Mission: Infiltrate wartime Japan!
The Flowers of Edo
By Michael Dana Kennedy
Fiction/War
Hardcover, 544 pages, 5.5 x 8.25 inches
978-1-934287-80-4
U.S.$26.95 / CAN$33.00
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In the climactic closing months of World War II, Allied Intelligence officers are summoned to the Malcañan Palace in Manila to be briefed by General MacArthur’s Intelligence Staff on the optimal conclusion to the conflict in the Pacific Theater. Intelligence collected at the time concluded that the Americans had only three options to effectively force the Imperial Japanese Military into surrender: encirclement, blockade, and bombardment; isolating Japan from its forces in China, Korea, and Formosa; or engaging Japan through a full-scale amphibious invasion.
In the debut novel by Michael Dana Kennedy, Japanese-American Lt. Ken Kobayashi must straddle a delicate line between duty to country and honor to his family as he is assigned by General MacArthur to infiltrate the Imperial Japanese Army in the lead-up to an invasion of the Japanese archipelago. From the deck of the U.S.S. Yorktown to the halls of the Imperial Ministry of War in Ichigaya in Tokyo, The Flowers of Edo reveals the intricacies of the military machine and the human and cultural price that was paid in the bombings on Japan through a perspective never before seen in fiction. Meticulously researched and endorsed by military insiders and historians from both sides of the Pacific, Lt. Kobayashi’s tale of espionage and romance will shed new light on what might have happened.
Michael Dana Kennedy is a Boston native. He graduated from Harvard University with a dual major in history and political science then attended Tufts University School of Medicine for two years. He spent the majority of his career in clinical research. In the late '80s he entered M.I.T., studying computer science. Kennedy founded two companies, both of which he sold. He then turned his attention to his life-long interest in history and began researching and writing his debut novel, The Flowers of Edo.
More praise
“Sure to fascinate all who are interested in the lives of those who experienced the conflict between Japan and the United States in the mid-20th century.”
—Annette Gordon-Reed, Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in History
“The Flowers of Edo is a gripping combination of military action and cultural analysis, which offers a unique and provocative perspective on the history that was…and might have been…between Japan and the United States. This is a valuable addition to the literature of understanding how the two nations faced their opposite prospects at the end of a brutal war.”
—James Fallows, The Atlantic Monthly
“The struggle of a soldier’s courage and loyalty to country is at the core of Michael Dana Kennedy’s debut novel. The Flowers of Edo embraces not only the significant historical context but the rich cultural intricacies like few historical novels.”
—James Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of Flags of Our Fathers
“An excellent book! The Flowers of Edo is a gripping historical novel focused on the final months of WWII, with an authentic Japanese setting and an intriguing plot. Both entertaining and educational…a delightful adventure and experience!”
—Admiral James R. Hogg, U.S. Navy (retired) Commander Seventh Fleet (1983-85)
“The Flowers of Edo is enormously impressive and engrossing in its sweep, moving from the deck of Admiral ‘Bull’ Halsey’s battleship, to the cockpit of a Japanese fighter plane, to Japan and Hiroshima. By turns a spy’s dramatic story of survival, a love story, and a soldier’s struggle to find his place in two worlds, this novel is history brought to intimate life. Michael Dana Kennedy has written a work of enormous research and imagination.”
—Doug Stanton, New York Times bestselling author of In Harm’s Way and Horse Soldiers
