White Chrysanthemum
Mary Lynn Bracht
2018
Written with the backdrop of Japanese-occupied Korea in 1943, White Chrysanthemum tells the deeply moving story of two sisters torn apart by war. Hana, a teenage haenyeo, who are female free-divers, sacrifices her freedom to save her younger sister from a Japanese soldier, only to be captured and taken to a military brothel in Manchuria. As she endures the brutalities of life as a comfort woman, Hana clings to the hope of returning home. In a parallel narrative set in modern-day South Korea, her sister Emi, now an elderly woman, struggles to confront the trauma of Hana’s disappearance. Through shifting timelines and multiple perspectives, the novel explores how memory, love, and sacrifice reverberate across generations.
Bracht’s debut novel offers a powerful testament to the resilience of women and the long shadows cast by wartime violence. With lyrical prose and emotional depth, White Chrysanthemum delves into themes of sisterhood, trauma, historical erasure, and the intergenerational burden of survival. Drawing attention to the stories of Korean comfort women, the novel serves as both a tribute and a call for remembrance. The story blends intimate human struggle with the larger context of national grief and healing, making it a poignant entry into the growing body of literature centered on historical justice.
About the Author:
Mary Lynn Bracht is a Korean American author whose writing focuses on historical injustice, women’s resilience, and intergenerational memory. Raised in a large postwar Korean expatriate community in the United States, she was first introduced to the history of comfort women during a 2002 visit to her mother’s childhood village in South Korea. That experience inspired her debut novel, White Chrysanthemum, which was published in 2018 and widely praised for its lyrical style and emotional resonance. Now based in London, Bracht uses fiction to amplify suppressed voices and bring global attention to the traumas experienced by Korean women during the Japanese occupation.