DEAR LAURA, A LOST CHAPTER OF WWII

A daughter examines her father’s history as a prisoner of war in Indonesia and Japan during World War II in Elliott’s memoir.

The author was a full-fledged adult with a family when her brother made a comment about a wooden bench created by their father, Hans. Intrigued, Laura asked her father about the first time he built a wooden bench; it was then she learned more of Hans’ backstory. Though born in Java, Indonesia, as a result of Dutch colonization, Hans lived in Germany as a boarding school student starting in 1931. But when the political rise of Adolf Hitler began, his parents grew distressed and “wanted to leave what they called the horrors of Europe for the heaven of Indonesia.” After Pearl Harbor was attacked 10 years later by Japanese pilots, Japan set its sights on Indonesia. While running out to buy sugar, Hans was taken by Japanese soldiers and imprisoned. It was then that he began crafting small, wooden benches as a form of prison currency (the prisoners did not have chairs). Though Hans did manage to sneak a note out of the POW camp to his parents, but the horror did not end there; Hans was freed from the POW camp in Indonesia, but he and his family were sent to Japan to be detained together. Eventually, in 1945, the war ended, and Hans was released, weighing only 85 pounds at the time. While the primary project of Elliott’s memoir is the recounting of her father’s trauma and courage, she also includes her own life experiences. In an effort to fill in the gaps of her father’s history, and with little tying her down to a set location (she was shaken and left unmoored by a divorce), the author traveled the world (with special attention given to Indonesia). She visited locations from her father’s past while finding herself on an Eat, Pray, Love-like journey of personal discovery. In deepening her knowledge of and connection to her father, Elliott began to also heal herself.

Though Hans’ story is told mainly through letters written to his daughter, Elliott includes a generous amount of detailed historical context alongside the more anecdotal material. This, unfortunately, causes the narrative to drag a bit; while details about Dutch colonialism and Marconi’s wireless picking up distress signals from the Titanic, for example, provide background information for certain aspects of Elliott’s familial history, such exposition can feel wearying and a tad meandering (as does the occasional proselytizing). Similarly, despite the ambitious attempt to combine the emotional and physical journeys of both her father and herself, the story feels a bit disorganized and, at times, hard to follow. A more cohesive structure, or perhaps more distinctly drawn parallels between the two journeys, would allow the combined stories to flow more easily for readers. Additionally, Elliott’s prose is rudimentary, and the passages regarding her ex-husband can read as intentionally vague. Still, the author’s painstaking research and her evident love for her father are felt throughout this emotional read. As Elliott asks, “How many sentences have incredible backstories? How many epics lie in the footnotes of history?” Her endeavor to find out is a worthy one.

An evocative tale of history and family.