never tread that way again.
There are more people to thank, but I cannot list them all. Let me just say this book is a culmination of years of friendship, study, one very deep rabbit hole, and a hope for lasting peace.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SHERRI L. SMITH is the author of several novels for young adults, including the critically acclaimed Flygirl, Orleans, and Pasadena, as well as the middle grade novel The Toymaker’s Apprentice. She teaches creative writing at Goddard College and Hamline University and lives in Los Angeles, California.
Visit the author at sherrilsmith.com
or follow her on Twitter @Sherri_L_Smith
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