Dreams of Cherry Blossoms - Softcover

Miller, Walter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 172755650X ISBN 13: 9781727556506

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2019

Synopsis

Historical novel set in the last days of World War II in the Pacific involving a passionate love story between an American Navy officer and a Japanese college professor in Kyoto. Richard Cobb Jackson is serving on a destroyer when atomic bombs obliterate Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After landing a job on the staff of General Douglas MacArthur, the commander of the American occupation of Japan, Richard meets and falls in love with Emiko Murakami. The more time Richard spends in the devastated country, where millions have been killed, and millions more are homeless and facing starvation, his view of the war shifts from one of total support to soul-searching questions about the U.S. firebombing of Japanese cities and the use of atomic bombs. Journeying through the wasteland that was once a proud and intact Japan, he struggles to understand the racial hatred on both sides, and the fanaticism which drove Japanese troops to fight to the bitter end. Emiko and Kyoto become his refuge from the horror of the war. She introduces him to the beauty and tranquility of the only city not bombed by the Americans, with its temples and shrines, history and culture. Richard faces a difficult choice of whether to marry and take Emiko back to his hometown in the South, where he is certain she will encounter intense anti-Japanese sentiment and inherent racial prejudice.

About this title

About the Author

Walter Miller is a former print and broadcast journalist. He spent 11 years in Asia as a foreign correspondent with United Press International and Cox Newspapers (owner of the Atlanta Journal Constitution). He spent numerous years as a writer/producer for Cable News Network (CNN) where he shared several Emmys and George Polk awards. 

Review

"This work offers a different angle on World War II, one that integrates both a romantic storyline as well as a thoroughly researched staging of an incomparable historic event.  While providing verisimilitude, Miller also supplies engaging drama and forward momentum, allowing for the reader's full immersion in the circumstances.  The prose enhances Miller's storytelling.  The pacing, central conflict, and sense of great immediacy is a testament to the author's superior skills....The choice to stage the work at a greatly pivotal moment in history, is a brave and ambitious one, executed with grace, sensitivity and intelligence.  Both the primary and secondary characters possess distinctive and emotionally resonant voices, while dialogue demonstrates nuance and authenticity." -- The BookLive Prize

"Miller ...astutely captures the burden of a disgraced nation now under the governorship of a people it deeply distrusts and fears. The author's command of the historical period is masterful, and he powerfully depicts the consequences of military loss as well as victory...Miller's nuanced rendering of the moral complexities of the occupation is compelling, as when the United States and Japanese governments cooperatively supply American troops with sex workers--mainly to prevent instances of rape, MacArthur explains...An exceedingly intelligent exploration of World War II-era Japan..." -- Kirkus Reviews

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 172755650X
• ISBN 13: 9781727556506
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 255