Under the Java Moon, Heather B. Moore

Q&A between author Heather B. Moore and Marie (Rita) Vischer Elliott, the woman whose life is fictionalized in Moore’s upcoming historical novel  Under the Java Moon: A Novel of World War II.

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Based on a true story, this gripping WWII novel captures the resilience, hope, and courage of a Dutch family who is separated during the war when the Japanese occupy the Dutch East Indies.

What was it like to see your family’s real story turned into historical fiction?

I was feeling quite miserable at first and found myself in tears occasionally. I realized that my emotions from so long ago came to the surface. Maybe it is a good thing I now see it in writing. Also interesting as the characters are people I know and are real, my family, and seeing things from their perspective.

What do you wish more people knew about the Dutch and Japanese roles in WWII?

First of all that war should NEVER be an option. Real individual human beings suffer, as the story in the book tells. I think the story tells it well. War seems to bring out the worst in people, but there are exceptions of course.

Can you tell us a bit about working with Heather as she wrote the novel?

Heather was truly inspired and as she wrote more memories came into my mind. Every now and then I said: “yes” to myself “that’s exactly how it happened”. I did ask Heather at one stage if she prayed about what she wrote. She listens and is great to work with!

Why do you feel it’s important to tell stories like yours? I never thought it was important, best to forget and left alone. The past is the past and who wants to read, hear and know about war and its atrocities. I certainly did not and neither did anyone else who went through it. Then in my golden years I realized the world needs to know and hear from real people who survived wars, not history books. First that war is terrible, secondly that those who are free need to be more grateful and realize freedom comes with a price tag, and at great cost.

What role do you think historical fiction plays in educating people on history? When you read and hear about actual individuals in a story it becomes interesting and real and easier to remember, rather than learning out of history books, which are soon forgotten. Stories are amazing and the history I personally remember is from stories of Marie Antoinette and the Tsars of Russia and Henry the 8th and his wives etc. Definitely more meaningful.

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Heather B. Moore is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of more than seventy publications, including The Paper Daughters of Chinatown.

Under the Java Moon

Java Island, 1941

Six-year-old Rita Vischer cowers in her family’s dug-out bomb shelter, listening to the sirens and waiting for a bomb to fall. Her charmed life on Java―living with other Dutch families―had always been peaceful, but when Holland declares war on Japan and the Japanese army invades Indonesia, Rita’s family is forced to relocate to a POW camp, and Rita must help care for her little brother, Georgie.

Mary Vischer is three months pregnant when she enters the Tjident women’s camp with thousands of other women and children. Her husband, George, is somewhere on the Java Sea with the Dutch Navy, so she must care alone for her young children, Rita and Georgie, and her frail mother. The brutal conditions of the overcrowded camp make starvation, malaria, and dysentery a grim reality. Mary must do everything she can to keep her family alive.

George Vischer survives the bombing of his minesweeper but feels little hope floating on a small dinghy in the Java Sea. Reaching the northern tip of the Thousand Island would be a miracle. Focusing on the love of his life, Mary, and his two children, he battles against the sea and merciless sun. He’ll do whatever it takes to close the divide between him and his family, even if it means risking being captured by the Japanese.

Under the Java Moon highlights a little-known part of WWII history and the impact of war on Indonesia, its people, and the more than 100,000 Dutch men, women, and children who were funneled into prison camps and faced with the ultimate fight for survival.

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Category: On Writing