Guests of the Emperor or How a bag of rice spoke to me
And there it is! A 20 pound bag of white rice, just sitting there on the lowest grocery store shelf minding its own business. But somehow, maybe from some future universe, it called to me. Several years ago there was a book topping the NEW YORK best sellers list of a true story of a particular Japanese POW camp during WWII. Interesting enough, but in this tale the Japanese POWs captured were entitled English women on vacation on an island in the south China sea . Japan made the decision to jump into the war in a blaze of glory by taking the wives and daughters of various high ranking English military officials before the women could secure arrangements to get off the island and make it home safely. The book was called “ Guests of the Emperor .” Hearing that there were important people on an island belonging to the English Monarchy, the Emperor ordered Japanese soldiers to snatch up these women and hold them hostage and put them on a inconspicuous Japanese sea vessel. Two torrent...