The War Journal of Lila Ann Smith:
REVIEWS, 2008
By Susan Gilmore
Special to The Seattle Times
"The War Journal of Lila Ann Smith"
by Irving Warner
Pleasure Boat Studio,
274 pp., $18
She lived in the most remote of Alaska's Aleutian Islands, a white woman in a village of Aleuts,
teaching school as the specter of World War II loomed. What happens to the title character in "The
War Journal of Lila Ann Smith" could well be a nonfiction account of what happened to the villagers
during World War II. But instead it's a novel, based on a true story.
The story, based on the experiences of real-life schoolteacher Etta Jones, portrays the life of
fictional Lila Ann Smith, a white teacher who goes to Attu just before the start of World War II. The
saga of Etta/Lila Ann closely follows what happened to the Attu villagers during the war. Attacked by
the Japanese, Attu's entire population was herded onto a boat and taken to Japan, where the villagers
remained prisoners until the end of the war.
While "War Journal" is slow in parts and doesn't always flow smoothly, it does explore a fascinating piece
of history that is largely unknown, when residents of a U.S. territory were physically removed from their
homes and imprisoned in Japan.
"The War Journal" is presented as a collection of diary entries. It begins when Smith embarks on a
ship to Alaska and ends in December 1945 in Seattle, in an emotional reunion with the survivors of Japanese
imprisonment. The author, Irving Warner, a retired fish-and-game biologist and college professor who lives
in Tacoma, interviewed many of the survivors of the invasion and produced a radio program based on the
event for Alaska Public Radio.
While Warner writes that he changed some of the facts in the story, "The reader is visiting the spirit and
times of the real story." It's a tale of courage, of a white Midwestern woman who embarks on the adventure
of her lifetime into a remote Alaskan village where she planned to stay no more than a year.
Lila Ann Smith, 61, lived in China as a child. Her family was killed in the Boxer rebellion, but the language
she learned there helped her communicate with the Japanese, many of whom could speak Chinese, after the
villagers were imprisoned in Japan.
While living in Attu, she writes about teaching the children and adults English, learning how to weave baskets
and participating in solemn orthodox religious ceremonies. "My height is a constant point of village pride,"
she writes. "I'm nearly equal to Himself's (her husband's) six-foot, though a tiny notch under it."
She writes of spending her first Thanksgiving on Attu, a holiday not celebrated in the Chichigof village, and
explaining to her students how America celebrates Thanksgiving.
Lila Ann hides her journal under floorboards so it won't be discovered and confiscated by the Japanese. When
the village is preparing to be evacuated, she writes, "It is nigh impossible to sustain any discipline at school
because of the impending evacuation. It is made worse because of the uncertainty of its time and manner,
and has made our lives very awkward."
On Sept. 8, 1942, the journal entry notes that, without notice, Lila Ann Smith was removed from the village.
Entries resume on Sept. 20 when she's heading to Japan aboard the converted coal freighter Osa Maru.
She writes about the trip to Japan and her imprisonment in an old barracks in Hokkaido. Eventually, while the
men are forced to work in a clay mine, Lila Ann and other female villagers are asked to sew for the Japanese
� the money they earn must be used to buy food for the villagers. But there is never enough, particularly
milk for the children, and the men trade food for tobacco, much to Lila Ann's disgust.
" I t seems God has provided me with several families during my life, and I hope I am the better for it," she
ends her diary. "I try very sincerely to remember the increase his gift provided in my life and not the sadness
of decrease."
The author writes in an afterword that it was not known whether fictional Lila Ann, who lived to age 98, ever
met with her Attuan friends again. Because of concern over land mines left behind by the Japanese, the survivors
were not allowed to return to Attu, and had to live in another Aleutian village.
Copyright � 2008 The Seattle Times Company
4. From Amazon.com reader review, as dated.
Reviews: 2007
1.
The following review is by Harriet Klausner,
from her website
THE WAR JOURNAL OF LILA ANN SMITH
Irving Warner
Pleasure Boat, Oct 2007, $16.00
9781929355334
In 1979, Lila Ann Smith died at the Meadows facility in Cedar falls, Iowa; she had no known
living relatives so the director handled her funeral and disposed of her possessions. Of most
interest to him is her diary kept during WW II.
On September 2 1941, sixty-one years old Lila Ann and her second husband Osmond were
sailing on the not so pleasant boat the Northern Supplier to provide the Bureau of Indian
Affairs missionary services to Aleut Indians in Chchigof Village on Attu Island, Alaska territory.
They reach their destination twenty days later and are welcomed by the villagers led by Chief
Alexi Chirikoff. They were especially in awe of the six foot Lila Ann, the teacher to their children.
