Something to do on a summer's day,,,,in August 1943

I've gone back to sorting and reorganizing my bookshelves yet again.  Naturally, it has been taking up most of the summer because I keep stopping and reading through things like old comic books (I had forgotten that Captain America had a brother who died at Pearl Harbor), magazines like Girls Own, Calling All Girls, Jack and Jill and Child Life, and of course, all the books and other small trinkets I have been given or gathered along my way - and all of it relating to kids during WWII.  

Since it is summer, I've had a bit of help (?) from a 9 year old visiting niece and her new friend who lives in an apartment upstairs.  This week, the girls decided to copy some puzzles from an old August 1942 Child Life.  They seemed to enjoy doing them so much that I thought I would share the puzzles they copied.    

Answers:

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr

It was Peace Day, August 6, 1954 and 12 year old Sadako Sasaki couldn't wait for the day to begin.  Sadako loved Peace Day - the crowds, the fireworks and, especially the cotton candy.   Sadako knew it was going to be a good day because she saw nothing less than a good luck sign in the bright blue sky over Hiroshima that day.

Still, her parents had to remind Sadako that Peace Day was a solemn occasion, a day for remembering that the first atomic bomb ever used - the Thunderbolt - was dropped on Hiroshima by the United States in an effort to end the World War II and for honoring the many, many lives lost because of it.  But Sadako, who was 2 years old at the time the bomb hit Hiroshima, considered herself lucky to have  survived the it without a scratch and avoiding its after effects, the dreaded A-Bomb disease.  Sadako and her best friend, Chizuko, spent a wonderful Peace Day together.

But then, in the fall, Sadako began to feel strange and dizzy.  Although the feeling came and went, Sadako decided to keep it to herself.  After all, she was a really fast runner and had just been chosen to run the relay race in school.  Nothing could spoil that.   Sadako did manage to keep the dizziness secret for a few months, until February 1955 when she collapsed while running in school.

Sadako, in the middle of the front row, with her relay team

Taken to the hospital, Sadako and her family learned that she did, indeed, have the A-bomb disease - Leukemia.  Now confined to a hospital bed, her friend Chizuko came to visit one day and brought Sadako a beautiful golden origami crane, along with some paper and scissors.

Chizuko reminded Sadako of the legend of the crane - if a sick person folds one thousand paper cranes,  the gods will grant their wish and make them healthy again.  That very night, Sadako begin folding cranes.

But folding one thousand cranes is a big job, especially when you are ill.  Sadako didn't finish folding all the cranes before she passed away on October 25, 1955.  But, according to Eleanor Coerr in her Epilogue, Sadako's classmates finished folding the rest of the cranes for Sadako.

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is a emotionally, powerful story.  It is a perfect book for introducing this difficult topic to young readers.  There are no detailed graphic images described about the war, the bomb or even to after effects, only an acknowledgement of these things.  There is some controversy over whether or not Sadako actually did finish folding 1,000 cranes.  Regardless of whether she did or didn't, there is much to be learned from Sadako's story.

After her death, schoolchildren all over Japan helped raise money to erect a statue honoring Sadako Sasaki and in 1958, as statue was unveiled.  Since then, school children from around the world have been mailing or carrying folded paper cranes to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park by the thousands to honor Sadako and the many people who perished as a result of the A-Bomb with pledges of peace.

"I will write peace on your wings and you will fly over the world"

A second Atomic Bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945.  This year marks 68 years since the Atomic Bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.  No other atomic/nuclear bomb has been used since then...yet.

Doves released August 6, 2013 Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was purchased for my personal library

The Children's Peace Station Hiroshima has a virtual museum that you can visit online and learn all about Sadako's life and her paper cranes for peace.

Origami-fun is just one of many online sources where you can learn how to fold a paper crane.

Global Ministries also has instructions for folding paper cranes as well as the address for sending your peace cranes to the Children's Monument in Hiroshima's Peace Park.  

Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent by Pearl Witherington Cornioley, edited by Kathryn J. Atwood

When most of us think special agents, the figure that most often comes to mind is that of James Bond, code name 007, part of the Secret Intelligence Service, or M16.  Bond is fun, but he is nothing like real life.  In reality, being a special agent can leave you cold, wet, dirty, hungry, and sometimes your stuff ends up in a lake when you parachute into an occupied country as you will discover when you read Code Name Pauline.

In a series of interviews, Pearl Witherington Cornioley tells about her life in the SOE, or Special Operations Executive, whose purpose was to "locate, assist, supply and train willing resisters within occupied countries by sending them British-trained agents," (pg xxi) people who could speak the language of the occupied country with native fluency.  The SOE was a top secret organization, so top secret no one in it knew its real name until after the war.

Pearl Witherington Cornioley was a perfect candidate.  Although she was a British citizen, she had been born and raised in Paris and so, naturally she spoke fluent French.   When the Germans began their invasion of France in June 1940, Pearl, her mother and three sisters (her father had already passed away) needed to get out of France and back to England.  It was a long, harrowing seven-month trip, but they luckily received help along the way and arrived back in London in July 1941.

Morally opposed to the occupation of France by the Nazis, Pearl knew she could do more tho help the resistance working in France than doing paperwork for the Air Ministry in England and so she applied to the Inter-Services Research Bureau, which actually turned out to be the SOE, along with an old friend from France, Maurice Southgate, also a Brit.

After a grueling training period and only three practice jumps, Pearl, at the age of 29, parachuted into France in September 1943 disguised as a cosmetics saleswoman.   For the most part engaging in acts of sabotage to slow down and thwart the Nazis, Pearl recounts some of the small every day details of resistance work we don't usually hear about in fiction and about her close calls with the Gestapo where luck was on her side.

Then, when her friend Maurice was captured by the Gestapo and sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Pearl took over the leadership of 3,500 resistance workers and assumed the code name Pauline for the remainder of her time with the Resistance.

Pearl never spoke about her work in France with the Resistance after the war.  She married Henri Cornioley with whom she had been involved even before the war and who she worked with during it,  and lived a relatively quiet life.  In 1994, she and Henri decided to give some interviews to French journalist Hervé Larroque, which were published in French under the name Pauline.  Kathryn Atwood presents this narrative of Pearl's for the first time in English with the publication of Code Name Pauline.

Code Name Pauline is an interesting, exciting memoir about a woman I would love to have met.  Pearl/Pauline is feisty, almost fearless, and very morally principled, but she is also stubborn, as you will discover when you read about why she refused an honor given to her by Britain for her work in the resistance.  Bravo, Pearl!

And because reminiscences aren't always linear, or clear and sometimes digress,  Kathryn Atwood, who first introduced English readers to Pearl's story in her excellent work, Women Heroes of World War II, has written a comprehensive introduction to each chapter and has also included in her back matter a list of key figures, an extensive appendix and chapter notes, all very interesting and useful to the reader.  There is also an insert of photographs of Pearl, her family, her forged documents and, of course, Henri.

Pearl's intention for allowing herself to be interviewed was to hopefully inspire young people and to that end, this is indeed a fascinating book that will appeal to readers interested in WWII history as well as readers interested in women's history and it is most definitely inspirational.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was sent to me by the publisher

Pearl passed away in 2008 at the age of 93.  Obituaries give much additional insight into a person's life and you might like to read Pearl's obituary from The New York Times and The Telegraph

This is book 4 of my 2013 European Reading Challenge hosted by Rose City Reader

Romeo Blue by Phoebe Stone

I really enjoyed reading Phoebe Stone's novel The Romeo and Juliet Code back in June 2011 about Felicity Budwig Bathburn, 11, brought from 1941 blitzed London by her parents to live in safety with some very eccentric relatives living in Maine.  Her parents, Winnie and Danny, returned to London and Felicity only knows they are doing something undercover for the war effort.  Flissy, as she is immediately nicknamed, adjusts to life in the Blackburn home, growing to love her Uncle Gideon, Danny's brother, her flamboyant Aunt Miami and her strict but kind grandmother, called The Gram, and in the process, she solves a mystery that changes her life completely.  I highly recommend this lovely Middle Grade novel.

