For Ray, it's his first battle. For Hideki, it's his homeland. Both of them are young to fight in a battle, but each one is given a grenade and charged to use it. The two of them fight their way through the battle of Okinawa, the last battle of World War II. When they collide, nothing will ever be the same. I know a lot about World War II, but as with any subject, there is always much more to know about any subject. Okinawa was an important battle fought by the Japanese, Americans, and Okinawans. Okinawa was taken by the Japanese hundreds of years ago, but the people still saw themselves as Okinawans, still had a language. They were also not treated as full Japanese citizens. As Gratz delves into the transformative nature of war, no one people are full heroes and no one people are full villains. All of them are humans with frailties and strengths. The book ran a little slow after Part 2 began for me, but I believe it's a book well worth finishing.
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Dee knows that today will be the day, not just any day, but D-Day. The Allies are invading France. Dee is just one of the many characters in this story. Samira tries to stop the Germans and save her family at the same time. James leaps from an airplane and finds himself in the middle of the unknown. Henry searches for lives to save as so many die on the beaches. Each one of them play a part in a struggle where many did not survive. It was hard to get to know each character with many switch backs. However, Dee is a central figure that seems to hold the book together. There were a few stories that I felt did not get as fleshed out as they could. However, Gratz writes an exciting account of all the people who played a part in this day. Taylor was not in Vietnam to fight. He was there to have fun while he visited his dad, a high level official working on the Vietnam War. While Taylor tries to get away from his parents, the Tet Offensive happens, and he is kidnapped by NVA fighters and taken along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, also known as Blood Road. This was a hard book to read. I started it some time in late 2020, but it took me a long time to finish it. The devastation the Vietnam War caused on all those who fought and those who just lived in the surrounding areas of Vietnam is immeasurable. The author seems to present both sides of the war while at the same time saying, it was a horrible war no matter what side you were on. This is a difficult book to read with all the tragedy but one I needed to read. Hanna rarely goes out when her father does. She is not accepted in the culture around her. It is the time of the pioneer and the western frontier, a time when Americans were trying to settle the prairie. But Hanna does not look like those around her. Though her father is an American of European descent, her mother was from Asia (half-Chinese and half-Korean). Hanna wants so badly to go to school and get an education like her mother wanted her to before she died. However, no one in the town seems to want Hanna at the school. This is a hard but sweet book to read about the prejudices that come from people that look different than us. It makes me cringe to hear the words people said to her, but I have no doubt they are words many people heard over the years. It also reminds me of the importance of education and how it was denied to so many over the years. Linda Sue Park wrote this as a tribute to one of her favorite author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, because she wanted to place herself in a time and place like Little House on the Prairie. I grew up on those stories and started reading them at the age of six. It's hard to know that there are some imperfections in those books which the author points out at the end. However, we can still hope that even with all the prejudice, people are able to rise above their circumstances like some of Hanna's friends. In 2008, Nya walks to the water every day to gather water for her family, taking the entire day. In 1985, Salva makes another walk, away from his family, away from Sudan to save his life and avoid the fighting. Salva faces thirst, lions, and crocodiles as he becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan. Park wrote this story based on Salva's life experience. It's hard to read about the hardships and loss Salva suffered as he travels to Ethiopia. What makes it even harder is knowing all of it is true. To think that someone of middle school age could survive such a journey is nothing short of miraculous. Whatever we suffer is nothing compared to Salva's story. It helps you gain some perspective and hope in the human spirit. It reminds us that mankind is capable of great evil and great good. This is a sequel to Making Bombs for Hitler, but I believe you could read this separately. Luka escapes from the work camp, leaving Lida behind. His escape was under the dead corpses from the camp hospital. He manages to get away and survive for a time in the forest. He meets up with different people, some he is not sure he can trust. His goal is to go back to Ukraine and find his family, at least his father who was sent to Siberia. On his way back, he is invited to fight in the Ukrainian underground army to fight for independence from both the Nazis and the Soviets. After reading Making Bombs for Hitler, you know the beginning and part of the ending of this story. Like the previous book, the author takes over a hundred pages to get to the underground war. The other parts are still interesting, but I wish the blurb on the back of the book more accurately reflected the majority of the content in the book. Again the story picks up significantly once Luka joins the underground. So if you are willing to wait, this is a book that gives you another side of Ukraine during World War II. Lida believed she had nothing to worry about from the Nazis. In Ukraine, the fear was for the Soviets. When the Nazis come to her town, people celebrate. Then she is taken, taken to a work camp to work. First, she uses her sewing skills, and then she is sent to work on making bombs. Lida struggles to survive in a work camp, little better than a concentration camp, where any wrong move could lead to her death and the death of everyone in the place. Once you get to Lida making bombs, the story picks up. However, it takes the author over one hundred pages before she talks about Lida making bombs. As a history nerd, I enjoy learning about something new that I had not heard before. However, if you are going to give your book the title, "Making Bombs for Hitler," I would think you want to get to that part sooner. The book is still worth reading. Just be prepared to wait for the actual bomb making. When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, Yanek Gruener did what he could to hide in a country surrounded by Nazis. This only lasted for a short time before he found himself in a concentration camp, struggling to survive. Based on the true story of Jack Gruener, the reader follows him one horrifying situation to another. This was a hard story to read. I know I take the blessings in my life for granted, and I need stories like this to remind me how easy my life is. Hiding in the floor, running full out, begging from his worst enemy - you understand the price that one paid to survive in one of the worst times in history. Lest we think this only happened with the Nazis, you have only to read stories of Soviet gulags in Between Shades of Gray or Japanese prison camps in World War II in Unbroken to see what happens when we lose our humanity and deceny. We need to read these stories to appreciate what we have and to appreciate each other. Lina saw her life stretching before her like a beautiful dream. She would go to art school and really begin her life. That was before the Soviets knocked down her door and took her and her family to Siberia. Lina uses her art to hold on in the work camps where extreme cold and extreme brutality leave little room for beauty. But it's not just beauty she is sharing, there is also a code in her work. We hear so many stories of Hitler's cruelty, but we forget that Hitler was not the only dictator in history that killed so many. Stalin is one of those, and we were his ally in the World War II. Did we have any other choice? Can we rightly say the enemy of my enemy is my friend? We soon learned that we couldn't trust him, and the Cold War began. These gulag stories are some of the stories we don't hear, but we need to be reminded. When Chaya is sent away from home to avoid being sent on the train, she finds a place where she can more than just survive Nazi occupation. She can resist. Chaya becomes a courier, taking people away from the ghetto in hopes of survival. But she cannot save the ones she loves the most. When her resistance group, Akiva, plans a strike against the Nazis, she believes this will be their one chance to prove the Jewish people will not lie down and let the Nazis win. I cringe and yet feel the need to read books like this one. Chaya's story, based on actual events, makes it hard to read. How could people be so cruel to other humans? How does one lose their humanity? How does one look the other way? This is a hard read, but one that shows hope in the midst of darkness and friendship in the midst of fear. For those who appreciate Holocaust stories, this is not as dark as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas or The Diary of Anne Frank at the end, but there is a lot that will break your heart along the way. However, it is well worth the read. |
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