Returning the Sword: An Interview with Author Caren Stelson

Returning the Sword: How a Japanese Sword of War Became a Symbol of Friendship and Peace is a powerful true story of cross-cultural friendship and reconciliation. Minnesota soldier Orval Amdahl served in World War II, arriving in Nagasaki, Japan, in the autumn of 1945 to keep the peace in the aftermath of the atomic bombing there. Before he returned to the United States, he had the chance to take a Japanese sword as a war souvenir. Decades later, he unexpectedly had the opportunity to reconnect with the family of the soldier who owned that sword and return it to them in peace, with honor. 

Today, award-winning author Caren Stelson shares how she discovered this story, why she felt compelled to write it down, and more. Read on to hear an interview with both Caren Stelson and illustrator Amanda Yoshida hosted by AmazeWorks.

What was your inspiration for the book?

The inspiration for the book were all the events of the actual “returning of the sword,” culminating at Como Park, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Two families from opposite sides of the globe, once enemies of war, stepped forward, and in gratitude, embraced one another. The Return of the Sword was a story that literally went around the world. So many people reacted with praise, I knew the retelling of Orval’s story in picture book form would touch a wide audience. Orval Amdahl and Tadahiro Motomura, as public models, helped us witness the best of humanity and inspired us to reach for the same code of conduct for ourselves.

What is the most surprising thing you discovered while researching or writing the book?

The writing of Returning the Sword was filled with surprises, from beginning to end. The most amazing surprise was meeting WWII veteran Marine Captain Orval Amdahl in the first place, listening to his war stories, and learning of the sword that he brought home from Japan as a war souvenir.  

I was in the middle of writing on another book, Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story, and had just returned home to Minneapolis from Nagasaki, Japan. I had spent several weeks in Nagasaki researching and interviewing Sachiko Yasui about her experiences surviving nuclear war at the end of WWII and her experience as a little girl encountering the American occupation of Japan. At home, I wondered if there were any WWII veterans in Minnesota who had entered Japan at Nagasaki in 1945 as an occupying force. To my surprise, I found Captain Orval Amdahl’s oral history in the Minnesota History Center’s “Greatest Generation” Oral History Library describing his experience in Nagasaki. Of course, I wanted to interview Orval, but was he still alive? He would have been 93 at the time. I thought: I’ll call Orval tomorrow. Orval answered the phone and in a deep voice, said “Oh sure, you betcha. Come on down to Lanesboro and visit me.” That was the beginning of the “sword story” and the events that unfolded, culminating in the picture book Returning the Sword.

What do you hope readers will learn or discover from reading your book?

Returning the Sword is not an historical account of the American occupation of Japan after the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the country’s surrender, which ended WWII. This is the emotional story of a soldier’s heart over decades and his final decision to find personal peace and be a model of outward peace by returning a sword he took as a war souvenir to the sword’s original family. Told in a way young readers can understand, Returning the Sword helps young readers pounder an adult’s experience on their level of understanding.

I may have two audiences for Returning the Sword: children and teachers in the classroom and older adults. Through the story, each audience may find deeper meanings of peace, reconciliation, and the impact of war on the human heart. Of course, children and adults will have different experiences to bring to the story and different levels of understanding. My hope is that Orval Amdahl’s story in picture book form can bridge generations as adults and children read and share the meaning of the Returning of the Sword together.

Thinking more about what readers young and old can take away from this story, readers can process ideas about the long-lived memories of war and how they can affect soldiers; the wish for peace after war; the meaning of giving something back even if you had permission to take it from a higher authority; the meaning of forgiveness; the ways to come together after conflict; and the ways to honor and ways to speak and act in public that can be a model for healing, understanding, and friendship.

AmazeWorks Interviews Caren and Amanda

Praise for Returning the Sword

“Stelson writes with vivid clarity, rendering a story with careful detail while bolstering themes of peace and honor. Working in harmony with Stelson’s text, Yoshida’s vibrant illustrations are wreathed in symbolic imagery and color those themes with gestures of reconciliation.”—Booklist

“With simple, realistic illustrations, this picture book tells Amdahl’s story soberly and with utmost respect. . . A clear-eyed, compelling recollection of one soldier’s story.”—Kirkus Reviews

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