“Heroes: A novel of Pearl Harbor” Alan Gratz

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. Scholastic Press (Scholastic). 219 p. (Includes “The Arsenal of Democracy” comic, “Author’s note,” “About the story,” “Asian Americans in Comics”, and “The Legacy of Pearl Harbor.”) To be published February 6, 2024).

Thirteen-year-old Frank and his best friend Stanley shared a love for comic books, where they lived on the Pearl Harbor base in Hawaii where their dads worked. Frank was the writer, while Stanley made the storyline come alive with amazing drawings. At his father’s last posting Frank had a bad experience, which made him afraid of everything. Before he could do anything, he spent minutes thinking of things that could go wrong and forgot how to live his life. Fear coated everything he did.

Everything was peaceful until the morning of December 7, 1941, when hundreds of Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor. The boys had been on the Utah, visiting his sister’s boyfriend Brooks, when the attack began. The Utah was hit, and they had to abandon ship, but Frank was petrified with fear. Brooks had to shake him out of it and helped him escape, then disappeared. When he was found dead Frank blamed himself.

As he and Stanley frantically tried to reunite with their families Frank realized his best friend was now seen as the enemy because his mother was Japanese. Though Stanley was born in the United States everyone only saw his face and didn’t care that he was Japanese American. With America now at war, if Frank wanted to keep their friendship in the strange new world which they were both now part of, he would have to grow a backbone and overcome his fear of being afraid of everything.

Middle school readers will learn not only about the Pearl Harbor attack but what it was like to be Japanese American during a time of anti-Japanese sentiment in Hawaii and the rest of the country. Alan Gratz does an excellent job with his research and end notes to help his young readers learn more about this troubled period of history.

Highly recommended for ages 12 and older.

“Clark and Division” Naomi Hirahara

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. Soho Press. To be published August 3, 2021. (Includes a “More reading and resources” section at the end with primary source materials on the era.)

In 1941, a few months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed an order that forced over 100,000 West Coast Japanese-born (Issei) and American citizens (Nisei) to sell everything they owned, including homes, farms, and businesses, and relocate to internment camps with only the items they could physically carry. Though Aki and her older sister Rose had been born in the United States, they and their Issei parents were relocated to California’s Manzanar Relocation Center in March 1942. There they had to make a new life in heavily guarded, crowded, poorly built barracks.

A year later “loyal” Nisei were allowed to leave, but couldn’t settle on the coast. Rose left for Chicago that September, and the rest of the family followed in early 1944. Everyone was happy to leave, but worried over what the future would hold. Their worries multiplied when they arrived to find that Rose had died under the wheels of a train at the Clark and Division subway station. The official report said she had committed suicide, but Aki refused to believe that her beautiful, full-of-life sister had killed herself. She was determined to find out what really happened but, as clues began to materialize, she discovered a world of gambling, thievery and criminals flourishing without repercussions. Aki’s quest to uncover the truth about Rose will force her to uncover hidden truths in her own life.

Life for Japanese-Americans and their parents during and after World War II was very difficult, and Hirahara pulls no punches in her historically accurate descriptions. I was eager to read this book when I saw it on Edelweiss+, as most books that detail life in the relocation centers don’t go on to tell what happened after the Nisei and Issei were released. This book is inspired by historical events, and an important window into the prejudice that has long been part of America’s life. It also gives firsthand knowledge of what happens when people in power choose the fate of those they deem to be “other.” I thank the author for bringing an important light to this dark corner of our country’s history.

Highly recommended for Adults.

I received an advance reading copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“We are not free” Traci Chee

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. HMH Books for Young Readers. To be published September 1, 2020. (Includes “Further Reading.”)

After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in June 1941, all Japanese in America (especially those on the West Coast) were considered suspicious. Though having had to endure prejudice over the many years they’d lived in the United States, lives would be forever changed. In 1942 President Roosevelt signed an order that forced over 110,000 Japanese into concentration camps. Included were Japanese who’d lived in the United States for years but were not allowed to become citizens, and their American citizen children.

“We are not free,” tells the story of 14 Japanese American teenagers who’d grown up together in San Francisco’s Japantown. Descriptions of what it was like to leave behind everything to be imprisoned for more than 3 years in unsanitary conditions, surrounded by soldiers and barbed wire, are shared with readers. Mixed with despair is the love they feel for each other that stretched across the ocean when some left to prove their loyalty through service in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team – which became one of the most highly decorated units in military history.

Traci Chee weaves family memories with historical events in this powerful book that highlights a low point in American history. It’s important to be made aware of our past, no matter how bad, so that we can learn from it. I hope we realize how prejudice and discrimination has had a foothold in this country for too many years, and think about what we need to do to change the mindsets of our fellow Americans.

I’m writing this review on the Fourth of July and “We are not free” reminds me, yet again, that our country needs to live up to the words enshrined in our Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal.”

Highly recommended for ages 14 and older.

