Review: The Girl with the White Flag

This book is making its rounds among my family. The subtitle is "A spellbinding account of love and courage in wartime Okinawa." The author is the girl with white flag, Tomiko Higa, who was 7 years old when this photo was taken upon the American conquest of Okinawa in WWII. 

What she describes is horrifying and no child should ever have to experience it. But they do, and this continues to this day. We share the same race. Had my grandparents not immigrated, I could be her. But would I have been as brave? I hope so. That personalizes it for me, but it's shouldn't.  Whether to Okinawans, to Japanese, to Guamanians, to Jews, to Iraquis, Afghanis, or Palestinians, war is horrible. Horrifying. Wrong.

I had this delusional belief that war is only about soldiers fighting for their country. And the casualties would only have been the military. But look at this table: Almost as many civilians died in the Battle of Okinawa than soldiers. How can that be? Why did it have to be? 

Yes, this is the past. But war rages on. Drones are killing civilians. This is wrong.