In Blood, Flowers Bloom A World War II Story of Valor and Forgiveness Across Generations

How do we remember war?How do we forgive?In Blood, Flowers Bloomilluminates one of the last untold stories of World War II, the common act ofsoldiers, sailors and Marinestaking their enemy's possessions after victory. This is the story of a single Japanese battle flag found among thebelongings of a long-passed American WWII veteran, originally belonging to a Japanese soldier. In telling the story of this flag, and its journey frombattle in the Philippinesto ashedin upstate New York, award-winning writer, Samantha Bresnahan reveals the way in which objects represent generations of trauma, imperialism, and memory.
Weaving through time,In Blood, Flowers Bloomtells the overlapping stories oftwofamilies, that flag,and a decades-long quest: here we meetAmerican Iwo Jimaveteran Marty Connor, Japanese imperial Naval captain turned Buddhist monk Tsunezo Wachi, and Masataka Shiokawa, the resilient son of a Japanese soldier killed in battle at Okinawa. These three men could have lived and died as enemies-that was their historical prerogative. Instead, they banded together as uneasy allies, and then eventual friends, in their shared mission to return artifacts taken byAmerican GIsto their rightful owners, giving Japanese families a new opportunity for closure and healing the wounds inflicted by loss of loved ones-both physically and spiritually.