The Martyr and the Red Kimono: A Fearless Priest’s Sacrifice and a New Generation of Hope in Japan by Naoko Abe Chatto & Windus, 448 pages, £22
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Honoured with a statue in Westminster Abbey, the Polish Catholic priest Maximilian Kolbe has become synonymous with the ideal of self-sacrifice. Imprisoned in Auschwitz during the Second World War, he volunteered to take the place of another man who had been sentenced to die. Less well known are the years he spent as a missionary in Japan, from 1930 to 1936. Here, Naoko Abe combines a telling of that story with Kolbe’s impact on two remarkable Japanese men.
Tōmei Ozaki survived the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki and went on to become a Franciscan friar. Masatoshi Asari became a revered cherry tree master, uncovering the mistreatment of Korean prisoners in Hokkaido and using his craft to teach children about the importance of nurturing life.