I bought this book at Readings in Chadstone. I was at Chadstone Shopping Centre having lunch with family and afterwards couldn’t resist wandering into a couple of shops. I think I’ve found the bread that is almost exactly the rolls I used to buy at the Japanese bakery many years ago. I bought a loaf and enjoyed it tremendously. I do prefer that little pocket of adzuki bean paste in the middle, but this bread with the adzuki bean paste swirled around is also delicious. After buying that I then wandered into the Readings just for a look-see. I wandered out again several minutes later with two books, recommendations from two different staff members. I also apologised to the large number of customers waiting behind me. It was encouraging to see so many people in a book shop. I did my normal and explained I’d like a recommendation and that I don’t like romance. I was told this was different because the romance was real life. Therein lies the problem.
This book is set post WWII. Gordon Parker enlisted in the Australian Army as soon as he turned 18. By the time he was trained the war had ended. He did end up being sent overseas, but to Japan which was trying to start the recovery having been bombed by the USA which used nuclear bombs on them. He meets Nobuko and they fall in love. The plan is that their marriage will enable Nobuko or ‘Cherry’ to live in Australia with Gordon. That fails due to the White Australia Policy. I have so many words for this Policy and none of them are polite. Anyway, years later Gordon succeeds and brings Cherry to Australia as his wife. She is Australia’s first war bride from Japan. Bringing her here changed Australia forever.
If you think this is far-fetched then a quick google will show you how real this story is. On the first page of my google search I found this article from The Chronicle in Adelaide from 17th July 1952. I do have issues with the wording, there is obviously no 16 year-old child in this photo, I can’t help wondering if this typo shows the racism inherent in Australian society at that time. Many thanks to Trove for making old newspapers available online.
What did I like about this book?
The writing is beautiful. It is straightforward and easy to read. I enjoyed the narrative, it was nicely done. It was good to get a view of Japan from someone who was sympathetic to the Japanese problems post Atomic Bomb.
One of the experiences I like reading about is how people coped after some big change. Cherry ended up alone in the world, except for Gordon, and he was not allowed to fraternise with the locals. We see how secret their relationship had to remain on both sides and how she lived. Parker also shows us how the local females were blamed for the men they were seeing. Nobuko was arrested as they thought she was a prostitute and the treatment she received was dreadful.
I enjoyed reading about their story and how it changed Australia’s history. When Nobuko came to our shores (actually, Essendon Airport) it opened the doors for other Japanese war brides to reunite with their husbands and meet their new families. My heart was in my mouth during a lot of this part of the book
What I didn’t like about this book?
There’s the Atomic Bombs. Pieces of war that should never have been deployed. In fact, they should never have been invented. They were, and still, are an absolute travesty. We see some of the horror they caused, the families that were torn apart, the people who were destroyed and lost so much. I hesitate to say I enjoyed Parker’s depiction of Cherry’s experience because I didn’t, but the descriptions were compelling.
I didn’t appreciate the way some Western people depicted the Japanese as non-people. I understand this is how people manage to get through wars by othering the enemy, and I don’t have to like it.
It turns out I still can’t cope with romance even when I know it’s real life. There were paragraphs that I skipped, pages I turned unread. Do I regret this? Sort of, it does feel as if I didn’t actually finish the book, but skipping those sections meant I was able to get through the rest of the book.
After all that
I do recommend it. If you have issues with war books then this is not for you. If you like war books, but not romance then just take my words literally. If you like history this is a recommended read, there are few books in the Western world where the Japanese are depicted with sensitivity. If my words are brief then the lacking is in my memory and my writing. I took no notes throughout the entire book, I should have, but didn’t take the time to stop and notate even one word. I did read this book fairly quickly.