Customer Reviews

The Sakhalin Collection

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Robert Smith has taken a little-known and very grim historical fact and written an accordingly moving suspense novel around it. The story of the Korean "Comfort Women" who were taken by the Japanese during WWII for "use" by their military forces has only come into the mainstream recently. The kidnapping of thousands of Korean citizens for forced labor (actually, slavery) to Sakhalin Island, a bitterly cold place between Japan and Russia, is a story that is slow in coming to light.
Smith has created believable and frequently heartbreaking characters who are caught in a web that has been spun and maintained by the power of several governments, including that of the United States. While the ugliness of the story is familiar and could give rise easily to cynicism and hopelessness, Smith has given us a hero and heroine not content to be mere pawns in a game that can mean either vilification and an ignominious death or an explosion of a truth that can no longer remain buried. Add to that a twisted, power-mad villain, an intrepid Red Cross worker, and a tormented young soldier whose integrity serves as a catalyst for the events that drive this book, and you have a meaty and satisfying read that will both entertain and educate.
This is a must-read for anyone interested in the aftermath of the United States' victory in the Pacific during WWII and the stories we are reluctant to hear, but must.