Now, Flissy is back in Stone's wonderful new sequel Romeo Blue and there are more mysteries to solve.  It is 1942 and Flissy is 12 and feeling the first pangs of love - with Derek, 13, an orphaned boy the Blackburn's have been caring for for sometime.  Derek has been trying to locate his real father and has just been contacted by a Mr. Fitzwilliam, who claims he has found the missing man.  Sure enough, a man claiming to be Derek's father starts visiting the Blackburn house, but refuses to have his picture taken and, as Flissy points out, behaves rather oddly and asks some strange questions.  But Derek has sworn her to secrecy so she can't say anything to her father-uncle Gideon or The Gram about her suspicions that the man is a fraud.  Now, Flissy is afraid she will lose Derek to his quest to find his father.

Meanwhile, other strange things are happening.  First, a box containing a Nazi uniform arrives for Gideon.  Then, two men from Washington show up at the house, with a film projector, Flissy enlists Derek's help in eavesdropping on the adults to find out what is going on.  It turns out that Winnie and Danny have gone missing in occupied France and Gideon has been selected to find and get them out of Nazi hands.  Flissy has always suspected Gideon of being involved in spy activities along with Winnie and Danny and now she is beside herself with fear and worry.  Will she ever see Winnie, Dannny and Gideon again?

Gideon does manage to get Winnie out of France, but not before he is shot.  Winnie gets to the Maine house, but the Gram doesn't welcome her.  And in fact, Flissy finds she also has conflicting feelings towards her mother now.  Winnie treats Flissy like a child, refusing to see she is growing up and some unusual mother-daughter strife occurs.  Or has Flissy just romanticized her mother so much over the last year that they will never get along again?

Aunt Miami is largely gone from this novel.  She has joined the USO and is traveling around the country entertaining the troops.  But she has left behind her mailman boyfriend, Mr. Henley, a poet at heart who is drafted into the Army and finds himself fighting in North Africa.

This is one of those books that is hard to write about without getting into Spoilers and it is too good a story to spoil for future readers.  Suffice it to say that there is a lot going on in Romeo Blue: more mystery, more spying, more disappointment,  more changes, in short, more good stuff.  Yet, Stone keeps it all in perspective and never lets the story run away from her in this well-constructed novel.  She has created quirkily realistic characters involved in what could easily have been real situations for people living on the Maine coastline during WWII.  And Stone has captured the essence of life on the home front during the war - rationing, shortages, blackout, curfews and generally making due.

Felicity is much more of a developed character in this second novel (not that she wasn't in the first book), probably because she is older now and settled into life at the Blackburn house.  And it is interesting to watch her fledgling love for Derek and his for her, even if it is a love that can never be realized.  Of course, you will have to read the book to find out why and it is worth it.

Romeo Blue is a compelling coming of age story, and Flissy is an engaging narrator.  Though it is a home front novel that takes place away from the actual war, it still gives a clear picture of how WWII impacted kids in so many different ways and none of them positive.  On the other hand, it demonstrates just how strong and resilient kids can be and that is a positive thing.

And finally, there were some loose ends remaining at the end of Romeo Blue and it is my sincere hope that Phoebe Stone will seriously consider a third volume to tie them up.

My fingers are crossed, Phoebe!!

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was purchased for my personal library

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday is a weekly event hosted by Shannon Messenger

FYI: Butterflies come up a lot in Romeo Blue.  A Romeo Blue butterfly is a male Mazarine Blue butterfly more common in Europe than the US.

Romeo Blues

FYI: One of the men who came from Washington to see Gideon was William Donovan.  Donovan was head of the Office of Strategic Services in WWII, which was the wartime intelligence agency (the OSS later morphed into the CIA).

