For fans of The Nightingale, Pachinko, and The Fervor comes a haunting historical novel about the forgotten daughters of Okinawa.
In 1945, as the Battle of Okinawa erupts, three Ryukyuan girls are caught between empires.
Shigeko is fourteen when Japanese soldiers line the streets and "honor" becomes a weapon. Yuki begins hearing voices in the dark as American forces draw closer to shore. Kaori, haunted by guilt and guided by spirits, encounters something ancient in the forest-something that may not be entirely human.
The popular story of WWII says Okinawa was simply a battlefield between Japan and the United States.
But the Ryukyuans were neither.
They were an Indigenous people trapped between two occupying powers.
As bombs fall and propaganda spreads, families are handed grenades and told that suicide is more honorable than surrender. Mothers must choose between obedience and survival. Fathers must decide what kind of protection is truly protection. And daughters-still children-are forced to grow up in a single day.
Blending documented history with Ryukyuan folklore, Inujini ("dog death"-an unnecessary cruelty) reveals a rarely told story of war from the perspective of those who had no voice in it.
This is not only a story of bullets and bloodshed.
It is a story of:
- Indigenous identity erased and reclaimed
- The resilience of girls and women in impossible circumstances
- The collision of myth and modern warfare
- And the question of what true honor costs
With lyrical prose and emotional intensity, Angela Yuriko Smith brings to life a chapter of history that refuses to stay silent.
War came for Okinawa. But Okinawa had its own guardians.
Autorentext
Angela Yuriko Smith is a third-generation Ryukyuan-American, award-winning poet, author, and publisher with 20+ years in newspapers. Publisher of Space & Time magazine (est. 1966), two-time Bram Stoker Awards® Winner, and HWA Mentor of the Year, she shares Authortunities, a free weekly calendar of author opportunities at authortunities.substack.com.