War Tide

The author of the novel we're going to dramatize on words at war this evening is here with us. She is Lynn Taiyi, author of war tide. We're honored to have you with us tonight, Miss Lynn.

I'm happy to be here. Would you tell us a little about war tide? Is it your first book? No, but it is my first novel. And it tells of your own experiences while being bombed by the Japanese?

Oh no, my book is a novel. The story is imaginary. But you were in Chunking in 1940 during the heaviest bombings of that city. Yes, I was there. Won't you tell us a little about it?

But I do in my book, Mr. Costello. In my book, I tell of the war tide. Just what is the war tide, Miss Lynn? The war tide? The war tide is a spirit, Mr. Costello.

A spirit that has swept through China and met all men as one. It is a spirit that unites men in the same peril and makes them into a single unit. One called China, one called strength.

What is this spirit, Miss Lin? The spirit is anger, Mr. Costello, and courage. And it is this spirit that makes us know that we shall win this war. Our dramatization of your book doesn't follow exactly the incidents as you wrote them.

But I think it will preserve that spirit. That is all that matters, because the spirit is the war tie. And one more question, Lin Tai-e, would you mind? How old are you? I'm 17 years old.

Words at War. Tonight the National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with the Council on Books in War Time, presents an adaptation of a powerful new novel written by a 17-year-old girl, the book War Tied by Lynn Tyel.