The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War [Paperback]

Louise Steinman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 2002

In 1945, an American G.I. mailed home a Japanese flag. Fifty years later, his daughter unfolded the past. Growing up, Louise Steinman knew little about her father's experiences in World War II. All she knew was that the whistling teakettle was banned from the kitchen and that she was never to cry in front of him. Years later, after her parents' death, she found an old ammunition box, filled with nearly five hundred letters her father had written to her mother during the War. She also found a silk Japanese flag inscribed to Yoshio Shimizu. Who was Yoshio Shimizu and why did her father have his flag? So began Steinman's quest to return this "souvenir" to its owner, and in the process, to learn more about the war that transformed the expressive young man in those letters into the reserved father she had known.

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

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

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
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Plume (September 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452283655
• ISBN-13: 978-0452283657
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,437,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Louise Steinman is a writer and literary curator. Her work frequently deals with memory, history and reconciliation. Her book, The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War, was cited as 'A graceful, understated memoir' that draws its strength from the complexities it explores.' (New York Times Book Review) 'an intimate and powerful story of the effects of war.' James Bradley, author, Flags of Our Fathers). The book won the 2002 Gold Medal in Autobiography/Memoir from ForeWord Magazine and has been the selection of all-city and all-freshman reading programs. The book chronicles her quest to return a war 'souvenir' to its owner and-- in the process-- illuminates how war changed one generation and shaped another.

She has curated the award-winning ALOUD at Central Library series for the Los Angeles Public Library (www.aloudla.org) for the past fifteen years and is also co-director of the Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities at USC.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN EXCELLENT READ AND A WORK VERY WELL DONE!, June 5, 2007

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War (Paperback)

Like so many in my generation, the author, like the rest of us, really had no clue as to what made her father tick. These men, and women, of the "Greatest Generation" were a different breed. I had to blink twice when the author described her father, his attitudes, work ethic, treatment of his family and on and on. She could have well been describing my own father.

The author, after her father's death, discovers a box of letters written to his wife (the author's mother) during the war. Her father fought in the Pacific, taking part in some of its most brutal of battles. Amongst the letters, in an envelope, was a Japanese Flag, a "souvenir flag" which her father had sent home. The flag was of the type carried by many Japanese soldiers, which was a sort of good luck piece. The story is basically Ms. Steinman's search for the family of the soldier whose body it was taken from and a story of Ms. Steinman's search for her father, i.e. who really was her father, and how had the war changed him?

Now I will be honest, there were parts of the book that disturbed me. I am not all that certain if the author ever did have a clue as to what made her father the man he was and how the war truly affected him. The author never actually says it, but after reading her description of her father, which gave us some idea of the kind of man he was, there is really no doubt where he got the flag, and how he got it. He did not seem the type of man who would simply pick up a flag off any old dead body and keep it. While this falls into the realm of speculation, I think it probably would have been better if the author had faced reality. Be that as it may, the author did quite a good job with her research and I certainly admire her objectives.

The book is well written, easy to read, and quite informative. Like another reviewer here, I have the feeling the author actually found out more about herself than she did of her father, and that is actually a very good thing. I do recommend this one highly. You certainly will be richer for having read it.

D. Blankenship

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The tragedy of war., July 28, 2002

By 

Kevin M Quigg (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War (Hardcover)

A very good emotional book about World War II. Steinman's father served in the Tropic Lightning Division of the U.S. Army fighting in northern Luzon (P.I.). Even though her father is not a casualty, he suffers the rest of his life from the effects of the war. He is hard and somewhat bitter. After his passing, Louise finds the souvenir of the war---a personal flag from a Japanese soldier. She examines the brutality of the war from both the American and Japanese perspective (Hiroshima, Nanking, P. I, Bataan). She finds the family of the soldier and returns the flag. She finds that the Japanese soldier has a human face after all.
This is a good emotional read of the effects of war, even if the war was the good war.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Believe in it, You Win, August 7, 2005

By 

Christopher Scott "Christopher Thomas Scott" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War (Paperback)

Louise Steinman weaves war, family and an unsolved mystery into a fine story about how a daughter trys to uncover the meaning of the deep, inconsolable silence her father brings home from one the worst battles of World War II: MacArthur's famous "return" to Luzon, the Philippines.

She retraces history with the help of more than 700 letters her father wrote to her mother during his time away, and with her friends, family and a handful of old infantry vets she is able to puzzle together what was the most momentous time in her father's life. Her journey forges a new understanding of her father and, most importantly, her relationship to him, even many years after his death.

The story tantalizes with descriptions of jungle warfare, imperialism and young men in the throes of battle, especially from the vantage point of Japan, where like their American counterparts, families were torn asunder by the conflict. They too carry the remnants of pain and sorrow sixty years later. Here, at least, Steinman could have spent more time illustrating the cultural differences-and similarities-that propel leaders and their societies to sacrifice their young men for nationalistic fervor.

In the end, the tale reveals just as much about the author as it does about her father. The care, grace and sensitivity with which she tells her story reflects the same qualities her father had, then lost, then struggled to regain after he returned home from 165 consecutive days of brutal warfare.

-Christopher Thomas Scott