WHERE THE SCARECROW STOOD

Kawamura Haruki is already a sailor, but the wartime Imperial Japanese Navy sends him to New Georgia, part of the Solomon Islands. His brothers are in the war also, and he holds a treasured letter from one of them, folded neatly and kept hidden in his pants cuff. He’s originally from a farm outside of Hiroshima, and the fate of one his brothers seems grim. The fictional narrative, which draws from historical sources, traces his unit’s trek across the jungle in the Solomon Islands as they fight a losing battle that becomes even worse in the Philippines. On a Luzon mountain, the haggard crew fac