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1940s: Chilling supernatural horror combining Japanese folklore with WW2 historical fiction
1940s: Chilling supernatural horror combining Japanese folklore with WW2 historical fiction
1944: As World War II rages on, the threat has come to the home front. In a remote corner of Idaho, Meiko Briggs and her daughter, Aiko, are desperate to return home. Following Meiko’s husband’s enlistment as an air force pilot in the Pacific months prior, Meiko and Aiko were taken from their home in Seattle and sent to one of the internment camps in the Midwest. It didn’t matter that Aiko was American-born: They were Japanese, and therefore considered a threat by the American government.
Mother and daughter attempt to hold on to elements of their old life in the camp when a mysterious disease begins to spread among those interned. What starts as a minor cold quickly becomes spontaneous fits of violence and aggression, even death. And when a disconcerting team of doctors arrive, nearly more threatening than the illness itself, Meiko and her daughter team up with a newspaper reporter and widowed missionary to investigate, and it becomes clear to them that something more sinister is afoot: a demon from the stories of Meiko’s childhood, hell-bent on infiltrating their already strange world.
Internment Camps in Idaho
This is both a story of war and horror. As well as the disgusting reality of WW2’s internment camps, in Idaho, there is a novel approach to this story with the introduction of Eastern mythology, Japanese monsters called yokai and jorogumo spider demons.
Wait until you hear about Jorogumo .
Symbolism to show the rampant hatred the Japanese faced during WWI
Destination/Location: Idaho Author: Alma Katsu Departure: 1940s
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