William Donovan

Rising Sun, Falling Star by Vickie Hall

Life was pretty good for the Onishi family living in Alameda, California in 1941.  Though still both Japanese citizens, father Kenji Onishi had his own successful music store, and mama Aiko looked after the family, while sons Frank and Jeff and daughter Meri, short for America in homage to her parents adopted country, were all in high school.  

But the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 changed everything.  And it didn't take long for friends to become enemies or for attacks on people of Japanese descent to begin.  Then, in March 1942, a curfew was ordered for all newly designated enemy aliens and Japanese Americans.  A month later, notices were posted that they were all being evacuated, "for their own protection."


Little by little, the Onishi's began to lose everything they had worked so hard to get - their house, the business, they even destroyed generations old family heirlooms and moments of their own lives in japan and America.   People flocked to the homes of the soon to be interned Japanese and bought everything the Onishi's owned for a fraction of their value,  

Before the Onishi's knew it, they were living in a converted stable at Tanforan Racetrack, where there was no privacy, including in the shared lavatories.  At each new humiliating discovery, Meri became more depressed and withdrawn, losing herself in the books sent to the internees by the Quakers.  Not even meeting Brian, a friendly boy about her age, helps pull her out of her depression.   

No sooner are the families in Tanforan settled when they learn they will be sent to another camp, this time to the Topaz Internment Camp in Utah.   This is their home for the next few years.  For a while, Meri's depression begins to lift when she begins dating Brian.  Then when the government decides that Japanese-Americans can enlist , Jeff Onishi joins the army as soon as he is able, though his brother Frank vows he will never fight for the country that could treat its citizens as deplorably as the US is treating the Japanese. 

Meri cannot seem to accept what has happened without anger and resentment and no matter how hard Brian and others try to convince her that she can choose not to let circumstances ruin her life, they always do.   But, when Brian tells Meri he also plans on enlisting, it is a decision that impacts their relationship and puts Meri's well being in serious jeopardy.

AS Meri falls deeper and deeper into the depths of depression, can her mother be the strength she needs, despite Aiko's own losses and disappointments?

Rising Sun, Falling Star is a fictional family saga based on what really happened to the Japanese and Japanese Americans after the United States entered World War II.   This well written, well researched novel realistically depicts the innocent, though gut-wrenching idea so many had that if they could just do something, anything to prove their loyalty to America, everything would be OK.   Hall also gives us a clear picture of life in the internment camps, the deprivations, the humiliations but also the ways in which people managed to cope and even thrive.   For instance, many skilled and talented people were interned, and they provided opportunities for others to learn different skills and help relive the oppressive circumstances under which they lived.  The art class that Brian and Meri take while at Topaz is similar to those offered by artist Chiura Obata when he was interned there.  

The story of the Onishi family, their ups and downs, their triumphs and defeats, their wins and losses is rendered beautify by Hall and is a family story that will stay with you for a long, long time.

This book is recommended for ages 14+
This book was provided to me by the publisher

This is book 8 of my 2013 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry

You can find more information about Topaz Internment Camp HERE 

Ariel view of Topaz

Tour Schedule

July 23rd
I Am A Reader, Not A Writer - Guest Post
The Children's War - Review
Bookworm Lisa - Review

July 24th
Brooklyn Berry Designs - Review & Interview
Laurie's Thoughts and Reviews - Spotlight
I Love to Read and Review Books - Review

July 25th
Spellbindings - Interview
Mystical Books - Spotlight
My Devotional Thoughts - Review

July 26th
Literary Winner - Review
readalot - Review
Reading in Twilight - Spotlight

July 29th
Blood, Sweat and Books - Review
Getting Your Read On - Review
From the Bootheel Cotton Patch - Spotlight

July 30th
My Book a Day - Review
Taking Time for Mommy - Interview
A Casual Reader's Blog - Review

July 31st
Sweeping Life - Spotlight
Aspired Writer - Review
A Blog Hop Place for Books - Spotlight

August 1st
Karey White - Review
Book Readers - Review
Hershey Kisses and Wishes - Review

August 2nd
Maris Hoagland, LDS Novelist - Review
StoryBook Reviews - Spotlight
Peace from Pieces - Interview