Short novella about two soldiers, one Japanese and one American, and a young Japanese American girl. Living on remote island on the fringe of WWII, everyone is just waiting for the war to end. Hiromi goes every day to a certain grotto where she collects bottles of star sand to take home after the war. She stumbles upon a cave where the two soldiers are hiding. They should have been enemies but instead they became friends. If you liked Unbroken, give this story a try.
More about star sand....
Japanese mythology says the tiny star shaped skeletons are the offspring of the Southern Cross and the North Star. Born in the ocean and killed by a giant snake, they wash up on the beaches of Okinawa. Science says they are really the calcium carbonate exoskeletons of marine protozoa, one of the oldest known life forms on earth......but I prefer to think of them as children of the stars. If I ever go to Japan, I surely will look for a chance to hold the stars in my hand.
Source material from Scribols.com http://scribol.com/science/paleontology/star-sands-okinawas-incredibly-shaped-living-fossils/
