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Naoko Abe is a Japanese journalist and non-fiction writer. She was the first female political writer to cover the prime minister's office, the foreign ministry and the defence ministry at Mainichi Shimbun, one of Japan's largest newspapers. Since moving to London with her British husband and their two boys in 2001, she has worked as a freelance writer and has published five books in Japanese. Her biography of Collingwood Ingram in Japanese won the prestigious Nihon Essayist Club Award in 2016. She has now written an adaptation of the book for English-language readers. She is a trained classical pianist and an advanced yoga practitioner.
'From Auschwitz to Nagasaki, the people of twentieth century Poland and Japan witnessed the worst atrocities of humankind. In this moving account of a Japanese friar, a cherry blossom evangelist and the saintly Polish priest they both revered, Naoko Abe reminds us that despite humanity’s brutality, hope endures in the simplest of messages: stop killing, renounce war and never forget love. ' * Lucy Moore * 'Vivid, absorbing, and compelling, this is a fascinating account that lingers in the mind and raises as many questions as it answers. A strikingly original treatment of the effects of the war in Japan and the lives and influence of those dedicated to peace, Maximilian Kolbe and his followers among them.' * Catherine Coldstream, author of Cloistered: My Years as a Nun * In this beautiful chronicle stretching across a whole century and between continents, Naoko Abe reminds us of how human inter-connections and inspirations help us rise above the terrors and divisions of war. * Bill Emmott, writer and chairman of the Japan Society of the UK *