I received a digital advance reading copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“This light between us: A novel of World War II” by Andrew Fukuda

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. Tor Teen. To be published January 7, 2020.

Alex was ten years old in 1935 when his teacher forced him to become pen pals with a girl named Charlie who lived in Paris, thousands of miles away from his American home on Bainbridge Island. Despite his initial horror at being paired with a girl their friendship deepened as, letter after letter, year after year, they shared their innermost thoughts.

In 1941 Alex’s life forever changed when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Though he was an American citizen, and his parents had emigrated from Japan, they were treated as enemies by neighbors who’d known them for years. A law was passed saying all Japanese, regardless of their citizenship, had to relocate to holding camps. Alex and his family were sent to Manzanar where they, along with 10,000 others, lived as prisoners surrounded by barbed wire and soldiers.

Meanwhile Charlie was experiencing her own prejudice due to being Jewish, and their letters helped keep them grounded. As the war dragged on Charlie was forced into hiding to avoid roundups, and her letters ceased. Alex enlists in the 442nd Battalion, created solely of Japanese-American soldiers, partly to get his father released from prison and partly to find out what happened to Charlie. While in Europe he experiences the horrors of war, but thoughts of finding Charlie kept him sane. He is determined to find her and live out the dreams from their letters.

I absolutely LOVED this amazingly well researched book, and couldn’t put it down. The author did an excellent job in his descriptions of what it was like for Japanese American citizens to be interned for no crime other than for their ancestry, and in describing the battles endured by the 442nd. He brilliantly fused together the prejudice experienced by both Parisian Jews and Japanese Americans and, I will have to say, I cried at the end.

I don’t want to give out spoilers as to why I cried, so will leave it up to you to read it and find out for yourself. Maybe you’ll shed a tear too. I predict this book will win lots of awards in the 2020 cycle. You read it here first!

Highly recommended for ages 16 and older.

I received an advance copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

“I escaped the world’s deadliest shark attack: The sinking of the USS Indianapolis, WW2” by Ellie Crowe & Scott Peters

Rated 5 stars ***** ebook. 2019. Best Day Books for Young Readers. I escaped #3. Includes period photographs, “Survivor quotes,” “Did you know?,” “Shark facts & study guide,” and “How a 12-year-old cleared the captain’s name.” 

Sixteen-year-old Josh had joined the Navy for revenge against the Japanese after his father was killed in the Pearl Harbor attacks. He never expected the USS Indianapolis, a Navy warship with over 1100 men, to be torpedoed and that it would sink with over 300 men on board. It left him, and almost 900 other sailors, struggling to survive at sea while brazen sharks attacked them relentlessly.

Before reading this, I had never heard of the torpedoing and subsequent sinking of the USS Indianapolis by a Japanese submarine in the Philippine Sea on July 30, 1945. The story of the brave survivors (now down to 316) who endured 5 days of shark attacks, hunger, thirst, injuries and hopelessness is told in this well written book. Interspersed with Josh’s story are period photographs, which lend authenticity to an already authentic story.

I couldn’t pull myself away, and read this in one sitting, as the fast paced chapters kept me eagerly turning pages to learn the fate of these brave men. Reluctant readers will find the same eagerness to keep reading.

Highly recommended for ages 15 and older.

An electronic copy of the book was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.

 

“They called us enemy” by George Takei

Rated 5 stars ***** 2019. Top Shelf Productions. 204 p.

In 1942, when George was almost 5 years old, his Japanese-American parents had their bank accounts frozen, and his father lost his business. Ordered out of their Los Angeles home with only what they could carry, they were forced to live in several different internment camps for four years. What was their crime? Their “crime” was that they were of Japanese ancestry and, thus, considered enemies by their own country – the United States of America. They, along with hundreds of thousands of other American citizens, were incarcerated in these camps.

Simple black and white illustrations convey George’s story to readers as he talks about his parents, and what it was like for them to navigate through years of being stabbed in the back by their own country. Their strength, fortitude and creativity were traits that got them through hard times, and enabled little George to feel as if he was on an adventure. Some of his memories of that time came through clearly, while at other times he relied on his father’s memories to flesh out his own.

America’s intolerance towards others because of how they looked during World War II comes across loudly and clearly, especially in the ways our current government has sought to keep out people of different nationalities. Philosopher George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This phrase bears repeating because the rhetoric and events unfolding since 2016 in the United States are leading our nation into the gutter, where we spent too much time in years past. It’s time for a new narrative to take over our land.

I, along with thousands of other librarians, had the privilege of hearing George Takei share his story and talk about this book before it was released at the American Library Association (ALA) conference in Washington this past June. He was very passionate, telling us his parent’s generation kept their stories hidden from their children because they felt shame in how they’d been treated by their own government. It’s time for their stories to be told.

Copies of “They called us enemy” should be in every public and high school library in our nation, and used in book groups all across the country.

Highly recommended for ages 14 and older.