Warriors in the Crossfire (review)

As American forces advanced westward across the Pacific near the close of World War II, Japanese forces on the islands made a fierce last stand, trapping indigenous islanders in the crossfire. Joseph, thirteen-year-old narrator and son of a local chief, has been charged by his father with the responsibility of bringing the family to relative safety in a mountain cave, while his half-Japanese cousin Kento and his family place their trust in the protection of the Japanese military. When the Americans invade, both families are in peril as the Japanese, who have already called up all adult men for forced labor, round up all the remaining survivors they can find and compel them to make an honor-saving suicide leap off a cliff. Flood bases her novel on true events on the island of Saipan, and a more harrowing tale would be difficult to find. The narration, however, rings with the formal, stilted cadence generally associated with Hollywood portrayals of cultural outsiders in films of decades past: "'Kento, I must carry my father to the sea. I cannot carry my father alone.' Kento did not look up. 'I am sorry, Joseph. I cannot help you'; "You have turned your back on us. … You have become … Japanese." Nonetheless, readers who can visualize the living, breathing characters behind the awkwardly mannered voices will be rewarded with a heart-pounding reimagining of desperate times. A historical note is appended.