Introduction

In this superbly researched W.W.II novel, award-winning writer Tori Warner Shepard captures the mood of remote Santa Fe, NM as it waits out W.W.II for the return of her men held in Japanese prison camps. POW, Melo Garcia has survived the Bataan Death March in the Philippines but his brother and father have not. Along with 1500 other America prisoners, he is diseased, tortured, starved and used as slave labor in a condemned coal mine outside of Nagasaki, Japan. Shepard gracefully carries the reader back and forth between Nagasaki and Santa Fe, weaving in the lives of the gritty women who wait for their men. Phyllis, the outsider and narcissistic bombshell moves to Santa Fe seemingly to get the better of LaBelle, Melo's betrothed and Anissa, the I AM crazed follower and the x-wife-to-be of Phyllis's recently deceased beau. All gain faith from Melo's mother, Nicasia who waits for her only son to return from war. Now Silence is as much a story of the men's heroism as it is of their Hispanic Community which after Pearl Harbor was a distant and a safe refuge from the war, sought out by the US Government as an internment camp for 2000 Japanese Isseii barely a mile from the office of the top-secret Manhattan Project that was developing the atomic bomb to be dropped 20 miles from Melo's prison camp. Add to the mix FBI and Counter-intelligence agents, Gringo fanatics opposed to Roosevelt, a multi-cultural community with an historic hotel and bar and you will have a sense of Santa Fe during W.W.ll. This gripping exposition of the Japanese atrocities is even-handed and the characters and personalities on the home front will haunt your memory.

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Excerpt

Fukuoka Camp Number 17, Kyushu, Japan, 1945

Melo and Senio were alive after the harsh winter with no clothes, no blankets and thinned rice. The death rate from starvation and disease climbed, and compounding the prisoner's jeopardy was the authentic fear now of being bombed by their own countrymen. From February onward, the US Army bombers raced overhead in huge formations, systematically bombing the mainland. Dogfights and explosions thundered overhead whenever the visibility permitted. Raid after daylight raid pocked the skies, and the Japanese Zeros gave earsplitting chase. If there was cloud cover, the bombers went elsewhere and the immediate fear of a shock-induced cave-in declined in the deep mine. Night duty was always more relaxed. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1) In what way Is Phyllis typical of immigrants to the United States? What are her purposes in leaving home? Was Russell's sister correct in saying that Phyllis had earned the inheritance?
2) Did the war effort give the feeling of uniting the various ethnic groups in the country against a common enemy? How did the rationing of gasoline, sugar, shoes and such contribute to this?
3) Did the train scenes with the troops contribute to your understanding of how the war impacted everyday life in America?
4) Was there an urgency in the Naval camp regarding deployment for Europe and the D Day offensive? The Now Silence storyline begins with Phyllis and ends the night of her departure - is she the main character? Why did she want to leave? Where will she end up? Can she go home?
5) Is the four- centuries-old community of Santa Fe as much of a character in the story as the characters?
6) Anissa and the I AMers convene in Santa Fe during the war - for what purpose? Why does Anissa also leave Santa Fe? How strong is her belief in the Great I AM Presence ? How do religions like this spring up in America and not in Europe as often?
7) What was the appeal of the Philippines for the 1800 men from New Mexico? Did this play a part in Melo's not wanting to return home at the end of the war?
8) Why did General Wainwright surrender the troops when MacArthur 's orders were to not capitulate to the enemy? Was his the correct decision?
9) What were the rules of the Geneva Convention and why did the Japanese not abide by them?
10) Does any army want prisoners? Are they a burden or useful?
11) What is the symbolic gesture/gestures of the men in the 200th Artillery eating MacArthur's horse?
12) Which fighting force Japanese or Americans had the worse conditions in the Philippines? Why were the prisoners made to walk in “the Death March” after they surrendered? Why were the Japanese so intolerant of them?
13) What were the conditions in the Mitsui Mine at the end of the war? Why was a condemned mine being worked by the American POWs as slave laborers overseen by maimed and out-of-favor Japanese soldiers ?
14) Regarding Friendly Fire: It is estimated that 16 out of every 100 casualties/deaths were caused by friendly fire. What does this tell us about the organization and execution of war? Were the POWs at Camp number 17 in real danger of being bombed?
15) It is a tradition in most native American literature that a cleansing/purification ceremony is preformed to heal the wounded warrior. Do you think that the Matanza is adequate to the task of bringing Melo home?
16) Do you think that it is possi9ble for Melo to live happily ever after? What about present day veterans of American wars, Vietnam and Iraq?

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