This book is a product of personal and collective trauma, and a reflection of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. It compiles narratives, shared by Olga Khomenko¿s family members, friends, and former students, over the first two years of Russia¿s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The impetus for this endeavor was an interview of the author for Japanese media in early 2022, which revealed a significant knowledge gap about Ukrainian history and culture. Driven by a deep sense of responsibility, Khomenko wrote this book to amplify the voice of Ukrainians and their experiences in this war.

Dr Olga Khomenko is a CARA/British Academy Fellow at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies at the University of Oxford, specializing in Japanese Studies and International History, with a particular focus on Eastern Asia and Eastern Europe. She studied in Kyiv and Tokyo and taught at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv School of Economics as well as at Kyiv-Mohyla Business School. She also worked at the Ukrainian Embassy in Tokyo and reported at the Ukrainian News agency UNIAN in Kyiv and BBC News Ukrainian in Tokyo. Khomenko was a Fulbright Scholar at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and held fellowships of Japan¿s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). She is author of Ukrainians beyond Borders (Gunzosha 2022), The Far Eastern Odyssey of Ivan Svit (Laurus 2021), From Ukraine with Love (Gunzosha 2014), and co-translator into Japanese of A Short Anthology of Contemporary Ukrainian Literature (Gunzosha 2005).

Dr Hiroaki Kuromiya is Emeritus Professor of History at Indiana University in Bloomington.