Flower of the Pacific

It's Hawaii in 1941 and America is unknowingly balanced on the razor-edge of war. Iris Hashimoto, a lively, intelligent Japanese-American, joyfully accepts when Cole Tennyson, an intense Army Air Corps fighter pilot, proposes marriage. But the false security she feels in her homeland begins to unravel and she dutifully obeys her parents when they ask her to make a duty-visit to her grandmother in Tokyo. She is joined by her delicate friend, Eva Nakamuro, whose parents also want her to visit grandparents in Japan. Eva is in love with Cole's friend, the irrepressible Irwin Sparks, better known Sparky by his friends and Air Corps buddies. It is with tears that the two girls set sail for Japan, naively promising to return to America and their Air Corps soldiers.

The four friends are irrevocably thrust into the middle of the war in the Pacific. Iris and Eva must somehow survive while trapped in an alien land. Cole and Sparky must wage a deadly assault on the very land that holds the women they love. When Iris and Eva are forced to work for the NHK, broadcasting propaganda designed to undermine the American morale, they must choose between betraying their country and surviving. But is there another choice?

This is the story of the war in the Pacific, told from the highly personal views of these four people. It's a compelling story told against the backdrop of authentic historical facts, complete with such intimate details of time and place that readers finish the book feeling as if they not only understand the history, they have lived it.

If you would like to read about Iris and Eva's anxious days in Japan before Pearl Harbor, click here.

If you want to read about Cole under Japanese attack in the Philippines, click here.

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