In a Flash by Donna Jo Napoli

“Stay alert. Always. Pay attention to everything and everyone. Pay attention to how things are done in your new country. Be kind. Be grateful. Smile a lot. Take care of each other.” ...

“Forza e coraggio—that will be your motto.” 

Forza e coraggio. Strength and courage. I close my eyes and still my heart. We can do this."

In a Flash is a gripping story and a page turner. I kept hoping I was going to be totally wrong about the ending - and then it happened - have you guessed what the title means? This book is set out in chronological chapters beginning on 24th July 1940. 

Simona and Carolina have lost their mother. Their father is a chef and he accepts an invitation to work at the Italian embassy in Tokyo. That should be an interesting experience for the young girls aged eight and five but the year is 1940. Students of history know there are three important and dreadful events associated with this time. World War II has begun. Italy has sided with Germany and Hitler but this will change. Japan will be drawn into the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbour and yes, we are heading for the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and later Nagasaki. It is war time so there is also rationing to contend with and remember Papa is a chef and the Italian Ambassador and his wife demand Italian food. As very young children both girls learn the new language of Japanese fairly easily and Simona especially picks up lots of cultural nuances which help her greatly as the navigate their new lives. 

When the allegiances change Italy becomes the enemy. Papa is taken to a internment camp and the girls are taken to a house with other foreigners. The did have a suitcase each at the beginning of their journey but Simona's suitcase is lost - this is such a heart-breaking scene. eventually the girls escape their 'imprisonment' and so begins a journey across Japan always hoping they can be reunited with their father. Their journey ends in Hiroshima. They arrive on 27th May 1945. In a few weeks time an unimaginable event will happen. Simona is nearly fourteen and her sister is nearly eleven. The final chapter of this book is dated 6th August 1965. 

A blinding light invades the room. Then a roar louder than any train, and we’re thrown to the ground. I climb on top of Karo-chan to protect her as things crash down on all sides. I cradle my head in my arms and wait. After a few minutes things stop flying through the air. Everything is quiet. And dark as night.

Her are some text quotes from In a Flash:

He sat me down and explained that because of the Pact of Steel, Germany’s enemies were Italy’s enemies; Germany was at war with France and Great Britain, so Italy was, too.

So that’s what this cloth is called. I untie the furoshiki, and there’s a rice ball, cucumber strips, and carrot chunks sitting in the middle. I know rice balls from home. I take a bite, but it’s nothing like in Italy—no cheese inside, no tomato, no peas. I take a nibble. Sweet. I nibble till it’s all gone. Then I eat the vegetables, which turn out to be pickled.

A couple of months ago, at the end of September, Italy and Japan and Germany signed a big agreement—the Tripartite Pact—and the next week the ambassador went to a huge party at some palace.

“When America declares war on Japan, Italy will declare war on America,” Papà says. “Remember the Tripartite Pact, Simona? Germany, Italy, and Japan fight together. The enemy of one is the enemy of all three.”

“A big, responsible Italian girl who knows Japanese as well as anyone.” He leans over a little. “My interpreter might not tell me things he doesn’t want me to know. I get the feeling sometimes, when he’s translating newspapers, that he skips things.

No one expects to see Western children here—so no one does. As long as we talk right and behave right, people think we are who we pretend to be. Language matters more than the shape of eyes. But if anyone looks too hard, we’ll get caught.

Staying alive is a game of wits. People often tell me that I’m clever, but right now I feel stupid. Staying alive is also a game of luck. So much depends on luck. Three women in a cabin in the woods. A blind washerwoman. But luck can run out.

We’ll go to Kyoto. They bombed Kobe and Osaka, but they won’t bomb Kyoto. Not beautiful Kyoto. They’ll want to preserve it so they can visit it as tourists in the future. That’s how Americans think.

This is good. I know where they can go. There’s a Catholic mission in Hiroshima where priests go after their own missions are bombed out. They only do this with priests who are friends of Japan. German priests.

