I chose to read this book for my library’s AAPI challenge. Oddly, although I often don’t like unrealistic endings, this one didn’t bother me (and the author explains in her note why she ended it this way). I often like one storyline more than the other in these dual timeline books, but although Hana’s story is the more jarring and powerful of the two (I often “like” those better), I think Emi’s story gave me a bit of a break from Hana’s abuse. That being said, although I learned about haenyeo in Lisa See’s book, I didn’t know about “comfort women” the two books have a different focus. I only remembered it being about haenyeo (women divers in Korea). I must have known that would be the case when I added it to my tbr, but often, between the time of adding a book to my tbr and actually reading it, I forget what the book is about.

I was not prepared for the amount of violence and rape. Emi has kept plenty of secrets from her children about her life when she was younger. In 2011, an older woman, Emi, is still haenyeo, but has two middle-aged children in Seoul. She is taken with other young girls to a brothel in Manchuria to “service” the soldiers (these girls/women are later known as “comfort women”).

Suspenseful, hopeful, and ultimately redemptive, White Chrysanthemum tells a story of two sisters whose love for each other is strong enough to triumph over the grim evils of war.It is during WWII, and 16-year old Hana is a haenyeo with her mother in he water on Jeju Island in Korea when she is stolen from the beach in an effort to protect her younger sister from the soldier Hana spotted. Seeing the healing of her children and her country, can Emi move beyond the legacy of war to find forgiveness? Emi has spent more than sixty years trying to forget the sacrifice her sister made, but she must confront the past to discover peace. But haenyeo are women of power and strength. There she is forced to become a “comfort woman” in a Japanese military brothel. Until the day Hana saves her younger sister from a Japanese soldier and is herself captured and transported to Manchuria. As a haenyeo, a female diver of the sea, she enjoys an independence that few other Koreans can still claim. Hana has lived her entire life under Japanese occupation. In the spirit of Lilac Girls, the heartbreaking history of Korea is brought to life in this deeply moving and redemptive debut that follows two sisters separated by World War II.

White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht