Cage on the Sea

by Kaoru Ohno, Giles Murray (Translator)

In late 1944, three Japanese military supply ships near the tiny South Pacific island of Anatahan came under American air attack. The ships were sunk and their crews left stranded on the island. The survivors—ignorant that the war was long over—were forgotten until 1950, when the Americans began making serious rescue attempts.

In the 1950s, the story of the Anatahan holdouts became the basis for multiple films, books, and lurid yellow journalism. Why? Because the Anatahan story contains an intriguing twist in the form of a lone woman—Kazuko Higa—among the dozens of military survivors. Inspiring rivalries, fights, and even murder, it was her presence that made the holdouts reluctant to go home.

Cage on the Sea is a novel based on painstaking research by author Kaoru Ohno, a journalist and nonfiction author. It goes well beyond stereotypes to explore the psychology of both victors and the vanquished.

428 pages, Hardcover

First published March 12, 2014

Reviews

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The true story behind this dramatization, about the Anatahan Japanese holdouts following the end of World War II, held such promise and intrigue. "Cage on the Sea" tried to recount the Japanese holdouts' time on the island of Anatahan as tales of survival, moral lapse and preservation, and woe. Such recounting would have made for an exhilarating read, were it not for the confusing jumping back and forth between the present and the past (especially confusing when the back-and-forth occurred frequently at the beginning of the story, when the numerous characters and factual background were being set up); the rigid, almost bullet point-like unfolding of events; and the fact that any time the story has finally built up some momentum, the author decides to abruptly shift focus, putting a very unnatural kink in the story. Needless to say, it was a frustrating read. I had more fun reading about Anatahan on the internet.

[Amy Warrick]

Awful.