In a Flash is a long book with 400 pages. I read my copy on a Kindle so I was able to read this book over just two days but for readers aged 11+ they will need some reading stamina. In a Flash was published in 2021 and so far, it is only available in hardcover so here in Australia it is priced at over AUS$30. Here is the website for Donna Jo Napoli.

It took me a little while to get into the rhythm of the first person narration but once I did I was hooked. The dates at the start of each chapter really drove the plot for me. I loved the kindness shown to the girls by strangers especially by the blind washerwoman. I also really appreciated the deep intelligence of Simona as she navigates her new culture. This book will give readers such an interesting insight into a different aspect of World War II and a very different perspective about life in Japan during those years especially the control of the media and the use of propaganda and indoctrination. 

Through the voice of Simona, this novel offers an unusual perspective on the World War II years in Japan. The girls’ journey is constantly challenging, as they often face sudden, unexpected risks. Because the story spans multiple years, there is a lot of information about Japan’s home front experience during the 1940s, including patriotism, propaganda, underground anti-war efforts, depletion of resources, and bombings. Topics of xenophobia, identity, assimilation, loss, friendship, and family are intertwined through the perspective of a young person navigating tumultuous events. Kirkus

Companion books:

The Miracle Tree

The Last Paper Crane

The Last Paper Crane by Kerry Drewery illustrated by Natsko Seki

Read a detailed plot summary here.

In this video Junko Morimoto talks about her book

Here is the blurb: "Mizuki is worried about her grandfather. He is clearly troubled by something, something that is draining life and laughter from him. Gently Mizuki encourages him to reveal a secret that he has kept to himself for many years, of a promise that he made and he was never able to keep. Might Mizuki be able to help, even after all this time?"

On the morning the atom bomb is dropped on Hiroshima seventeen year old Ichiro is at home with his friend Hiro. The young boys are having a day off from the factory where they are working making aeroplane parts. Hiro has just walked his little sister Keiko to kindergarten. Ichiro is reading a huge book - The Tale of Genji - which his father has gifted before going to war. 

The bomb is dropped. The city is instantly destroyed. Hiro and Ichiro crawl out from the rubble and head through the horror determined to find little Keiko and to then get to the hospital. On the way Hiro dies. Ichiro does reach Keiko but he is unable to keep carrying her because he is so badly injured, so he tells her to wait near a building. He can see the hospital in the distance. He plans to get help and return. 

"I peel the wet pages apart and carefully tear out the first page. ... 'My father ... told me there is magic in books.' I close the book, place the loose page on top and, with shaking hands, start to fold. ... When I am finished, I place the paper bird on her lap. 'A crane,' I say.' ... 'I will be back as soon as I can."

Ichiro has no idea this is a promise he can never fulfil. And as for the book, when Ichiro finally returns to the city, as a young man, he keeps folding the pages into nearly 1000 paper cranes leaving them all over the city in the hope Keiko is still alive.

Now jump forward to 2018 and Mizuki. Ichiro is her grandfather. She sits quietly while he tells this dreadful story of incomprehensible events and of his broken promise and broken heart. But she knows it is not true that there is nothing they can do. Mizuki can help her grandfather to heal. There is a place for that final paper crane to land seventy three years later.

I picked up this book and flicked through the pages. When I saw part of the story was written as a verse novel I knew this reading experience would be powerful - and I was right! This is a perfect book to share with a High School Class alongside the two picture books above along with The Miracle Tree by Chrisobel Mattingley.

Listen to an audio sample from page four on wards (told in verse). In this video Kerry Drewery reads a text extract from her book published in 2020.

This is an extraordinary book telling a terrible story beautifully and sensitively, and with hope and kindness. More About Books

Narrated in a compelling mix of straight straight narrative, free verse and haiku poems, this is a haunting and powerful novel of courage and survival The Natasha Reads

Yoko's diary - The life of a young girl in Hiroshima during WWII edited by Paul Ham, translated by Debbie Edwards

Late in the year in Grade six I like to introduce books about WWII. We read books like Rose Blanche and Let the Celebrations begin and then move to the story of Hiroshima by reading My Hiroshima by Junko Morimoto.  My intention is to let students hear the voice of other young children who lived through these times rather than just the bare facts of history.