In spite of the threat of hostilities, Pearl Harbor and the war, the Smiths enjoy their time with
the Aleuts. That is until Jun 6, 1942 when Japanese Rear Admiral Omori takes control of the island;
Osmond is killed. Not long afterward Lila Ann and forty-four Aleuts are moved to Otaru, Japan.
Lila Ann continues her journal until 1945 when the Americans free her and her companions.
Based on a real event, THE WAR JOURNAL OF LILA ANN SMITH is an exciting historical fiction
that shows how far-reaching WWII was. The use of a journal enables the audience to understand
how Lila Ann feels about events including the tedium of the voyage, the enthusiasm of her
students, the death of her second husband, and the incarceration-exile as civilian POWs with
no Habeas Corpus available for her or the Aleuts. However, this format also slows down the story
line as it moves forward in leaps and bounds from incident to incident over four years. Still Irving
Warner provides a vivid glimpse of a little known WW II episode. Harriet Klausner
2.
The following review appeared in the Oct. 14, 2007 issue of the Fairbanks
Daily News-Miner.
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
By David A. James
For the News-Miner
Nowhere on American soil was World War II felt like it was on the Aleutian
island of Attu. Six months after Pearl Harbor, Attu was invaded by a force
of Japanese troops who took over the island and imprisoned its 42
inhabitants. These American civilians were transferred to Japan, where
they remained interned until the war’s conclusion.
The battle to retake the island was one of the bloodiest confrontations of
the Pacific War. The Aleut residents were barred by the U.S. from
returning home, and repatriated to the island of Atka instead.
Strangely, despite the vast amount of literature about the Second World
War, the experiences of the residents of Attu — the first American
prisoners of war taken on domestic soil in more than a century — have been
all but forgotten by history.
Into this void steps novelist Irving Warner with an account of these
overlooked victims of the global conflict. “The War Journal of Lila Ann
Smith” is the fictional diary of a white teacher taken along with the
Aleut residents of Attu. The title character is based on Etta Jones, the
school teacher on the island who, like the Aleuts, was imprisoned in Japan
throughout the war.
In the novel, Lila Ann Smith arrives on Attu in the fall of 1941 along
with her husband Osmond, a radio operator. War jitters are frequently
voiced in the initial entries, but most of the early book concerns the
Smiths’ interactions with their new neighbors.
The Aleuts of the time were deeply immersed in Russian culture; English
was at best a third language for them. Warner, speaking through Smith’s
voice, provides insight into a way of life now lost. Provincial by nature,
few Attu residents had traveled to nearby islands, much less to the
mainland. Life revolved around subsistence activities and the sale of furs
to passing merchant ships.
The war becomes more intrusive in the months following the attack on Pearl
Harbor. In early 1942, the U.S. began evacuating Aleuts from the other
islands, and Lila Ann details the preparations for vacating Attu, plans
which get derailed by the Japanese invasion in June.
Once Japanese troops take the island, Osmond is murdered (Etta Jones’
husband died in the real attack), Lila Ann is beaten, and the Aleuts are
placed under martial law. In one of the touches Warner has used which
makes this book seem so real, there is a lengthy gap in the diary entries
commencing with the invasion. Playing the role of editor, Warner fills in
a few details. When the story resumes, Lila Ann is recovering from her
injuries and the islanders fear for their fate.
In September of that year, the residents are placed in the hold of a ship
and sent overseas to Japan. After one death and many torturous days in the
hold, the prisoners arrive at the port of Otaru in Sapporo Prefecture,
where they remain until after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The book provides daily accounts of the drudgery and hard labor the
prisoners endure, the escalating attrition as hunger and disease claim
lives, the few attempts by prisoners at standing up to the authorities,
and the occasional kindness shown them by some of the Japanese they
interact with. Lila Ann and the Aleuts come to see her diary as a crucial
record of their ordeal.
Warner is working on multiple levels here. He first presents the Aleuts in
their own doomed world, unaware that they are living through the final
days of an ancient lifestyle. Then they become trapped in an alien
culture, victims of a war between two nations they hardly belong to.
Though loyal to America, they are foreigners in their own country.
The Japanese, meanwhile, view them as Japanese citizens liberated from an
oppressive government. The Aleuts long for their home while trying to
comprehend their situation.
Warner also explores the calamitous effects of the war on Japan. Food
shortages increasingly impact the Japanese, affecting the prisoners even
more so. The rigidly stratified Japanese social structure dictates how the
captives are treated by their captors. In many respects, this book is as
much about the Japanese as it is about the Aleuts.
