The souvenir : a daughter discovers her father's war

Format:

Book

Title:

The souvenir : a daughter discovers her father's war

Author:

Steinman, Louise.

ISBN:

9781565123106

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2001.

Physical Description:

xii, 241 pages ; 22 cm

Contents:

Somewhere at Sea -- Stateside -- The Pharmacist -- The Flag -- Into the Deep -- A Melancholy Slav -- Speculation -- The Gift -- Japan -- Bombs under Tokyo -- Shrine of the Peaceful Country -- Shadows -- Amazing Grace -- The Philippines -- The American Cemetery -- Journey to Balete Pass -- Promised Land -- Suibara -- Swans in the Morning -- Flyover.

Summary:

"When Louise Steinman was growing up, her father never talked about his experiences in the Pacific during WWII. All she knew was that Asian food was banned from the house and that she was never to cry in front of him. Years later, she made a chance discovery. Hidden among her late parent's belongings was an old ammunition box; inside were almost five hundred letters her father had written to her mother during the war and a silk Japanese flag inscribed in elegant calligraphy, "To Yoshio Shimizu given to him in the Greater East Asia War to be fought to the end. If you believe in it, you win." Who was Yoshio Shimizu, and why did her father have his flag?"

"The Souvenir is Steinman's quest to find out what happened to her father, the men he fought with, and the men he fought against. She crosses the world to the snow country of Japan to find the family of Yoshio Shimizu and return his flag. She visits the battlefield in the Philippines where her father and the men of his Twenty-fifth Infantry Division fought in a brutal campaign that set a record for consecutive days of combat." "From her conversations with veterans on both sides of the war, she comes to appreciate the life of a soldier and discovers, through her father's letters, the man she never knew - one who was brave, passionate, and scared. And, astonishingly, she develops a kinship with the surviving family of his enemy."

"Weaving together her father's raw, poignant letters with her own journey, Steinman presents a view of how war changed one generation and shaped another."--Jacket.

Personal Subject:

Steinman, Norman, 1915-1990.

Corporate Subject:

United States. Army -- Biography.

United States. Army. Infantry Division, 25th -- Biography.

United States. Army

United States. Army. Infantry Division, 25th

Subject(s):

United States. Army -- Biography.

United States. Army. Infantry Division, 25th -- Biography.

Pharmacists -- United States -- Biography.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Biography.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Philippines.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Japan.

Geographic Term:

Genre:

Holds:

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	940.5425 Steinman, L. 2001	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Louise Steinman's father never talked about his experiences in the Pacific during WWII-like many men of his generation. All she knew was that a whistling kettle unnerved him, that Asian food was banned from the house, and that she was never to cry in front of him.

After her parents' deaths, Steinman discovered a box containing some four hundred letters her father had written to her mother during the war. Among the letters, she found a Japanese flag inscribed with elegant calligraphy. The flag said: "To Yoshio Shimizu given to him in the Great East Asian War to be fought to the end. If you believe in it, you win." Intrigued by her father's letters and compelled to know how this flag came to be in his possession, Steinman sets out on a quest to learn what happened to her father and the men of his Twenty-fifth Infantry Division.

Over the course of her exploration, Steinman decides to return the flag to the family of Yoshio Shimizu, the fallen Japanese soldier. She travels to the snow country of Japan and visits the battlefield in the Philippines where her father's division fought-the place where Yoshio lost his life and his flag. In the end, Steinman discovers a side of her father she never knew, and, astonishingly, she develops a kinship with the surviving family of his enemy.

Weaving together her father's letters with the story of her own personal journey, Steinman presents a powerful view of how war changed one generation and shaped another.

Author Notes

Louise Steinman's essays and articles have been published in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, the Washington Post, and Salon, among others. She lives with her husband in Los Angeles, where she curates a literary program for the Los Angeles Public Library

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

When Norman Steinman a member of the 25th Infantry Division, which fought in the Philippines in 1945 died in 1990, he left behind a box full of WWII letters (more than 400), later discovered by his daughter. Among the souvenirs was a small Japanese flag, inscribed with words Louise could not read. She had them translated and found that the flag had belonged to a Japanese soldier. Obsessed, Steinman began her search for him or his family. This small book, a moving memoir about reconciliation and honor, is her tale of her successful quest, her trip to Japan to return the flag and the friendships she forged along the way. Steinman visited the battlefields on Luzon in which her father battled the weather, jungle and Japanese. This volume contains many of his letters, published here for the first time, that show typical G.I. behavior, attitudes toward the enemy and longing for good food and friends back home. Steinman's visit to Hiroshima helped her to understand the war from the Japanese point of view. In coming to understand her father and his postwar behavior, Steinman discovers how real WWII can become to a survivor's family. (Oct.) Forecast: This quiet, heartfelt book is the perfect contrast to all the Pearl Harbor 50th anniversary bombast, telling another side of the war's story. Baby boomers with veteran parents will relate, as will some vets. Look for solid sales. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus Review

