In this story: Story focuses on comfort women experience Families reluctant to speak about WWII horrors Autobiographical details backdrop for story RELATED STORIES, SITES

July 2, 1999
Web posted at: 2:33 p.m. EDT (1833 GMT)

(CNN) -- Kiana Davenport says the inspiration for her new book "Song of the Exile" was a haunting story she heard while growing up in Honolulu.

It was the story of a jazz musician who set off in the 1930s for New Orleans to play with the "Negro" bands and then went to Paris during the rise of the Nazis. He left behind a girlfriend in Honolulu, who left just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor to search for her long-lost sister in Shanghai.

Both women disappeared when the Japanese took over Shanghai. The musician returned to Honolulu after World War II and spent the rest of his life traveling to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore in search of his true love.

Davenport says the story made her want to address the costs of war, loss and survival, and how grief is handled by retreating into memories and imagination.

Story focuses on comfort women experience

In "Song of the Exile," Davenport tells the story of the musician, Keo, and his girlfriend, Sunny, their separation and their suffering.

Keo experiences the loss of Sunny and the racism of the 1930s. Sunny is imprisoned by the Japanese as a "comfort woman."

"One of the most shameful, unacknowledged horrors of the war in the Pacific was the kidnapping of hundreds of thousands of women and girls, some as young as 10 years old, of all nationalities, by the Japanese armies," says Davenport.

These women, whom the Japanese called "comfort women," were imprisoned and used as sex slaves. They were raped by as many as 80 men a day, according to Davenport.

In "Song of the Exile" Keo searches for Sunny at the end of the war, refusing to believe she is dead. She has survived but is so changed by the experience she is unrecognizable.

Families reluctant to speak about WWII horrors

Davenport said she felt compelled to write about the comfort women after attending a lecture at Harvard University in 1993. Several Korean and Chinese women spoke of their imprisonment.

"They were among the few surviving comfort women -- an estimated 90 percent had been killed while imprisoned," Davenport said. "During that emotional lecture I thought of the girl who had disappeared in Shanghai and wanted to explore the possibility that this might have been her fate."

She says it wasn't easy to get even families of survivors to speak with her. They did not want to remember or acknowledge what had happened.

Then, when Davenport was doing some research in Shanghai, she came across the name of a silk exporter who had helped some of the kidnapped women after the war. His name was Robert Chu. Davenport spent weeks searching for him with no results. Then on a flight from Shanghai to Brisbane, Australia, a man near her began to choke.

"I rushed to him and applied the Heimlich maneuver," Davenport says. "After he recovered, he thanked me and introduced himself as Robert Chu."

She explained her project to him, and he put her in touch with a 70-year-old woman in Singapore who had been taken by the Japanese when she was only 12. Through her, Davenport was connected to other survivors.

Autobiographical details backdrop for story

The story Davenport tells takes place in many locations with great historic detail. She traveled extensively doing research, read numerous books and says she even took trumpet lessons to better understand her main character.

Davenport, who is herself of Hawaiian and Anglo-American descent, says she wanted readers to understand how World War II affected people all over the world. And she wanted people to realize that native Hawaiians do not confine themselves to the islands.

The story does contain some autobiographical information. Kalihi, where the novel is set, is where Davenport grew up. Many of the locations and landmarks are straight out of her experience.

"I regard "Song of the Exile" as my memorial to Kalihi. Although it is considered the island's 'badlands,' if you come from there it means you're tough, a survivor. It's also Hawaii's Ellis Island -- the first home for Japanese, Portuguese, Filipino, Chinese, Samoan and Taiwanese immigrants," Davenport says.

"Song of the Exile" will be released July 14 by Ballantine Books. Davenport has published four previous novels, including "Shark Dialogues," A multi-generational saga set in Hawaii between the 19th century and the present.