In My Hiroshima, Junko Morimoto explains how every day, prior to the dropping of the atomic bomb,  they would hear air raid sirens, how everyone has been working to clear older wooden buildings around the city to create fire breaks and there is a struggle to obtain food.  All of these things feature in Yoko's diary too but in more detail and so I am planning to share this book with my students later in the year.

The opening chapters give a background to life in Hiroshima and to Yoko herself.  The diary begins on page 61 starting on 6th April.

"The diary is a class project and bears the stamp of a conscientious little girl who is always trying to do the right thing.  She wants high marks for her work!  She comes across as extremely diligent ... a model child ... The reader might assume she was indeed such a very good girl.  But that assumption should be taken with a grain of salt, given that the diary is a school project."

Having said it is the work of a school girl this book is also very honest.  "It shows the hopes, beliefs and daily life of a young girl in wartime Japan."

Just like The Diary of Anne Frank, and the story of Sadako, Yoko's diary is an important book which does end in tragedy.  There is, however, an important message to take away from all of these books and that is the lesson of peace and hope, the lesson of humanity.

Here is a detailed review.  You might also like to read Hanna's suitcase, To Hope and Back and Sadako and the thousand paper cranes.

The Miracle Tree by Christobel Mattingley

IBBY recently nominated two outstanding Australian authors/illustrators for the Hans Christian Andersen award. Even though Bob Graham and Christobel Mattingley were not successful it is wonderful to see their names put forward for this prestigious honor.

To celebrate this, IBBY NSW recently hosted an afternoon with Bob Graham and Christobel Mattingley. I was able to purchase a copy of The Miracle Tree, a book I first read in 1985. This book tells the important story of family and community recovering after the dropping of the atomic bomb in this case in Nagasaki. By coincidence I re-read Sadako and the Thousand paper cranes a couple of weeks ago. These two books compliment each other very well. Sadako is living in Hiroshima when the bomb is dropped. Even though she was only a baby Sadako claims to remember this catastrophic event. As the story opens she is excited to attend the Peace Day commemoration. Sadako is now eleven years old. A short time after this special day Sadako feels the first symptoms of the sickness.

Sadako’s friend has a wonderful idea. “I’ve figured out a way for you to get well,’ she said proudly. ‘Watch!’ She cut a piece of gold paper into a large square. In a short time she had folded it over and over into a beautiful crane.” The girls now make a plan to fold 1000 cranes so that Sadako can live for 1000 years. While the ending is inevitably sad, Sadako and the thousand paper cranes contains an important message about hope and peace in our world. When you visit the peace park in the city of Hiroshima you can see a statue to Sadako decorated with thousands of cranes. We have this book in our school library along with an abridged picture book edition and DVD.

This same message of peace is at the heart of The Miracle Tree. Taro has been sent away to fight in the war. Arriving back in Japan, after the bombing, he discovers that his new bride Hanako has been working in Nagasaki. Taro searches for her everywhere but he does not find her. He helps with the clean up of the city by becoming a gardener. This helps with his personal healing. He tends trees all over the city and plants a little pine tree in the corner of a garden near a church. While this is happening Hanako’s mother has begun to search for her daughter. There are wounds to heal here too. Hanako had married Taro without her mother’s consent and in her anger the mother burned the letters from her daughter without opening them. Meanwhile Hanako herself has suffered horrendous injuries but she is still alive. Christobel Mattingley skillfully weaves a story around the lives of these three people and a little pine tree that will become their Miracle tree at Christmas.

This book made me think about Tree of Cranes which looks at the celebration of Christmas in Japan. You might also like to look for two important picture books about the events surrounding the bombing of Hiroshima – My Hiroshima by Junko Mirimoto and Hiroshima story by Toshi Maruki. While I did appreciate re-reading The Miracle Tree can I also direct you to the best book, in my opinion, by Christobel Mattingley in our school library - The Angel with a mouth-organ. This is also a book about World War II and listening to Christobel herself I now find the inpiration for this came from true events in the life of the illustrator Astra Lacis. This makes the reading even more poignant. Read more here.