And it’s a highly enjoyable read, too, not just capturing the proud, independent traditions of Jeju’s Sea Women and the challenges facing their way of life today, but also, at one point, giving us a real page-turner of an adventure story. The elder sister, Hana, is abducted into sexual slavery by a Japanese soldier Emi, the younger, saved by her elder sister’s sacrifice, remains behind and becomes a haenyeo, following the traditional matrilineal occupation of Jeju Island women.Īs the last of the so-called “Comfort Woman” near the end of their days, and the Korean and Japanese governments still struggle to find a final resolution that is acceptable to the victims and as the haenyeo have been listed as intangible cultural heritage at UNESCO, this is a highly topical time for such a novel to hit the bookshops. White Chrysanthemum, the debut novel from Mary Lynn Bracht, tells the story of two sisters, brought up on Jeju Island, who were tragically separated in the last years of the Second World War.
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