Under the Blood-Red Sun - Hardcover

Salisbury, Graham

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 038532099X ISBN 13: 9780385320993

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1994

Synopsis

After the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, thirteen-year-old Tomizu, the American-born son of Japanese immigrants, suddenly becomes the man of the house after his father is arrested and discovers the true meaning of friendship and loyalty.

About this title

About the Author:

Graham Salisbury’s family has been in the Hawaiian Islands since the early 1800s. He currently lives with his family in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of the award-winning Blue Skin of the Sea and Lord of the Deep.

From Booklist:

Gr. 5-9. Salisbury captures the dilemma of the Japanese who lived in Hawaii during World War II through the narrator, Tomi, born in Hawaii, and his Japanese parents, who had escaped the poverty of Japan, only to find themselves enmeshed in a war they are unprepared to fight. As tensions between Japan and the U.S. mount, eighth-grader Tomi finds himself more and more the target of his classmates' and neighbors' suspicions. Well aware of the increasing tension between native islanders and Japanese immigrants, Tomi desperately tries to tone down his grandfather's displays of nationalistic and family pride, a job the boy finds distasteful (he, too, loves the stories of his ancestors), yet horrifyingly necessary. Neither his grandfather nor the rest of the family can ignore the seriousness of the situation after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. On a baseball field when the first planes fly over, Tomi and his best friend, Billy, climb a nearby tree to escape the strafing and to see what is happening. Salisbury spares few details--the fear, the horror, the sounds, the smells all envelop the reader as they do the characters. And so do the grief and shame. The Japanese embarrassment is palatable, and, of course, life is never the same again. Tomi's father is eventually deported to a U.S. prison camp; his mother loses her job; and his little sister is so traumatized that she refuses to leave the house. The action-packed novel focuses on the Japanese American perspective during World War II; yet, there are few real villains here. The author subtly reveals the natural suspicions of the Americans and the equally natural bewilderment of the Japanese immigrants when they suddenly become the personification of the enemy. It is a tribute to the writer's craft that, though there are no easy answers in the story, there is empathy for both cultures. For an equally impressive view of the Japanese American experience during the war, see Stanley, below. Frances Bradburn

About this edition

• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 038532099X
• ISBN 13: 9780385320993
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256