The Girl with the White Flag

"So I’ve already hinted at my fascination with Japan at this time, and looking back this was no doubt helped by a trip I made at the turn of the millennium, to a tiny Japanese island called Izena, off mainland Okinawa. I was visiting a boyfriend who was more of a Herman Hesse and a Voltaire fan, but while he was out teaching, I read up on the history of Okinawa. The appalling legacy of the Second World War is strong there, even today, and the horror of conflict, again, hard to understand or access in a history book or via a dry military one-sided account of a battle. Back at home in London, at work in the bookshop, I was able to order The Girl with the White Flag from a Japanese publisher, Kodansha. This small book is a powerful memoir – a devastating account of the survival of a small child in the middle of one of the most violent and relentless battles of the twentieth century, which has to be read to be believed. In fact, it should be read and re-read by all of us, as a reminder that children continue to be the very worst victims of war. I’m pretty sure most adult readers still enjoy many so-called children’s books . I, for one, am a huge fan of dipping between these categories. In fact, a blurring of them is essential. While I understand the logic of separating out books for younger readers from adult shelves, this is one of those titles that can be enjoyed or at least appreciated by anyone. Some parts are extremely harrowing. As a child I loved classic children’s novels set in wartime, for example The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier, although I suppose themes of survival, resilience and hope teased out of this particular horror were less real to me until I discovered Anne Frank’s diaries , or Night by Elie Wiesel. The power of a personal account is undeniable, and this book recounts Tomiko Higa’s experiences during the Battle of Okinawa from a unique perspective. She is separated from her family and navigates the devastation and chaos alone, witnessing unimaginable horrors, but also kindness and tenderness, which ultimately help her to survive. The title of the book refers to a moment captured in a photo, and reproduced on the front cover, when she walks through a battlefield holding a white flag. Tomiko thus became a symbol of innocence and surrender for a whole nation, and a specific generation too; this account of her survival despite all the odds is a wartime classic for children and adults."