Customer Reviews

The Girl with the White Flag

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the only book that I have read cover to cover literally ten times. I have the book basically memorized. I first read it several year ago in my middle school years. Once I started reading I could not put it down! I will always have a copy of it in my house hold and it is in my top three books list.
This a story about a young girl about six years of age whom is amidst WWll in Japan. When her father leaves to go fight in the war the young lady along with her fellow sisters and brother to find safety. Along the way she some how get seperated from her family and is left alone for months dodging bullets, bombs and surviving by finding abandoned gardens and eating out of dead soldiers knapsacks. Her adventure takes her from running from a crazy soldier to a hole in the ground where she finds an old couple who take care of her until the young girl is forced to march around a warfront in the brightnees of day in front of American soldiers marching with a white flag in her hand.

No written report could possibly do this book it's justice. You have to read and live the tale yourself.

I moved to Okinawa in 1991 when my parents were both stationed at Kadena Air Force Base. I was eight years old at the time and not long after arriving, I happened to check this book out of the school library. To assume that children cannot understand or appriciate the meaning of war and the hardships that it entails is insulting to their intellegence. I loved this book, and I treasure the signed copy I got in 1993 when Higa-san held a signing at Camp Lester. Like "Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes" this book, narrated by a child, makes the popularly forgotten Pacific Campaign of WWII assessable to children who will then become socially responsible adults. It does not do to shelter children from the injustice of the world.

The book is only mildly graphic, the narrative is heart breaking, and it deserves a place in school libraries right next to Sadako, "Number the Stars" and "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl"

How a young girl of 7 years can survive on her own on the battlefields of war-torn Okinawa, 1945, is absolutely astonishing. As a history teacher in Okinawa, Japan, I have run accross a wide array of materials concerning the Battle of Okinawa, but no other book so vividly details the human side of the struggle from the viewpoint of civilian Okinawans. This is a heart-warming story of triumph in the midst of great tragedy. I often encourage my students to place themselves in the "shoes" of those whom we are studying, to go beyond just facts and figures and identify with the real people who experienced history. Tomiko Higa takes the reader directly to the Battle of Okinawa through the eyes of a child.

This is an incredible memoir of Mrs. Tomiko Higa's experience as a 7 year-old during the Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1944. At the end of the battle, after emerging from a cave with a piece of white loincloth attached to a stick, she was photographed by an American soldier. Roughly 40 years later, she accidentally spotted the photo in a bookstore. Reluctant to come forward and identify herself at first, she finally did so after reading several false accounts about the identity of the little girl. The book is short, only 127 pages, and a fast read. It is also poignant--the prose is clean, the descriptions frank and insightful, the story inspiring. Mrs. Higa begins by telling of her life in Shuri, the ancient capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom known today as Okinawa. She progresses to the landing of the American forces at Kadena, her consequent hiding in air-raid shelters, and then her moving from cave to cave with her siblings to escape the fighting. She eventually becomes separated from them and has to survive the battle on her own. Where a child of 7 gains such strength and smarts is really beyond one's imagination and the manner in which Mrs. Higa describes her experience is what makes this book so worth reading.

I fell in love with this book. I'm currently stationed on Okinawa and I can't imagine how a girl so young could wander around the island and survive for so long.

This book is translated so some of the English is broken. However if you're interested in a different perspective of WWII in the Pacific, it's a nice read. It gives you a better understanding of how the Okinawans got thrown into a war they never wanted to fight in.

I love this book, even mailed a copy to my sister.

I was living on Okinawa when I first read the story. Ms. Higa still lives there and carries on her life as though something so phenomenal had not happened to her. But in many ways it is the story of all those brave and wonderful people of Okinawa and the Ruyuku Islands who were caught between the Japanese and the US during those fateful 12 weeks beginning on April 1, 1945. I have thought of Higa-san often since reading the book and loaned my copy to those I know who came to face unbearable odds. She is a remarkable survivor.

The war experience that this six year old girl went through were remarkable. I taught this short book to high school students who are reluctant readers and they were highly interested in the book and moved by Tomiko's story. It is great for discussions on both WWII and survival.

In "Girl with the white flag" you experience the harsh realities of warfare and the living conditions of civilians. You encounter a girl named Tomiko on the island of Okinawa in WWII. The background behind the story even being written was when later in life she had been flipping through a National Geographic and had recognized her own photo of her surrendering to United States troops. Upon discovering who was responsible for the picture, she wrote her long, horrifying tale of her taking on the role of a civilian in this time of war.

The story starts out with her describing everyday life in an average Okinawa household. Her father who's a samurai raises her as any person would when his wife passes away. Then all hell breaks loose when the shadowed war with the U.S. reaches their doorstep. Japan currently has rule over the island and they spread farfetched rumors of torture and killing. When Tomiko's father leaves home one day to visit the nearby town to help with recent bombings, he never returns. Upon hearing of fighting in the area they abandon their home and embark on a nightmarish quest.

While hiding in caves amidst machine gun attacks, incendiary blitzes, and Japanese mass suicides and executions, she is split form her family. The betrayal of her home military, the losing of a second family, and the unfortold knowing that she may never see her family again add up in this compelling, emotional adventure. You'll feel heartbreaks, laughs of joy, and bitter hatred through out this novel. It's one book worth reading in a lifetime.

Shane lakes

This book with its unadorned account of survival through the terrible battle of Okinawa is an important reminder of just how cruel war is, especially to those caught in the middle. Little Tomiko struggles against all odds and lives to tell this amazing story of desperation and courage. Not for sensitive kids; I would recommend this to middle schoolers and older - this is the real thing, not just a video game. Heartbreaking and horrifying, but with beautiful moments and miracles.

We just moved back from Okinawa Japan(Camp Foster) and my daughter read this book in the second grade. She is a chapter book reader and reads the Little House books, Treehouse Mysteries and the Nancy Drew Series - I feel that any reader who can handle Laura's Pa being chased thru the Wisconsin woods by a bear (also a true account) can handle reading such an empowering account of a young girl who, instead of running to the garbage of over-exposed spoiled brats such as those on Nickelodeon, can imagine instead, what she would have done, or how she might have navigated under the same circumstances.

With everything that kids are exposed to these days, most especially in the fantasy world or JR Tolkien, Star Wars and (UGH)- NINTENDO - I certainly don't think that this book is going to scare many children - especially because most children have no idea what war really entails, so they won't get caught up in those details, but rather watch the scene unfold as the author has written it.... simply and literally. Especially imagination-invoking, I feel will be the way that the author relates to the creatures that she befriends and who are attributed to saving her life, at times.

A MUST Read.