White Chrysanthemum
By: Mary Lynn Bracht / Narrated By: Greta Jung
Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
Ode to the Korean Comfort Women of WWII
Ya know? We’re doing a bit of Asian History here, correct?
Well, I’ve done a few on the interment of Japanese Americans, a few on the heroics of the 442nd, so I went into the whole deal with a: Gee, they were so heroic/Gosh, their dignity couldn’t be taken away-type of mindset.
But man! When I do the histories of other Asian countries and their experience of the mainland Japanese military? Whooee! Those were some hard and brutish men!
Here we have the Korean experience of Japanese occupation. White Chrysanthemum is, granted, written by a White woman, but I felt like I got a good feel for what the kidnapped “comfort women” of Korea went through. It’s really the story of Hana in 1943 after she saves her little sister by showing herself all alone on the beach to a Japanese soldier on the hunt. She is taken away to Manchuria, and for the rest of the book, we hear her attempts to escape and find her way home. It’s the story of women, some so very young, kept under lock and key and forced to service a multitude of Japanese military men each and every day. It’s Hana’s story of survival.
But at the same time, it’s Emi’s story in modern-day South Korea where she’s on holiday, and she’s also in town to take part in a march commemorating the sacrifices the comfort women made, and the atrocities they suffered. Basically, Emi is trying to find big sister, Hana, and trying to survive her own private hell. She’s never told her children she even had a sister, let alone that she feels responsible for that sister’s capture.
The stories are written warmly; they’re sometimes written graphically. But they’re always compelling, and I appreciated the way each story unraveled itself, and how there even was a bit of mystery going on at the end.
Greta Jung’s performance is sometimes rather wooden. Heck, MOST of the time it’s QUITE wooden. But she does dialogue well, and she carries off the more graphic scenes with a dramatic sense of timing.
I’d read a lot on the Rape of Nanking/Chinese history of the Japanese occupation, and some of the histories of other Asian countries, but I’ve only listened to this one audiobook on comfort women—shame on me.
But now I know, and it was a really touching experience. I felt for Emi, and I rooted for Hana every step of the way. Ya know what? This story probably belongs with Women’s History Month too because these are two strong, strong women!
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