SWORD & BLOSSOM

Author: by Peter Pagnamenta & Momoko Williams ISBN: 0143112147 6/2007 HISTORICAL Publisher: PENGUIN
Time Period: Japan & Ireland, 1870-1965

This is the true story of an extraordinary love affair that began when a young British Army officer fell for a Japanese woman in the early years of the twentieth century. In 1904, Arthur Hart-Synnot was sent to Japan to learn the language of his country's new ally. At least five generations of the Hart family had served in the British Army, and the ambitious young officer expected to keep up the tradition. Arriving in Tokyo on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, Arthur met Masa Suzuki at the Officers' Club and was immediately smitten. Masa had grown up among shopkeepers and craftsmen in the working-class section of Tokyo. She had left school at age fourteen to work in a shop and was a dutiful Japanese daughter-when helping her mother serve meals, she would kneel at a respectful distance while her father and brothers ate. But her feelings for Arthur were so powerful that she was willing to risk her family's disapproval to be with him. Covering a forty-year period, Sword and Blossom follows Arthur and Masa's attempts to make a life together and chronicles the racial prejudice and social snobbery they encountered. Separated for years at a time, they stayed in touch through long, deeply affectionate letters that they wrote to each other in Japanese. The authors use this treasure trove of more than eight hundred letters to describe an extraordinary story of enduring love and great loss.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I read SWORD & BLOSSOM in one afternoon, not because it was fast, easy, light-hearted reading. Quite the contrary, actually. There is very little about this book that is light-hearted or fast, but I read it quickly nonetheless. I flew through SWORD & BLOSSOM because it is a gripping, mesmerizing love story. Although it is saturated with historical facts and figures, and told entirely from an outsider's perspective, this story is related so well that it is no hardship to imagine the love that existed between a British officer, Arthur Hart-Synnot, and his Japanese love, Masa Suzuki.

Through the use of 800 letters discovered in an old Japanese wooden box, a nagamochi, and conversations with people who knew the lovers, the story of a love affair spanning decades and crossing oceans comes to light. It is an intriguing story, and I felt swept up by the trials the couple faced and their attempts to overcome them. Their long separations, and the sometimes horrible events that happened in their lives, kept me turning the pages as I wanted, deep in my heart, the pair to find happiness. I thought that if I kept reading, I would eventually reach a satisfying conclusion to their story.

Did the pair find a way to be together in the end? That's something I won't divulge, but I will say that if history and in-depth examinations of foreign cultures is something of interest, then SWORD & BLOSSOM is the perfect book. I loved the photos in the book, as well as the line drawings, maps and letter excerpts. All in all, spending an afternoon tucked into this book was an excellent way to pass some time.

Kay James