A new Japanese edition of Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by acclaimed Australian author Dr Anita Heiss is now available.
The release marks the 80th anniversary of the breakout which took place on 5 August 1944 by Japanese prisoners of war who were housed in the detention camp in Cowra, New South Wales.
In the novel, the breakout is the backdrop to a love story between a Japanese man and a Wiradjuri woman.
The story is set in August 1944 when over 1,000 Japanese soldiers break out of their prison compound on the fringes of Cowra. Many are killed or recaptured, and some take their own lives. But one soldier, Hiroshi, manages to escape.
At nearby Erambie Station, an Aboriginal mission, Banjo Williams, father of five and proud man of his community, discovers Hiroshi, distraught and on the run. Unlike most of the townsfolk who dislike and distrust the Japanese, the people of Erambie choose compassion and offer Hiroshi refuge. Mary, Banjo’s daughter, is intrigued by the softly spoken stranger, and charged with his care.
For the community, life at Erambie is one of restriction and exclusion – living under Acts of Protection and Assimilation, and always under the ruthless eye of the mission Manager. On top of wartime hardships, families live without basic rights. Love blossoms between Mary and Hiroshi, and they each dream of a future together. But how long can Hiroshi be hidden safely and their bond kept a secret?
Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms was first published in English in 2016 (Simon & Schuster) to great critical acclaim, and was placed highly in the New South Wales, Queensland and Dublin International Literary Awards. Still selling strongly in English, the newly translated Japanese edition features new cover art and with it, an opportunity to be discovered by new audiences.
“While at Pearl Harbour in 2014, I was intrigued by the interest Japanese tourists demonstrated in military history as portrayed by the Americans and I considered how back home the Japanese breakout at Cowra had been documented by the Australians rather than the Japanese,” said Dr Anita Heiss.
“I also didn’t recall much, if any of the history of World War II mentioning the local Aboriginal community at Erambie where my mother was raised as a child. I immediately felt compelled to write the shared history of Cowra during the war, so that Australians understood there were two ‘camps’ at the time, one where my own family lived with fewer luxuries than the prisoners of war.
“Paramount to my storytelling was weaving in my mother’s memories, paying tribute to Wiradjuri families of prominence and showing respect to local Aboriginal people who had fought in World Wars,” said Dr Heiss.
Dr Anita Heiss is an internationally published, award-winning author of 23 books; non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women’s fiction and children’s novels. She is a proud member of the Wiradyuri Nation of central New South Wales, an Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and the GO Foundation, and Professor of Communications at the University of Queensland.
Anita is also the Publisher at Large of Bundyi, an imprint of Simon & Schuster cultivating First Nations talent, and a board member of the National Justice Project and Circa Contemporary Circus. As an artist in residence at La Boite Theatre, she adapted her novel Tiddas for the stage. It premiered at the 2022 Brisbane Festival and was produced by Belvoir St for the Sydney Festival in 2024.
Her novel, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, about the Great Flood of Gundagai, won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Indigenous Writers’ Prize and was shortlisted for the 2021 ARA Historical Novel Prize and the 2022 ABIA Awards. Anita’s first children’s picture book is Bidhi Galing (Big Rain), also about the Great Flood of Gundagai. Anita enjoys running, eating chocolate and being a creative disruptor.
Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms is available now in e-book and paperback via the Ligature website, and to order at book stores nationally.
Image: Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms – courtesy of Ligature