Introduction

Mirza, a secretive neighbour of the Chens in Japanese Occupied Singapore, is a known collaborator and blackmailer. So when he is murdered in his garden, clutching a branch of mimosa, the suspects include local acquaintances, Japanese officials -- and his own daughters.

Su Lin's Uncle Chen is among those rounded up by the Japanese as reprisal. Hideki Tagawa, a former spy expelled by police officer Le Froy and a power in the new regime, offers Su Lin her uncle's life in exchange for using her fluency in languages and knowledge of locals to find the real killer.

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Excerpt

The first time Formosa Boy came to Chen Mansion, he had stopped outside the back door to take off his shoes, unlike any other Japanese soldier. Ah Ma went on bowing and saying she could not understand Japanese until with a great shock she realised the huge Japanese soldier boy was speaking to her in Hokkien, ‘Aunty, please can I take some of the kang kong growing just outside of your fence? I am very hungry.’ ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. The Mimosa Tree Mystery shows the harshness of life under Japanese Occupation. But the Japanese claimed they came to liberate Singapore from ‘Western Oppression’ (ie the British Empire). How much difference do you think being ruled by Asian foreigners vs Western foreigners made to locals?

2. Su Lin learned to speak English from the British Mission workers and to speak Japanese from the Japanese hairdresser she was apprenticed to. Do you think her language skills give her the advantage? Or (like some of her relatives) do you think speaking a foreign language brainwashes you into seeing things a foreign way?

3. Would you feel different about Mirza’s death if he had been trying to betray his daughter rather than save her? Does betraying a family member seem worse to you than betraying your country?

4. Su Lin gets involved in the murder investigation when a hooded informer randomly picks her uncle as one of the killers. What do you think of the claim that it’s better for the Japanese to kill one person (even if not the guilty party) than go on torturing and killing dozens more in an attempt to find the culprit?

5. Heicho Han and Hideki Tagawa are both part of the Occupying Japanese force. Yet they are both outsiders. Heicho Han has aspirations to rise high and Hideki Tagawa is from an old samurai family fallen on hard times. Do you think ending up in Singapore is good or bad for them?

6. How would you feel if, like Su Lin, you discovered your parents weren’t who you always believed—if you carried the blood and DNA of your enemies and present oppressors in your body? If you were her (and didn’t know how the war was going to end!) would you exploit your noble Japanese lineage?

7. Why do you think Col Fujiwara allows Hideki Tagawa to take Su Lin under his protection?

8. Operation Jaywick (an actual incident) didn’t do lasting damage to the Japanese naval force and resulted in the ‘Double Tenth Massacre’ of locals. Yet local morale soared once it got out that the Australians were behind the harbour bombings. Do you think the boost to morale worth the torture and lives lost?

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