Bonjour Paris!

I was quite overwhelmed by the book titled “Bonjour! PARIS,” (written in Japanese.)
With her father’s transference to Paris, a three-year old girl began to live as a petit Parisian in 1939.
This is a real story of her long and severe journey back home and her life afterwards. She loved Paris, but the situation in Europe was gradually getting too volatile to lead a normal life. The Nazis’ power began to overshadow the Continent.

Evacuation within France to avoid Nazis’ attack was inevitably followed by escape to Germany in the wake of Normandy Landings, due to Japan's military alliance with Germany. She stayed in Zuckow, 100 km north of Berlin with her family and her friends and their families. Their eight-month long evacuated life in Zuckow castle came to a sudden end when the castle and its estates were confiscated by Nazi to be used as a citadel to fight against the invading USSR armies. After staying in Linde mountain retreat for a while, their real journey began. They crossed devastated Berlin from west to east to go to Warsaw, then to Moscow followed by trans-Siberian crossing to Manchuria where they lived for almost an year until the very end of the World War Second.

Packed into a boat to Senzaki and packed again into a train, they finally arrived at Tokyo to find the landscape much more devastated than Berlin. It must have been an extremely hard and difficult journey for a nine-year old girl to endure. She must have witnessed lots of cruel aspects of the wars everywhere. Tears often came out of my eyes while reading it, but I am deeply impressed by the fact that she and her family had stayed strong and flexible all the way through.

In 1990s and 2000s, she had made several trips back home again, these times back to France and after the demise of Berlin Wall, to Zuckow and Linde in Germany. She had tried to confirm her trail and to find out the fates of the people she knew. She had clarified the facts of the past experiences.

The 20th Century might well be defined as a century of World Wars and the Cold War. It is difficult to visualize what the 21st Century will be like, but as long as we are willing to support those who are in need of help, especially children stricken by wars, struggles and poverty, the world would be a somewhat better place. Some portion of this book's sales will go to a school for deaf and mute students. What’s a wonderful assistance!