The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War by Louise Steinman

The author's father served in the United States Army during World War II and survived the fighting in northern Luzon in the Philippines. These years of combat changed him forever and he never talked about the war. Years after his death, Steinman finds a trunk containing 474 letters that her father wrote to her mother while serving overseas. These letters chronicle her father's experience during the war. In the trunk, Steinman also finds the souvenir of the book's title: a Japanese soldier's white flag signed by friends, family, and neighbors for good luck. Steinman is determined to return this flag to the Japanese soldier's family and this begins her journey to Japan and to the Philippines to see where her father fought.

This book puts a personal face on war. Behind each "casuality" is a person with dreams, fears, and a family. This book is carefully researched and I learned more about the dynamics of the Southwest Pacific Theater of WWII. This book put me into a more subdued mood as I thought more about loss and war and how many men and women have been and are still being affected by war.

Just over dinner the other night, my friend and I were talking about how both of our fathers, who were both drafted and served in the Vietnam War, hardly ever talk about the war, but still watch documentaries and movies about this war. It makes me wonder what is still being worked out in our fathers' minds and what pain and grief remains unspoken and unresolved.