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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, October 26, 2003

Fall offers Island, Asian, WWII themes

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Book Editor

The fall book release season, when publishers rush to get prospective holiday gifts out on the shelves, is upon us. Right now, my desk is stacked literally two feet high with books, each worth notice, but time is short.

So here's a quick look at some new releases of interest to Island readers. We may return to some of these for more in-depth consideration.

*An asterisk next to a book title indicates that this book is not necessarily in wide release and may need to be special-ordered through a book store, or sought out from an online source such as Amazon.com.

Local interest

"100 Years of Healing: The Legacy of a Kauai Missionary Doctor" by Evelyn E. Cook; Halewai Publishing, hardback, $24.95

Kaua'i journalist Evelyn E. Cook explores the life of physician James W. Smith and his descendents. A series of essays and family stories, the book tackles thorny issues and makes some controversial arguments — that missionaries have been misrepresented as "dour, sexually repressed, land-stealing opportunists" and that the cause of the 1893 overthrow lay in Hawaiian misrule. A chapter on Prince Jonah Kuhio's suit to claim Queen Lili'uokalani's estate places him in an unflattering light. Much of the book is a well-written exploration of incidents in the lives of the Smith-Waterhouse families, illustrating through one clan the significant themes in Hawai'i history.

"Madame Pele: True Encounters with Hawai'i's Fire Goddess" by Rick Carroll; Bess Press, paper, $11.95

Longtime Hawai'i reporter, travel writer and story collector Rick Carroll, who lives now in North Carolina, has pulled together a couple of dozen of those shiver-up-the-spine stories about the goddess who can appear in so many guises. This one would be a nice Halloween-season read-aloud option for older children.

"Robert Louis Stevenson: His Best Pacific Writings" edited by Roger Robinson; Bess Press, paper, $14.95

Robinson, a senior professor of English at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, tells how the man who would come to be called Tusitala ("Writer of Tales") left his native Scotland just as his fame as a writer was spreading to pursue his dream of a South Pacific idyll. Cadaverous and plagued by pain and illness in the throat and chest, Stevenson first traveled the South Pacific in a rented yacht, then journeyed north to Hawai'i before deciding to return south permanently. Part travel journal, part collected works, this anthology points up the themes that fascinated the writer and his championing love of the island world.

Asian themes

"The Legend of Goo-Shu, Journal 1" by Raeshin Kim; RK Enterprises, paper, $17.95

This self-published manga-like book is built of Korean stories and illustrated by the author in colorful, comics style. The writer-illustrator is Hawai'i-born Raymond Kilsby, whose grandmother was a Korean American and who studied and taught English in South Korea. The book began as a writing assignment in South Korea; he was asked to keep a daily diary but this emerged instead — a classic hero's saga of a young man, Kang Goo-Shoo, forced by circumstance to overcome otherworldly forces. It's an interesting mix: the voice of a modern-day adolescent, elements of Korean culture, themes of good and evil. This one will appeal to the difficult-to-please reading audience of young adult males.

"The Centuries Old Philosophy & Practice of Traditional Chinese Feng Shui And the More Advance Flying Star Feng Shui" by Alan S. F. Lum; Alan & Kerri Lum Publishing, paper $18.88

Lum, a local feng-shui teacher and practitioner, consulted with his master, Clarence K. Lau, in writing this definitive and practical text on traditional Chinese feng shui and differentiates it from more modern and less firmly rooted feng-shui philosophies. His previous book, "Feng Shui for Lunch," was a clever, pocket-size guide based on a traditional seven-course Chinese meal. This one is more of a graduate-level course. (Mail order only: $22 to Alan & Kerri Lum Publishing, P.O. Box 19157, Honolulu, HI 96817 or fax 732-8889; check or credit card.)

World War II

"Judgment Without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment during World War II" by Tetsuden Kashima; University of Washington Press, hardback, $35

This dense scholarly exploration of the experiences of World War II internees, and in particular of the directives and procedures that governed the internment process, is of particular interest because, unlike many books on the subject, it contains a detailed study of the process as it occurred outside the contiguous United States. An entire chapter deals with Hawai'i, including consideration of kibei (people who had been educated in Japan) and the Honouliuli Gulch camp. The author, a professor of American ethnic studies at the University of Washington, begins with a question that has haunted him for years: Why had his father been so sure that he would be arrested when war broke out?

"The Burma Road: The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II" by Donovan Webster; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, hardback, $25

Webster, a former editor for Outside magazine and author of "Aftermath: The Remnants of War," begins by seeking out something the group he calls "The Old Soldiers" had warned him not to bother looking for: the remnants of the road the Allied prisoners of the Japanese were forced to build through the jungle. The veterans believed its traces would long since have been swallowed up by jungle. But he finds the road, and he finds the story, telling it in the very readable way of contemporary popular history — by interweaving biography and data, emotion-laden interviews and research, and by going back to the stage upon which this horrific drama was played.

"Given Up for Dead: America's Heroic Stand at Wake Island" by Bill Sloan; Bantam, hardcover, $24.95

Sloan, an award-winning longtime reporter for the Dallas Times Herald, tells the story of the vicious 16-day battle by the company charged with protecting tiny Wake, which began the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In a stirring mix of personal narrative and insightful reporting, he presents the stories of the men who fought and died or endured years in Japanese prison camps in China. Particularly moving are the photos of survivors, and of the Wake battlefield today, and the list of those killed and executed that opens the book. Interestingly, Sloan was also able to talk to Japanese veterans of Wake, to include their experiences and perspective.