A must-read for anyone unaware of the horrors Korean women faced under the Japanese army. The Ja-hee sections were undeniably the strongest and most captivating parts of *Daughters of the Dragon*. The Anna sections and timeline, however, felt a bit like an afterthought and didn't entirely ring true. The attempt to make Anna sound like an American teenager also felt a little forced. After reading reviews for the subsequent books in the series, it seems this weaker frame story continues, but the h...

Absolutely one of the best books I've read this year! I'm so bummed that the subsequent volumes haven't been released here :( I'll have to hunt down the English editions. I'm incredibly curious to see how this story unfolds. I will add that some parts were too intense for me, especially the descriptions of what happened in the comfort stations, where young Korean women were raped and murdered :(. If you're looking for a gripping historical fiction read, Daughters of the Dragon by William Andrews...

Furious. This book made me absolutely furious. The story it attempts to tell is undeniably important, and the premise, in theory, is deeply moving. I'm not diminishing the horrific experiences Ja-hee endured. However, the narrative voice isn't that of a survivor, but that of a white man meticulously detailing gratuitous violence. Anna feels like nothing more than a prop, and even her personal struggles are glossed over. At no point did I connect with the hearts, the Yi, of any of the women portr...

My first 5-star read of the year! William Andrews's *Daughters of the Dragon* is a profoundly moving and emotional account of the horrors inflicted on Koreans, particularly women, throughout their nation’s history. I learned so much from this book, and I know I'll be reflecting on it for a long time to come. If you're looking for powerful historical fiction, this is it.I've read a lot of historical fiction, but this is the first time I’ve encountered the stories of the comfort women and the unim...

Further to my original review: The issue of comfort women remains a painful open wound in South Korea. Japan continues to try and avoid taking full responsibility. As reported in today's New York Times (12/27/17): \"SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean government-appointed panel faulted on Wednesday a 'final and irreversible' deal struck with Japan in 2015 to resolve a decades-old dispute over Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery during World War II.\" In the deal, \"Japan expressed r...

“If we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.” George Santayana*Daughters of the Dragon* opened my eyes to ‘Comfort Women,’ a term I had never heard. During World War II, thousands of young women were abducted from their homes and forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army. They were unnervingly called ‘comfort women’ and the brothels ‘comfort stations.’ The stations were set up during the war to keep up the morale of Japanese soldiers and discourage their rape of lo...

A part of history that needs to be taught to every student, just like the Holocaust. It's appalling that Japan still doesn't fully acknowledge this horrific atrocity. The afterword of William Andrews' *Daughters of the Dragon* will forever be seared in my brain—80 and 90-year-old women, the victims, marching every Wednesday at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. They're fighting to make sure the world knows what happened and presenting a list of demands to the Japanese Government. I stand in solidari...

I couldn't put it down!I can't believe I hadn't heard about this horrific period in history before. "Daughters of the Dragon" by William Andrews, and the story it tells, evoked such a strong, visceral reaction in me. I felt physically ill. I cried. I was beyond furious. William Andrews does an incredible job weaving this narrative. It's made me eager to read more of his work, and definitely more on this subject. These women deserved so much better, and I completely agree that until these atrocit...

I had never heard of the comfort women before reading William Andrews' *Daughters of the Dragon*. This story completely opened my eyes to this dark and largely unknown part of Korean/Japanese history, and it genuinely pushed me to learn more. The story is so incredibly well told that I often forgot I was reading a novel; it felt so real. I honestly couldn't put *Daughters of the Dragon* down, and my thoughts constantly drifted back to the horrific treatment of these women and how any human being...

I'm giving "Daughters of the Dragon" four stars for the parts that retell the past. The present-day storyline? Not so much – maybe two stars, and honestly, some parts made me cringe. That averages out to three stars, but I’m adding another star because I learned a ton about Korean history. Maybe if I already knew a lot about Korean and Japanese history, it wouldn't have been as fascinating, but William Andrews presented it in a way that was easy to grasp. It gave me a great overview of the regio...