Steinman travels back in time and across the globe to capture the horrors of WWII as experienced by her father and a Japanese soldier, whom he may have killed. The author starts with childhood memories of her depressed father, Norman, a pragmatic pharmacist, who, after surviving combat in the Philippines, became emotionally withdrawn from his family. After her parents' deaths, Steinman discovers the roots of Norman's melancholy in a collection of candid letters that Norman, as a 27-year-old draftee, wrote to her mother detailing his military days-from his infantry training in Texas in 1943 to his departure from a defeated Japan in 1945. The passionate Norman of the past was frustrated by his separation from his family and the meaningless deaths of his army buddies. He was also terrified of fighting fanatical Japanese soldiers who would prefer to perform hara-kiri--ceremonial suicide--before dishonoring Emperor Hirohito with their surrender. Norman's chronology is interspersed with Steinman's own eloquent reflections in which she divulges her new sympathy for the repressed man who raised her. The narrative becomes more intriguing when Steinman finds an unsettling souvenir among the letters: a blood-stained Japanese flag, which bears the name of a soldier, Shimizu. Hoping to help others deal with grief, Steinman goes on a quest to return the flag to Shimizu's surviving family. Traveling to Japan and the Philippines, Steinman locates the graves of Norman's unlucky war buddies. She also forms friendships with Japanese citizens of Shimizu's hometown, who help her realize the heinous aftermath of America's atom-bomb attack on Hiroshima. During her journey, Steinman both unearths a complex portrait of the real Norman and acquires empathy for the postwar woes of the Japanese. An affecting memoir and a convincing plea for pacifism: Steinman's hypnotizing prose exposes the senselessness of war by showing how conflicting governments have destroyed families by ripping common people out of their homes and forcing them to kill each other.

Booklist Review

Steinman, delving into a metal box that she found stowed away in her parents' house after their deaths, has alchemically turned the memorabilia therein into literary gold. The box contained some 400 letters that her father had written home to her mother from the midst of combat in the Philippines. But even more intriguing, it contained a silk Japanese flag--the "souvenir" of the title--inscribed to a Japanese soldier with inspiring words of victory. Using the combination of letters and flag, Steinman weaves a touching tale of almost inhuman persistence in the throes of combat (her father's unit broke the record for most consecutive days in combat during the Battle for Balete Pass) and later forgiveness, as the author manages to track down the family of the soldier who clutched the flag in death. The awkward, yet dignified, moments when the two families finally meet are beautifully related, and when the flag is passed over to the Japanese family, one almost feels that the wounds of that war have finally been healed. --Allen Weakland

Library Journal Review

Clearing out the family's storage locker after her father's death, Steinman discovered a rusted metal ammo box with hundreds of letters spanning the years 1941-45 that he had written to her mother and a manila envelope with a Japanese soldier's flag. Intrigued by these "souvenirs" of a time and an experience in her father's life that she had never really understood, Steinman, cultural programs director of the Los Angeles Public Library, set out on a quest to return the flag to the family of Yoshio Shimizu, the Japanese soldier. This book is the story of the entwined "gifts" resulting from that personal journey Steinman's discovery of a side of her father that she had never expected to share ("I never knew my father to cry") and the "softly uttered" words of the fallen soldier's mother: "You have given us back Yoshio. The government only sent sand in a box." Steinman comments that from the letters she wanted to "unravel the connection between my father's silence about the war and our family's home life." For many, her account could provide an understanding of how that war changed one generation and shaped the next. Recommended for all public libraries. Robert C. Jones, Central Missouri State Univ., Warrensburg (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Chronology	p. xi
Prologue
Somewhere at Sea	p. 1
Part I Stateside
The Pharmacist	p. 7
The Flag	p. 17
Into the Deep	p. 31
A Melancholy Slav	p. 51
Speculation	p. 67
The Gift	p. 81
Questions	p. 89
Part II Japan
Bombs under Tokyo	p. 103
Shrine of the Peaceful Country	p. 117
Shadows	p. 133
Amazing Grace	p. 145
Part III The Philippines
The American Cemetery	p. 161
Journey to Balete Pass	p. 175
Promised Land	p. 205
Part IV Suibara
Swans in the Morning	p. 215
Flyover	p. 229
Selected Bibliography	p. 235
Acknowledgments	p. 239

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Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

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