World War, 1939-1945

Warriors in the Crossfire by Nancy Bo Flood is a YA novel about World War II as the Japanese and the Americans are battling across the many islands of the Pacific. The natives of these islands were caught in the crossfire between these armies and many were slaughtered. These islands in the Western Pacific were important as the Americans could launch air strikes from them directly at Japan.

The story is of Joseph a twelve year old islander. He and his family have been living under Japanese occupation for a number of years by 1944. The Japanese changed the natives way of life. They weren’t allowed to take their boats out onto the ocean and fish, they were forced into manual labour either in the cane fields or repairing the runways at the airport. When the Americans started their bombing prior to their landing, the natives were on their own to survive as best they could. When it became obvious that the Japanese were not going to win, they gathered as many people as they could and forced them to leap off the cliffs to their death. Joseph’s father and brother-in-law are taken by the Japanese as forced labour so it is up to Joseph to get his family to the caves and then keep them safe.

This story about the indigenous people who were caught up in the battles between the Japanese and the American armies is quite short and being a YA novel, it doesn’t go into the depth I would have liked. These natives had their way of life destroyed and their homeland devastated by the meeting of these two massive forces. Warriors in the Crossfire gives the reader a glimpse of this little known perspective on World War II as seen through the eyes of a twelve year old. ( )

Although a YA book, quite good. The poems at the beginning of each chapter were very poignant and brought a lot of texture to the story. So sad. The islands can never be the same after being gutted by war. ( )

Would be an interesting complement to Terry Prachett's "Nation" - which our grade 6 students read. Island, traumatic events, two young people from opposing cultures, survival, death & religion, etc. Unlike "Nation" this is quite short - and based on historical event (Saipan in WWII). ( )

Excellent historical fiction about a little-known conflict from World War II. ( )