The title of East Wind, Rain comes from a coded weather report the Japanese used during WWII to signify an attack on the United States.  The message alerted Japanese forces to be ready to go to war when they received a weather report with the words, East Wind, Rain.

Once the pilots took off, the planes were surrounded by fleet escorts that ensured the suicide craft made it to their target.  It is believed that almost 4,000 Japanese pilots died in suicide attacks that killed over 7,000 Allied troops.  Japanese kamikaze pilots were known to yell "Tenno Heika Banzai" as they flew their aircraft into Navy ships. These pilots were known to perform a special ceremony of drinking sake and eating rice before flying. 

Tenno Heika Banzai means "long live His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor".

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Gutsy Girl comes this provocative, compelling novel of irrevocable consequences for people thrust unwittingly into a devastating war of Nations and American identity based on a little-known true event.

December 1941.  The inhabitants of Niihau lead a simple life.  Mostly Hawaiian natives, they work the ranch of Niihau's eccentric haole (a person who is not a native Hawaiian) owner who keeps his island totally isolated from the outside world, devoid of cars, phones and electricity.  Then a plane crash lands on the island and although the villagers rescue the pilot, they have no idea that he has just attacked Pearl Harbor. War has now come to "Eden", slowly undoing its tranquility widening the crakcs in the already troubled marriage of Irene and Yoshio Harada, the island's only Japanese-American couple.  It will test everyone's loyalties and all they believe in .. as Paradise, once within reach, while it slowly falls victim to its own isolated innocence.  

While researching this book I found many reviews and these are just two of them ..

"A fine novel of a little-known story of WWII.  This is a well-written novel based on actual events at the start of WWII.  It is about individual lives and cultural beliefts that are thrown into conflict when a Japanese plane crash lands onto a very isolated Hawaiian island.  The pilot survives the landing and the story begins .. a senstive exploration of people and their motivations in a fascinating historial moment."

"I felt carried back to that time, that I was there, listening in and watching the events unfold".

Be sure to visit the WWII exhibit at the Patterson Library's Octagon Gallery in Westfield (40 S. Portage) through September 7.  

Pat Locke