Friday, January 31, 2014

A HIROHITO STUNNER FOR THE JAPANESE PEOPLE

January 31, 1946 - The Emperor stuns the Japanese people with this: "Hirohito, Son of Heaven and Scion of the Sun Goddess, last week denied his own identity: "We have ... to proceed unflinchingly toward elimination of misguided practices of the past. . . . The ties between us and our people ... do not depend upon mere legends and myths. They are not predicated on the false conception that the Emperor is divine and that the Japanese people are superior to other races and fated to rule the world. . . . The Emperor is not a living god. . . ." Thus, in the 18th year of the Era of Enlightened... AND, MEANWHILE . . .Rada's 'partner' Jinno is arrested by the 720th MP battalion for moida, yeah, I said moida.

A MACARTHUR DECISION ON THE EMPEROR

January 26, 1946. General MacArthur spares Emperor Hirohito from a war crimes trial. Meanwhile, Rada is on the northern most island on the trail of Kumazawa Hiromichi, the communist pretender to the Chrysanthemum throne. There's going to be trouble, I'm telling ya. Read RED CHRYSANTHEMUM - A NOVEL OF OCCUPIED JAPAN. And you can get it discounted at www.SpruenceCenter.com

Monday, November 25, 2013

The Assassination of Rabbi Morris Adler- A National Leader

In February of 1966 nationally known Jewish leader, Rabbi Morris Adler was assassinated in his Detroit synagogue in front of a congregation of more than one thousand worshipers.

After WW2, Adler traveled to Occupied Japan where he established the Jewish Chapel Center in the city of Yokohama. Adler worked to assemble back the Jewish population in Japan searching for Jewish refugees. In Henry Mazel's book, RED CHRYSANTHEMUM- A Novel of Occupied Japan, Alex Rada, the protagonist, enlists Rabbi Morris Adler's help as he and his partner Jinno search for Rada's girlfriend Rachel.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

THIS DAY DURING THE OCCUPATION OF JAPAN - RADA NOW AN MP ASSIGNED TO A CASE

October 27th 1945 OCCUPIED JAPAN - "Fearing that the Americans occupying Japan would behave as Japanese troops sometimes had overseas, raping any woman in sight, the Government quietly set up a front organization to establish brothels, and asked patriotic Japanese women to sacrifice themselves as 'comfort women' for the Americans." From the new York Times

Friday, October 04, 2013

RED CHRYSANTHEMUM - A NOVEL OF OCCUPIED JAPAN

Red Chrysanthemum - A Novel Of Occupied Japan is now available.

Alexander Rada doesn’t want to be called Alexander, or Alex for that matter -- Rada will do just fine. It’s the summer of 1945, and army Lieutenant Rada has just arrived in Tokyo to witness the official surrender of Japan to the Allied Forces on the deck of the battleship Missouri.

Rada has a history. He was a cop in L.A. before the war. A disgraced cop. Along the way, he learned to speak Japanese, and now he’s working at GHQ as a translator for General MacArthur. To almost everyone’s surprise, Rada is transferred to the military police to stop an assassination of a top communist. And the thing is, Rada just hates communists. He finds himself attached to a Japanese partner working for the Occupation forces -- and even more attached to a unique, beautiful Japanese woman. Love is in the air, and Rada is bound to mess it up.

Henry Mazel has brought Occupied Japan vividly to life in RED CHRYSANTHEMUM. It is both a humorous novel and a dead-on history lesson of the period. Through the pristine snowy mountaintops of Northern Japan, to the collapsed smokestacks, charred factories, and twisted metal presiding over a moribund Tokyo, get ready for a thrilling adventure where nothing is what it seems and no one is to be trusted -- maybe not even Rada himself.

“A Remarkable book. A landmark novel. Mazel captures the feel and pulse of post-war Japan. An extraordinarily engaging and imaginative work. Perhaps the best Occupation novel since ‘Where are the Victors.’”

-- Daya Benn (The Spruence Center)

SEE THE COVER ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BLOG TO TAKE YOU TO THE PRINT VERSION OF RED CHRYSANTHEMUM - A NOVEL OF OCCUPIED JAPAN. YOU CAN ALSO FIND BOTH PRINT AND KINDLE VERSIONS BY TYPING IN 'RED CHRYSANTHEMUM' IN THE AMAZON BOX ON THE TOP OF THEIR PAGE. THANKS.