Religion is another important theme. The Aleuts hold fast to their
Orthodox beliefs. Warner repeatedly shows how these are expressed as the
prisoners observe holy days and honor their dead. Meanwhile, Lila Ann
struggles with her Mennonite faith as it is challenged by her plight.
In Lila Ann Smith the author has created a fully believable person. Born
to missionaries in China, she lost her parents and brother to the Boxer
Rebellion. Childless and already widowed once when the book opens, she
finds herself alone again after Osmond’s death. She is at times prudish
and judgmental, but also capable of forgiveness. Her anger is directed at
humanity in general more than the Japanese. She frequently comments on the
futility of war and the horrors which human beings are endlessly capable
of visiting upon each other.
Warner has fully adopted Lila Ann’s voice. The style in which the book is
written is appropriate for a woman born in the nineteenth century. And, as
would be the case with an actual diary of this sort, he introduces it as
the work of a deceased author and includes explanatory notes as needed.
The book is so realistic that readers could be forgiven for thinking it a
work of nonfiction.
“The War Journal of Lila Ann Smith” is an unusually well-crafted book.
Thoroughly researched, richly detailed, and exceptionally well written,
it’s an important addition to the literatures of both Alaska and World War
II. Most importantly, it pays overdue homage to some of that war’s long
forgotten victims. It’s an impressive achievement.
David A. James lives in Fairbanks.
3.
From Amazon.com, a reader-review, as dated......
The Courage and Honor of an American Woman, November 5, 2007
Here is the heartbreaking story of the resilience and courage of one woman, and a segment of American History that few people know about. History buffs will especially relish this slice of America-at-war through the eyes of this spirited lady who earned the respect of the enemy who held her captive.
Although already an old woman, at the age of 61, Lila Ann Smith and her husband, Osmond, traveled to the distant village of Chichigof on the island of Attu, the very last island on Alaska's Aleutian Chain. As the only Caucasians on the island, Osmond would be the Territorial aerographer and radio operator, and Lila Ann would serve as the schoolteacher.
In 1942, the Japanese military invaded America, and occupied the island of Attu for nearly two years. Osmond was killed immediately, and Lila Ann placed under arrest. Some of the other residents of the island were also killed during the invasion, though they didn't resist the invaders. Eventually, Lila Ann and the other Attu islanders were removed to Japan and held there for the remainder of the war. Lila Ann was a faithful journal keeper, and posted daily when she could, until 1945 when World War II ended. This book is based on those journals along with extensive research of this historic event.
Lila Ann's journals tell of having previously survived three wars, and now struggling to survive the fourth. Her missionary parents and brother were murdered in China during the Boxer Rebellion, and now as an old lady, she must undergo the deprivation and torture of a prisoner of war in Japan, struggling with the language barrier, starvation, freezing cold, and the loss of husband and friends
Be prepared to read through to the end...this book is hard to put down. Lila Ann was eloquent in her journal entries, and Warner writes with great depth and intensity of the honor and bravery required for Lila Ann to triumph against the odds.
To Purchase The War Journal of Lila Ann Smith go to:
http://www.amazon.com/War-Journal-Lila-Ann-Smith/dp/1929355335/ref=sr_1_1/002-5225053-0348804?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192668274&sr=1-1
To go to my author's website, follow this link:
www.IRVINGWARNER.COM
(Note to producers and media people: Follow the above author's link for information about contact and availability)
Pleasure Boat Studio, where my books are available, in addition to
the usual vendors like Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble.
http://www.pleasureboatstudio.com/catalog.html
My e-mail address is:
irvingwarner@olympus.net
Warner's best serious work to date, January 5, 2008
I've been a fan of Warner's work for the past 30 years, so I'll admit my point of view is
bit biased. Nonetheless I can say without reservation that Lila Ann Smith is far and away
Warner's most interesting and "real" creation. Much of Warner's past work encompasses
very broad humor; his works of fiction often populated with outrageous characters who find
themselves in outlandish situations. In contrast, the character of Lila Ann Smith is completely
believable, especially when viewed in the context of her times and life experiences. The remarkable
thing about this novel is that it draws on the very real, and terribly tragic, experiences of a
much-abused community of Alaska Natives. Their story sadly illustrates the fact that truth
can be stranger than fiction, which may be why Warner did not need to embellish the plot: it
was terrible enough as it really happened.
I especially enjoyed the way Warner chose to reveal much, but not too much, about Lila and her
companions. The ambiguities, discreet averting of the eyes, and unanswered questions scattered
through the diary reflect just the sort of person Lila would have been. They also reflect the puzzling
world she found herself in. Not all events would have been understandable or accessible.
This is a hell of a story told by a master storyteller at the peak of his prowess. If you want a good read, you won't go wrong here.
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