Cherry Blossom Comrades

About the Book

Cherry Blossom Comrades is historical fiction based on the immigration of Japanese workers in the early years of the 20th century. The story was inspired by the author’s discovery of the graves of ten Japanese men buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Trinidad, Colorado. All we know about these men is that they were all born in Japan and all died in Colorado between the years of 1910 and 1918. The story focuses on four young men from different backgrounds who meet aboard ship on their way to work in the USA. Nakamichi is from the farm; Suiji is the son of a fisherman; Kikuchi’s father was a supervisor at the port of Yokohama and Ogami comes from a linage of samurai. They quickly form a tight camaraderie and pledge a never-dying Ioyalty to one another. After working in the strawberry fields of California for one season, they are assigned to different coal mines in southeastern Colorado. Each man forges his own peculiar adjustment to his new environment, where death is a daily occurrence and racial tensions are everywhere.

About the Author

George E. Ogle was a missionary for twenty years in South Korea mainly working in an urban ministry with men and women laboring in the factories of Inchun. He has written three books on Korea—two on his work and the history of labor, and a third book of historical fiction, How Long O Lord: Stories of Twentieth Century Korea (2002). After retiring to Lafayette, Colorado he published two more books of historical fiction, The Price of Colorado Coal: A Tale of Ludlow and Columbine (2006) and Cherry Blossom Comrades: a Story of Japanese Immigrants in Colorado Coalfields (2008). Ogle also writes poetry.