#Blogtour Sisters Under the Rising Sun by Heather Morris

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Sisters Under the Rising Sun by Heather Morris.

About the Author

Born in New Zealand, Heather Morris is an international number one bestselling author, who is passionate about stories of survival, resilience and hope. In 2003, while working in a large public hospital in Melbourne, Heather was introduced to an elderly gentleman who 'might just have a story worth telling'. The day she met Lale Sokolov changed both their lives. Lale's story formed the basis for The Tattooist of Auschwitz and the follow-up novel, Cilka's Journey. 

In 2021 she published the phenomenal conclusion to the Tattooist trilogy, Three Sisters, after being asked to tell the story of three Holocaust survivors who knew Lale from their time in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Together, her novels have sold more than 16 million copies worldwide. In 2020 she published Stories of Hope, her account of her journey to writing the story of Lale Sokolov's life.

About the book

Sisters under the Rising Sun tells the story of a group of women from Australia, England, the Netherlands and beyond, who were captured by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1942 and held in brutal conditions in a camp in the Indonesian jungle. 

Mainly based upon the real-life experiences of Australian nurse Sister Nesta James and English musician Norah Chambers, who, after surviving a brutal 24 hours in the sea, reached the beaches of a remote island, only to be captured by the Japanese and held in one of their notorious POW camps – places of starvation and brutality, where disease runs rampant. Sisters in arms, Norah and Nesta fight side by side every day, discovering in themselves and each other extraordinary reserves of courage, resourcefulness and determination.

Sisters under the Rising Sun is a story of women in war, exploring the powerful bonds of sisterhood of over 500 hundred women who struggled and survived together for nearly four years in the darkest of circumstances.

Review

I think it's always important to shed a light on moments in history that tend to be given less attention and are thereby sort of forgotten somewhere along the way. The actions of the Japanese military during WW2, especially in regard to their treatment of their enemies, prisoners and the many innocent who crossed their paths, are grossly minimised in comparison to other atrocities. 

Whilst I was aware of treatment in internment camps, and the massacres they were guilty of, for instance the Bangka Island massacre mentioned in this story, I wasn't aware of the pressure and limitations placed upon the female survivor/s to keep certain elements of the massacre under wraps. It's unforgivable, a tragic scandal at the cost of survivors that their own government made them lie about the brutal assaults the women were subjected to before being massacred.

Much like their attitude towards the girls (many still children) and women forced to become Comfort Women - the Japanese have a long history of lack of accountability.

Kudos to the author for giving a voice to these forgotten victims, the brave women who endured and helped others to survive, cope and then went about their lives as if they weren't an incredibly important part of history. That sentiment of a voice counts in equal measure for those who didn't survive.

It's a story of courage, perseverance, the extraordinary strength they showed and the bonds the women in this story created in the most dire situation.

Buy Sisters of the Rising Sun at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Published by Zaffre | 28th September 2023 - Hardback, £20 | Also available in eBook and Audio. Buy at Amazon com.