Shadow on the Maple

“The sound came quietly, almost without notice on that evening full of noise; a faint, plaintive cry, soft and pitiful as the whimper of some woodland creature caught in the jaws of a steel-sharp trap. Then came the screams; frightening, penetrating and persistent until, in final despair, they gave way to a wail of indescribable anguish.”

This is a story of ambition, love, and cruelty amidst the upsurge in racial hatred and tensions in British Columbia during the outbreak of World War 2. It tells of a stranger who arrives one morning and stays long enough to influence the lives of this small community on the West Coast of Canada.

This is a fictional story inspired by my late wife’s childhood in the wilds of Canada where most of her neighbours were Japanese Canadians whom she loved, as any child would, knowing nothing nor caring of any racial prejudices. Then one day she woke up to find they had all gone.

This is a story of the Shadow on Canada’s history