Breaking the Code: A Father’s Secret, a Daughter’s Journey and the Question That Changed Everything

On his 81st birthday, Murray Fisher, a WWII veteran, gave his daughter Karen 400 letters he’d sent home to his family during the war. Growing up, as freelance writer Fisher-Alaniz tells in this engaging memoir, she had heard her father’s stories about his office job while stationed in Hawaii in the 1940s, but was never interested enough to ask questions. Then, as an adult, she realized that although he’d been a loving parent, what she knew about him filled up a single page—until she received the letters. Her curiosity sparked, she decides to make her way through her father’s vivid letters and suddenly has many questions, including why her father was so determined not to talk about his wartime experiences. While attempting to unearth her father’s past, she finds the opportunity to establish a new relationship. They begin having weekly lunches and visits, and her father opens up, revealing he’d actually been in naval intelligence as a Japanese code breaker, shipping overseas to Iwo Jima. As Fisher-Alaniz and her father continue their conversations , she hears a devastating secret her father has been holding onto for 60 years, and with which she must now deal. (Dec.)