DREAMS OF CHERRY BLOSSOMS

In Miller’s debut historical novel, an American soldier stationed in Japan in the last days of World War II begins an illicit romance with a Japanese woman. 

Lt. Richard Jackson joined the Navy after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, less out of patriotic ardor than to be freed from Tennessee, where he spent his childhood. In 1945, before the United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan is a “severely wounded tiger backed into a corner,” according to the novel’s third-person narrator—a country left in physical and moral ruin. Richard is appointed to Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s staff and finds unsettling the general’s sense of having a “divine mission ordained by God to liberate the Japanese from their feudal past and lead them to the promised land of democracy!” In Kyoto, Richard meets Emiko Murakami, a teacher of American history and literature who’s in a joyless, arranged marriage with a “haughty” and “condescending” husband. Richard and Emiko fall in love with implausible alacrity, as portrayed by the author, but their union seems doomed from the start, as it’s clear that their relationship won’t be accepted by those around them. As Miller chronicles their romantic struggles, he also astutely captures the burden of a disgraced nation now under the governorship of a people it deeply distrusts and fears. The author’s command of the historical period is masterful, and he powerfully depicts the consequences of military loss as well as victory. However, the connection between Richard and Emiko never feels authentic, partly because their dialogue feels canned and mechanical: “ ‘Well, do you have a new lover in Japan?’ Emiko said teasingly. ‘Well, in fact I do.’ He paused. ‘And I’m sitting right next to her.’ ” Nevertheless, Miller’s nuanced rendering of the moral complexities of the occupation is compelling, as when the United States and Japanese governments cooperatively supply American troops with sex workers—mainly to prevent instances of rape, MacArthur explains.

An exceedingly intelligent exploration of World War II–era Japan but one that’s hampered by an unconvincing romance.