Grasshoppers, Ants and Bombs: Tamie's War

By Lilli Ann Liell

Tamie Hoshiko is just six years old when her father, Shizuwo, dies in Kumamoto City, Japan, in 1938. As her father takes his last breath, he instructs Tamie, the oldest child, to always take care of her twenty-four-year-old mother, Tome who is left to raise four children.

Tragedy strikes again in December of 1941 when Tamie is nine years old. War has once again come to Japan. She and her family experience severe food shortages, air raids, bombings, and even being shot at from fighter airplanes. She loses neighbors and friends to this war. It is a very hard life for such a young girl to endure.

In Grasshoppers, Ants and Bombs: Tamies War, author Lilli Ann Liell shares Tamies story. Based on the real-life experiences of Lillis mother, this historical fiction book for children shows how World War II affected Tamies life during that time and long after.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Apr 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781480816251

Lilli Ann Liell

Lilli Ann Liell was born in Fukuoka, Japan, to a Japanese mother and American father. She earned an Anthropology degree and spent the second half of her retail managerial career at the Smithsonian Institution; then American Girl Place. Lilli lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband Bill. Illustrations by Vivian Liell

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Copyright © 2015 Lilli Ann Liell.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-1624-4 (sc)

ISBN:978-1-4808-1625-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015935324

Archway Publishing rev. date: 4/23/2015

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Epilogue

About the Author

For my Mom and Dad, Tamie and Bill Liell. Thank you for your love, support and encouragement. Your life lessons prepared me for, and sustained me throughout life’s many challenges.

PROLOGUE

This is the story of a girl named Tamie Hoshiko, who was born during Japan’s occupation of Manchuria and grew up in Japan during the Second World War or World War II as you may know it. Tamie is my mother. I grew up listening to her telling stories of her life growing up during constant war.

My mother is the world’s best cook! My father said she was a doubly good cook because she learned to cook American food so well even though she grew up only cooking Japanese food. My mother often made dumplings for dinner for my family. They were so delicious! We all loved them but my mother called them "war food" because