Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salisbury
by Sam Arnold-Boyd on Mar.30, 2008, under Adventure, Battle of the Books 2008-2009, BookCasts, Historical Fiction, Multicultural Fiction, Sam's Reviews, War
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Who would like this book? Teens – both guys and girls – who want a gripping adventure story that is based on the events of World War II and highlights the racial discrimination that took place against Japanese Americans.
Why? If you have read Graham Salisbury’s Under the Blood Red Sun, you won’t want to miss Eyes of the Emperor. They both focus on the experience of Japanese Americans in Hawaii during World War II, and they both draw on the experiences of his own family as well as on eye-witness accounts given to him by other Japanese Americans. Salisbury is convincing as he weaves this historical information into the lives of his fictitious characters. In Eyes of the Emperor, young Eddy Okubo enlists in the army after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Instead of being sent into combat, he and his fellow Japanese soldiers are sent to a remote island in Mississippi where they are faced with a terrifying, top-secret assignment. The spirit and courage of the Japanese soldiers, their loyalty to each other, and their way of coping with impossible situations with humor combine to make this book a powerful tribute to them and a reminder of the dangerous consequences of faulty, racist thinking.
The details: 229 p. 2005
