Plot summary
The story starts in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1941, where a Japanese American boy, Eddy, lives. He has a brother, Herbie, and numerous friends. His friends are in the army, and Eddy, who is 16 years old, joins the US army by illegally altering his birth certificate to appear 18 years old. They enlist in Camp McCoy. Eddy's father Koji strongly opposes this as he feels that Eddy is betraying Japan, but soon changes his mind when Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941. Eddy and his Japanese American company must do manual labor, such as digging trenches, while the soldiers of other ethnicities go on with regular army training. He then is mobilized by Lieutenant Sweet to Cat Island, Mississippi along with his comrades. They then embark on a secret dog training mission commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt: Dogs are trained to smell Japanese American soldiers, with the hope that when the dogs are released in the Pacific theater they will track and kill the Japanese soldiers. This severely demoralizes Eddy and his fellow soldiers. Later, when they commute from the island to the mainland, their boat motor stalls; when they call for assistance, the US Coast Guard comes and shoots their boat, suspecting that they are the enemy. Accidental attacks continue, and the treatment of the Japanese American soldiers becomes worse as World War II worsens. Eddy is nearly killed once when his dog's trainer, Smith, calls the dog back slightly late. The soldiers are forced to treat the dogs harshly against their will.
After a few weeks of grueling treatment of the Japanese American soldiers, the government observes and reevaluates this project after the dog tracks and locates a soldier of non-Japanese ethnicity. It is deemed unsuccessful, and Eddy is assigned to combat in the European theater with his comrades.
Isoroku Yamamoto was a Marshal Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II. Yamamoto held several important posts in the Imperial Navy, and undertook many of its changes and reorganizations, especially its development of naval aviation. He was the commander-in-chief during the early years of the Pacific War and oversaw major engagements including the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway. Yamamoto was killed in April 1943 after American code breakers identified his flight plans, enabling the United States Army Air Forces to shoot down his aircraft.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, in the United States, just before 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941. At the time, the United States was a neutral country in the World War II conflict. The attack on Hawaii and other U.S. territories led the United States to formally enter World War II on the side of the Allies the day following the attack, on December 8, 1941. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, and as Operation Z during its planning.
The Final Countdown is a 1980 American science fiction war film about a modern nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that travels through time to the day before the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. Produced by Peter Douglas and Lloyd Kaufman and directed by Don Taylor, the film contains an ensemble cast starring Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, James Farentino, Katharine Ross, Ron O'Neal and Charles Durning.
Various conspiracy theories allege that U.S. government officials had advance knowledge of Japan's December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. Ever since the Japanese attack, there has been debate as to why and how the United States was caught off guard, and how much and when American officials knew of Japanese plans for an attack. In September 1944, John T. Flynn, a co-founder of the non-interventionist America First Committee, launched a Pearl Harbor counter-narrative when he published a 46-page booklet entitled The Truth about Pearl Harbor, arguing that Roosevelt and his inner circle had been plotting to provoke the Japanese into an attack on the U.S. and thus provide a reason to enter the war since January 1941. Flynn was a political opponent of Roosevelt, and had strongly criticised him for both his domestic and foreign policies. In 1944, a congressional investigation conducted by both major political parties provided little by way of vindication for his assertions, despite Flynn being chief investigator.
Joseph Clark Grew was an American career diplomat and Foreign Service officer. He is best known as the ambassador to Japan from 1932 to 1941 and as a high official in the State Department in Washington from 1944 to 1945. He opposed American hardliners, sought to avoid war, and helped to ensure the soft Japanese surrender in 1945 that enabled a peaceful American occupation of Japan after the war.
Operation K was a Japanese naval operation in World War II, intended as reconnaissance of Pearl Harbor and disruption of repair and salvage operations following the surprise attack on 7 December 1941. It culminated on 4 March 1942, with an unsuccessful attack carried out by two Kawanishi H8K "Emily" flying boats. This was the longest distance ever undertaken by a two-plane bombing mission, and one of the longest bombing sorties ever planned without fighter escort.
Graham Salisbury is an American children's writer. His best known work is Under the Blood Red Sun, a historical novel that features a Japanese-American boy and his family during World War II. Under the name Sandy Salisbury he was a pop musician in the late 1960s, notably with The Millennium.
Momotarō no Umiwashi is an animated Japanese propaganda film produced in 1942 by Geijutsu Eigasha and released on March 25, 1943. With a running time of 37 minutes, it was close to being a feature-length film.
No-No Boy is a 1957 novel, and the only novel published by the Japanese American writer John Okada. It tells the story of a Japanese-American in the aftermath of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Set in Seattle, Washington, in 1946, the novel is written in the voice of an omniscient narrator who frequently blends into the voice of the protagonist.
The Niʻihau incident occurred on December 7–13, 1941, when the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service pilot Shigenori Nishikaichi crash-landed on the Hawaiian island of Niʻihau after participating in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Imperial Japanese Navy had designated Niʻihau as an uninhabited island for damaged aircraft to land and await rescue.
Allan Masaharu Ohata was a United States Army soldier. He is best known for receiving the Medal of Honor because of his actions in World War II.
The Pacific War is a series of alternate history novels written by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen with Albert S. Hanser. The series deals with the Pacific War between the United States of America and the Empire of Japan. The point of divergence is the decision of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, to take personal command of the 1st Air Fleet for the attack on Pearl Harbor, rather than delegate it to Adm. Chūichi Nagumo.
Masato Nakae was a Japanese American United States Army soldier. He is best known for receiving the Medal of Honor because of his actions in World War II.
A series of events led to the attack on Pearl Harbor. War between the Empire of Japan and the United States was a possibility each nation's military forces had planned for after World War I. The expansion of American territories in the Pacific had been a threat to Japan since the 1890s, but real tensions did not begin until the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931.
James Kazuo Okubo was a United States Army soldier. He was a posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor for his actions in World War II.
Under the Blood Red Sun is a historical novel by Graham Salisbury, published in 1995. An award-winning feature film by Japanese American director Tim Savage and produced by Dana Satler Hankins, from a screenplay by Salisbury, was released in 2014.
Storm Over the Pacific is a 1960 Eastmancolor Japanese war film directed by Shūe Matsubayashi. The story is an account of a young Japanese bombardier, Lt. Koji Kitami stationed aboard the Hiryu and his participation in two battles in the Pacific during World War II, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway.
Days of Infamy is a two-novel alternate history of the initial stages of the Pacific War by Harry Turtledove.
On December 8, 1941, the day following the Attack on Pearl Harbor, four fishing sampans were strafed by United States Army Air Forces aircraft off Barber's Point, Kalaeloa, Hawaii. The attack, considered a case of mistaken identity, left six fishermen dead and seven wounded.
Naval Base Hawaii was a number of United States Navy bases in the Territory of Hawaii during World War II. At the start of the war, much of the Hawaiian Islands was converted from tourism to a United States Armed Forces base. With the loss of US Naval Base Philippines in Philippines campaign of 1941 and 1942, Hawaii became the US Navy's main base for the early part of the island-hopping Pacific War against Empire of Japan. Naval Station Pearl Harbor was founded in 1899 with the annexation of Hawaii.
