Note: I have two mint copies in the USA.

A vivid, insightful memoir about life in a Japanese concentration camp during World War II. When the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) feel to the Japanese, Dutch nationals like the Olinks were interned in prison camps. The family was separated as Kelly's father was sent to a labor camp where he worked on the Burma railroad. Kelly's mother and two brothers were sent to the notorious Kamp Tjideng on Java for women and children. With over 10,000 prisoners, the camp's living conditions were frequently horrific. In addition to her vivid descriptions of life in the camp, Kelly's memoir is a loving tribute to the courage and resilience of her mother. ( )

This is a short memoir. Some would say too short. Clara Olink Kelly is just four years old when her family is torn apart by the Japanese invasion of the Pacific Island of Java during World War II. Clara's father is forced to work on the Burma railroad while Clara's mother is left to care for two small children and a pregnant with a second son. It isn't long before the Japanese commandeer their home and the entire family is transferred to a concentration camp, Kamp Tjideng. There Clara spends four long years enduring extreme crowding, starvation, illness and unspeakable filth. In addition she witnesses horrific abuse and violence that would haunt her for the rest of her life. The one piece of home that keeps them going is a small painting of a red flamboya tree. This painting, because it was never abused or destroyed by the Japanese, became a symbol of strength for the family. It goes wherever they go. The other symbol of strength is Clara's mother. The beautiful thing about The Flamboya Tree is that throughout the entire story Clara's respect and admiration for her mother never waivers. It is a lovely tribute to a mother who did everything she could to protect her children and survive the harsh conditions. ( )

Memories twist and change throughout our lives - they become something other than that the fact of an event. They're imbued with our emotions, and our reactions. I do not doubt that the Olink family was imprisoned in a Japanese Concentration Camp in Java, nor do I doubt that the father of the family was forced to do soul-destroying work on the Burma railroad. I believe that life was absolutely horrendous for the family. And I also believe that a series of family myths and lore, passed down from mother to child, has been set down as a passionate memoir. I believe some of the stories will have been altered over time because, as already expressed, that is what memory does. This is one of the several reasons that I found connecting with The Flamboya Tree difficult.

It is, at its core, a story of hope and survival. A fight for life for a family held to ransom in a brutal, brutal time. It struck me, therefore, that this particular family escaped brutal consequence. Yes, they starved like everyone else. But, the mother was able to hold her young, restless child and stand upright, looking directly at a Japanese Officer - given to delivering beatings at a whim - at a roll call in the endless sun, while all others were made to bow and scrape; and if a prisoner risked eye contact, they were often beaten to death. Apparently, the entire camp could sing a Christmas carol and not be commanded to the usual severe silence. Such mysticism seems out of place in a biography of life inside a prison camp, and reinforces the possibility of inaccurate, changing memory.

Two other issues prevented me from attaining full enjoyment of the book. Firstly, the patronising attitude toward the 'native' population of Java. The author, and the author's family, was very much from a patriarchal, colonial background, living in India and Indonesia as wealthy plantation owners and taking cheap labour from the local population as servants and workers. An attitude of superiority, and the idea that the locals were deliriously happy to work for the colonists - away from their homes and families - sadly infuse the book. It's true that that was the way of life at that time, but there seems no attempt at reflection upon this, no awareness on the author's part of the resentment that must have been boiling in these servant's hearts. Little connection is made between this and the uprising of furious Indonesians against colonial rule that kept the women and children inside the camp for their own safety, after Japan had lost the war.

Secondly, the portrayal of the father's role left much to be desired. It is also true that the author wrote the book as a tribute to her mother. With that in mind I suppose it should come as no surprise that the failure of her parent's marriage after the war is attributed entirely toward the father; he assumes an unrelenting role as marriage-wrecker. Once again, there seems to be a lack of awareness on the author's part of the nature of war, and what it does to a person. How it can change a person, and how a family that ran on tight rules, and severe gender roles, couldn't just return to the way it was after a four year sentence of separation.

While I did enjoy reading the account to a degree, there was much that frustrated me, and the author's somewhat lackluster style of writing didn't aid the frustration. I would recommend it as an account of life inside a horrifying prison camp in World War II, but only if it's taken with a grain of salt, and a realisation that it is utterly, utterly biased. ( )

The Flamboya Tree is a memoir of the four years that Clara Olink Kelly’s mother, Clara, and two of her siblings lived in Japanese prisoner of war camp in Java and the period immediately thereafter. Clara’s parents were Dutch. Her father was the manager of an import-export business and her mother, from a privileged background, was the mother of two children and heavily pregnant with a third at the time the Japanese occupied Java. Her father is taken prisoner and shipped off to Indonesia soon after. A few weeks after the birth of their third child, Clara, her mother, and siblings are imprisoned on Java in a women’s prison. There Clara’s mother fights every day to do the best for her children, at one point even considering murdering them to keep them out of the hands of the Japanese who threatened to separate the mothers and children, leaving her children (all under the age of 9) to the mercy of the occupiers.

This was an interesting memoir, especially because I was also reading Flyboys, a Tale of Courage which gives a great deal of background into Japanese thinking and sensibilities, and their military strategy (or lack thereof), and A Town Like Alice, a fiction book which uses as the center of its story the Japanese treatment of women in Sumatra. In general I enjoyed it and thought that most of the events probably happened. However, because Clara was only 4 at the time of the occupation, I had trouble believing that she’d actually remembered many of the early incidents. My guess is that her mother and older brother related them to her and she “created” a memory from that. Nevertheless, this is a book which could give you a new perspective into World War II. ( )