Title: White Chrysanthemum
Author: Mary Lynn Bracht
Published: 2018
Call #: FIC BRACHT
Either taken under disguise or snatched from their villages, as many as 200,000 women and girls were kidnapped and labeled “comfort women” to service brothels of the Japanese Imperial Army during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Deemed less than human, these women suffered abuse day after day. Survivors often could not even speak of the horrors they endured due to the Confucian society’s high value of purity. For many years, the women suffered in silence.
This eye-opening book tells the story of two sisters and the world they grew up in--one of both love and sacrifice, yet incomprehensible pain. From the day Hana’s baby sister, Emiko is born, she swears to protect her, always. The sisters are part of a “Haenyeo” family -- women taught generation after generation to fish in their oceans and provide for their families. At sixteen-years-old, Hana free dives while her younger sister stays on the sandy shore guarding their catch. When a Japanese soldier comes to the secluded beach, then the worst nightmare begins.
Compassionate, raw, and hopeful, this novel tells the moving story of the Haenyeo women and the horrors they endured, as well as the strength and comfort they found in each other. A beautiful testimony of both friendship and loss, it will leave you teary eyed and inspired.
Blanca S.
Popular Materials Assistant