Real Stories from My Time: Pearl Harbor

Published 2018. Author: Jennifer Swanson (with excerpts from Kirby Larson's Nanea stories). Illustrator: Kelley McMorris.

Summary

Nanea enjoys playing with her friends in Honolulu, but rumors of war making her nervous. She knows fighting is going on around the world, but none in Hawaii--so far. But that date which will live in infamy dawns with a surprise attack. Nanea's peaceful morning is interrupt with the sounds of battle. Her father heads for the shipyard, reasoning that they'll need his civilian help in addition to the military people already called in via radio. Nanea's mother and siblings are terrified, Nanea most of all. By afternoon, martial law and a curfew are in place. And then people with Japanese ancestry, even American citizens, start facing suspicion, discrimination, arrests...and internment camps. One of Nanea's best friends, Lily, has her (Japanese-American) father arrested before her eyes. Lily's family is no longer allowed to have their radio, and her brother's car had a racial slur written on the windshield. Her father is released in Nanea's book, but that's skipped here. Nanea's last excerpt has her and her friends assisting Nanea's grandmother in making fabric netting that the military will use for camouflage. Helping, even in a small way, makes Nanea feel better, and gives her hope.


Misc

Dedicated to the "men and women who lost their lives in the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7. 1941." I still can't get over the fact that those lives lost included two babies. Janet Yumiko Ohta was three months old, Eunice Wilson was seven months. They weren't the only minors killed.

"Hawaii is a beautiful place to live." Having done so...it's not for everyone. Lots of amazing things there, but I can't handle that kind of humidity. It's expensive, too.

Imperial Japan wasn't just taking land from China. They were committing horrible atrocities and war crimes, which aren't child-friendly, but could have been mentioned obliquely.

I find calling the Pearl Harbor attack "a daring plan" (the title of one chapter) to be disrespectful to the people who died during it, especially the completely innocent civilians. It makes the attack sound too noble to me. It would like describing the Japanese interment camps as "a brave idea."

I really like this quote from President Roosevelt, upon lifting the ban on Americans of Japanese ancestry in the military: "Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry...Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart."

Like the other Real Stories from My Time books, this one includes stories from real people who lived through the attack, as well as pictures (hand-drawn and photographs).