Review of The War Journal of Lila Ann Smith

from the Fairbanks News-Miner, by David A. James:  

Nowhere on American soil was World War II felt like it was on the Aleutian island of Attu . Six months after Pearl Harbor, Attu was invaded by a force of Japanese troops who took over the island and imprisoned its 42 inhabitants. These American civilians were transferred to Japan , where they remained interned until the war’s conclusion. The battle to retake the island was one of the bloodiest confrontations of the Pacific War. The Aleut residents were barred by the U.S. from returning home, and repatriated to the island of Atka instead. Strangely, despite the vast amount of literature about the Second World War, the experiences of the residents of Attu — the first American prisoners of war taken on domestic soil in more than a century — have been all but forgotten by history.  

Into this void steps novelist Irving Warner with an account of these overlooked victims of the global conflict. “The War Journal of Lila Ann Smith” is the fictional diary of a white teacher taken along with the Aleut residents of Attu . The title character is based on Etta Jones, the school teacher on the island who, like the Aleuts, was imprisoned in Japan throughout the war.

In the novel, Lila Ann Smith arrives on Attu in the fall of 1941 along with her husband Osmond, a radio operator. War jitters are frequently voiced in the initial entries, but most of the early book concerns the Smiths’ interactions with their new neighbors. The Aleuts of the time were deeply immersed in Russian culture; English was at best a third language for them. Warner, speaking through Smith’s voice, provides insight into a way of life now lost. Provincial by nature, few Attu residents had traveled to nearby islands, much less to the mainland. Life revolved around subsistence activities and the sale of furs to passing merchant ships.

The war becomes more intrusive in the months following the attack on Pearl Harbor . In early 1942, the U.S. began evacuating Aleuts from the other islands, and Lila Ann details the preparations for vacating Attu , plans which get derailed by the Japanese invasion in June. Once Japanese troops take the island, Osmond is murdered (Etta Jones’ husband died in the real attack), Lila Ann is beaten, and the Aleuts are placed under martial law. In one of the touches Warner has used which makes this book seem so real, there is a lengthy gap in the diary entries commencing with the invasion. Playing the role of editor, Warner fills in a few details. When the story resumes, Lila Ann is recovering from her injuries and the islanders fear for their fate.

In September of that year, the residents are placed in the hold of a ship and sent overseas to Japan . After one death and many torturous days in the hold, the prisoners arrive at the port of Otaru in Sapporo Prefecture , where they remain until after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki .

The book provides daily accounts of the drudgery and hard labor the prisoners endure, the escalating attrition as hunger and disease claim lives, the few attempts by prisoners at standing up to the authorities, and the occasional kindness shown them by some of the Japanese they interact with. Lila Ann and the Aleuts come to see her diary as a crucial record of their ordeal.

Warner is working on multiple levels here. He first presents the Aleuts in their own doomed world, unaware that they are living through the final days of an ancient lifestyle. Then they become trapped in an alien culture, victims of a war between two nations they hardly belong to. Though loyal to America , they are foreigners in their own country. The Japanese, meanwhile, view them as Japanese citizens liberated from an oppressive government. The Aleuts long for their home while trying to comprehend their situation. Warner also explores the calamitous effects of the war on Japan . Food shortages increasingly impact the Japanese, affecting the prisoners even more so. The rigidly stratified Japanese social structure dictates how the captives are treated by their captors. In many respects, this book is as much about the Japanese as it is about the Aleuts.

Religion is another important theme. The Aleuts hold fast to their Orthodox beliefs. Warner repeatedly shows how these are expressed as the prisoners observe holy days and honor their dead. Meanwhile, Lila Ann struggles with her Mennonite faith as it is challenged by her plight.

In Lila Ann Smith the author has created a fully believable person. Born to missionaries in China , she lost her parents and brother to the Boxer Rebellion. Childless and already widowed once when the book opens, she finds herself alone again after Osmond’s death. She is at times prudish and judgmental, but also capable of forgiveness. Her anger is directed at humanity in general more than the Japanese. She frequently comments on the futility of war and the horrors which human beings are endlessly capable of visiting upon each other.

Warner has fully adopted Lila Ann’s voice. The style in which the book is written is appropriate for a woman born in the nineteenth century. And, as would be the case with an actual diary of this sort, he introduces it as the work of a deceased author and includes explanatory notes as needed. The book is so realistic that readers could be forgiven for thinking it a work of nonfiction. 

“The War Journal of Lila Ann Smith” is an unusually well-crafted book. Thoroughly researched, richly detailed, and exceptionally well written, it’s an important addition to the literatures of both Alaska and World War II. Most importantly, it pays overdue homage to some of that war’s long forgotten victims. It’s an impressive achievement. – 13 Oct. 2007

David A. James lives in Fairbanks .