This is a beautiful, but tragic novel based partly on the real life of the author's father and his time as a US sailor in the 1950s in Japan.
It has two time strands. Firstly we are in the present day with Tori Kovac who is caring for her dying fatherwhen he tells her of secrets and love from his past life before he met and married Tori's mother. There are many links brought to the fore. A beautiful silk scarf, a letter for a past love and the memory of a child that passed through time and lives today.
Meanwhile we are taken back to the life of Naoko Nakamura who is set to marry Satoshi, the son of a wealthy local man and chosen by Naoko's family who arrange a tea ceremony to finalise the details. But Naoko has met an American sailor now called Hajime and fallen in love with him. When his attendance at the family tea ceremony goes wrong because he has come in uniform and is still seen as the 'enemy', Naoko turns her back on her family and established Japanese family traditions to start a life with the man she loves. Discovering she is pregnant Noako waves off Hajime as he must go off on a naval mission but with him gone events will dramatically change her life forever.
This is beautifully written and captures the scenery and senses of Japanese culture. The incense, the flowers and the clothes (including the white marriage kimono of the books title) are central to the plot as it develops..
We hear the author's vice through Tori as she uncovers the journey her father made and undertakes it herself. Based on true facts about over 10,000 babies born to American servicemen and Japanese women before, during and after the occupation of Japan, we see how the stigma of mixed birth babies that resulted were often going to end in orphanages, adopted or as with many in this novel dead. But even the babies who die are transported in Japanese culture by the jizo statues that mark their graves and add to the many aspects of Japanese life and death that we learn as readers.
A heartfelt story beautifully told it will stay long in the memory and once again remind us of when love finds opposition it does not always end in tragedy. Would greatly recommend as a wonderful but emotional read.