Book Review
Title: The Last Paper Crane
Author: Kerry Drewery
Genre: Family/Historical
Rating: *****
Review: What drew my attention initially to The Last Paper Crane was that it was a fictional story about the bombing of Hiroshima, but the author had done some major research into the bombing and the survivor’s stories before even starting to put this book together. We are introduced to Mizuki and her grandfather Ichiro, who is suffering after the death of his wife and Mizuki doesn’t understand why his grief is so deep. Although we quickly learn that Ichiro hasn’t told Mizuki about his past, but the death of his wife and his own advanced age is forcing him to pass the story onto the next generation, so it isn’t forgotten. While the present is set in Japan 2018, we jump back to Japan 1945, where we meet Ichiro as a young man and his best friend, Hiro and his younger sister, Keiko. This novel is also told in a mixture of straight narrative, free verse, and haiku poems, along with some stunning illustrations from Natsko Seki.
The first thing we must note about Ichiro is his own father is off fighting and he made him a promise to finish his father’s favourite book, The Tale of Genji, which I have read and it is an extremely long book especially for a child but this is important as Ichiro takes the book everywhere as a physical manifestation of his promise and promises are important in this novel. Ichiro and Hiro are enjoying a day to themselves from helping with the war effort when the bomb was dropped and both suffer immediate effects, while Ichiro suffer internal pain and sickness, Hiro has very severe burns. In the immediate aftermath of the bomb the boys are coming to see the devastation of their home and immediately want to try and find their families consisting of both their mothers and Keiko who is at school. However, the devastation and the after shocks of the bombs such as the huge fires make it really difficult. As they search both boys have to accept that both their mothers didn’t survive the blast but after some really difficult searching, they find that Keiko was sent to the park by the teachers and she is alive and well apart from an injured leg. One thing to note here, is the shadows the boys see and if you know anything about Hiroshima then you know I am referring to the shadows of people that died when the bomb was dropped.
Knowing that the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was an atomic bomb we can see both Ichiro and Hiro suffering from radiation sickness and as the trio try to escape the crowds and raging fires, they end at the river. They try to cross the bridge to the other side, but it is also consumed by flames, but the crush of people is preventing them from going anywhere, but they struggle down to the riverbank where they will be safe from the fires. Here, Ichiro tries to keep hold of both Keiko and Hiro as the river’s current is strong while Keiko is holding onto his father’s book. However, Ichiro becomes very tired and is struggling to hold onto Hiro and keep himself and Keiko above the water. When they do get separated, Ichiro begs Hiro to swim towards him so he can pull him closer to him and Keiko, but Hiro can’t do anymore, and Ichiro promises to keep Keiko alive as his friends dies before him. Together, Keiko and Ichiro are rescued by the passing stranger with a boat and Ichiro’s book which Keiko had managed to save even after Ichiro told her to let it go when they were fighting the current. The pair are told that there is a Red Cross Hospital close by where they can get some treatment for their injuries, but Ichiro is going to have to carry Keiko as she can’t really walk on her injured leg even though the stranger splinted it. Due to the damage to the city, their journey to the hospital isn’t straightforward and Ichiro’s energy is failing him. He knows he won’t be able to get them both to the hospital, but he might make it and bring help for Keiko, so he leaves her behind. However, before he leaves her, he folds Keiko a paper crane and promises to return for her.
He barely makes it to the hospital himself but due to the major loss of life, they don’t have the staff to spare to pick up one little girl so Ichiro is going to walk back to her but his injuries and the radiation get the better of him. Ichiro ends up waking up in a hospital in Tokyo and a whole month has passed and he believes that Keiko is dead after he learns of the atomic bomb, Japan’s surrender, and the occupation of Japan by the American. However, in the hospital he meets a translator named Megumi, who wants to help him find out if Keiko was rescued and is possibly in one of the many orphanages. As time passes and Ichiro recovers somewhat from the injuries caused by the bomb, which are studied by several American doctors as they aren’t aware of what the after effects of an atomic bomb are and there are a few survivors from Hiroshima that can be studied including Ichiro he always wants to return to Hiroshima to find Keiko and keep his promise to her. His entire stay in the hospital is plagued by guilt and dreams of those he has made promises to that haven’t been fulfilled. Eventually, Megumi calls in a favours and help from several people to take Ichiro back to Hiroshima and she goes with him which was something that almost made me tear up as she helps him keep his hope up that Keiko is alive and waiting for him somewhere, they just have to find her.
Upon returning to Hiroshima, Ichiro and Megumi check every hospital and refuge for Keiko but she is nowhere to be found and eventually they have to return to Tokyo where the doctors refuse to let Ichiro return again for a while because everyone else that has returned has died sooner or later and they don’t know why. Megumi also has trouble staying in Japan as she has to transfer from the armed force to the civil service and even then, she is only given a year before she has to return to America. At some point during this year, Megumi and Ichiro fall in love as we learn back in the present that Megumi is Mizuki’s grandmother and was someone extremely important to her grandfather and his story. However, when her grandfather produces a letter that concludes that Keiko is dead as there is no record of her, Mizuki suddenly realises that there is no record of her being alive and no record of her being dead so there is still hope that Keiko is out there somewhere but both her mother and grandfather have no interest in looking for her in case it hurts Ichiro more than it already has. Mizuki takes it upon herself to use the power of the internet and find out once and for all what happened to Mizuki but there is no record of her until Mizuki tries searching for her grandfather’s surname, Ando and finds a Keiko Ando.
Without telling him, Mizuki manages to convince Ichiro to go on a road trip to Hiroshima and they pray that the Keiko Ando they are going to visit, is Ichiro’s Keiko. As they stand outside the house, Ichiro is reluctant to knock until he sees the paper crane in the window and then he has to know. A young man answers the door and introduces himself as Ichiro Ando, named after Mizuki’s grandfather and the man that saved his own grandmother when she was only a child. It turns out that Keiko waited for Ichiro to return but as she did she feel asleep and much like Ichiro when she woke she was in a shelter and accidently gave her surname as Ando and she has since forgotten her own name. The younger Ichiro takes Mizuki and her grandfather to the place where his grandmother waits for her rescuer to return but Ichiro is afraid so he creates the final paper crane as there is a saying to fold 1000 paper cranes means you get a wish granted and Ichiro’s wish was always to be reunited with Keiko. In the final pages of this novel, they are finally brought back together after 73 years and while Mizuki isn’t part of that conversation she knows that both of their lives have come full circle and she can focus on her own journey going forward although she is curious to learn Keiko’s story. Overall, The Last Paper Crane was a haunting and beautiful novel about friendship and promises kept that brought tears to my eyes more than once and was so beautifully written that I devoured it in a few hours. Highly recommended!
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
This review copy was sent to me for review consideration by the publisher
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