Eddy Okubo lies about his age and joins the army in his hometown of Honolulu only weeks before the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Suddenly Americans see him as the enemy—even the U.S. Army doubts the loyalty of Japanese American soldiers.
Then the army sends Eddy and a small band of Japanese American soldiers on a secret mission to a small island off the coast of Mississippi. Here they are given a special job, one that only they can do. Eddy’s going to help train attack dogs. He’s going to be the bait.
I hope what gives my books their sense of authenticity, other than the natural inculcation of the island physical and cultural landscape, which ends up in my sentences by osmosis, is my use of language. In Hawaii we often speak what we call pidgin English, a kind of tropical patois. For example, in Standard English one would say, "I am going home." In Hawaiian pidgin it would be, "I going home." A simple thing, but over the course of a novel it becomes a bigger thing, a part of a character's being. It resonates. Syntax, too, creates that feeling of authenticity. It comes to me naturally, thank heaven. I don't have to work at it because I simply hear it. If I had to fake it I'd be laughed off the face of the earth. So, growing up in the islands was my gift. My writing is just me spewing it back.
As for the work itself, I'm big on certain issues having to do with boys and growing up. I guess this is so because of my own fractured upbringing. Much of who I am is self-imposed. I am my choices, and I have chosen to walk a certain path. Important to me are such qualities as honesty, friendship, honor, loyalty, integrity, courage, work and passion. Life for anyone is a series of choices, and I hope that fact gets some play in my books. Luckily for me, I have made some good choices. It could have been different. I could have taken pride in the wrong moves, as many boys do. It's cool to be tough. Beating the spit out of someone is good for the rep. It's honorable to attack someone who "disrespects" you by, perhaps, accidentally bumping into you (Hey! You like I broke your face or what?). Right. I could have fallen into that mindset. But I didn't, and I lay all credit to that on one man: James Monroe Taylor, my high school headmaster.
At the end of my sixth grade year my mom saw the light - she kicked my sorry okole out of the house and sent me to boarding school. It was in the middle of Parker Ranch on the Big Island of Hawaii, and was the most precious gift she ever could have given me. I loved it. For the first time in my life I had something I really, really, really needed: limits. It was like being at boot camp. Mr. Taylor, as part of his training, took us into his home in small groups and lectured us on the good qualities of life, all that stuff that is now so important to me: friendship, honor, etc. Of course, it was my duty at that time to laugh it off. That fat old man was out of his head. But his words stuck, and because they did, whenever I was presented with a sticky situation I was able to fall back on that foundation and use it to make the better choice. My mother and Mr. Taylor. My hat's off to both of them.
In my career as an author, I've spoken to a bazillion kids, mostly in grades 6 through 8. It's been fun, truly. But I had an epiphany one day, and my newest creation, Calvin Coconut, came to be because of it.
I once spoke to a large group of fifth and sixth graders in a huge gymnasium, and was leaving the school, heading down the hall with the teacher who had invited me. "There's a third grade teacher here in our school who just loves your books," she said as we walked, "and she asked me to ask you if you would be willing to just stop by her class and say hi to her kids. They know about you, too, because she read them one of your short stories."
"Sure," I said. I'd never spoken to third graders. It might be fun.
Boy, was it.
The third grade teacher and every one of her students were literally glowing with excitement, having the AUTHOR in their classroom.
They gathered around, sitting in a semi-circle on the floor. I sat in a chair next to the teacher, who reached over and picked up a plate of cookies.
The kids all leaned forward, eyes bright as a thousand suns, rascally twinkles in them.
"Would you like to try one of the cookies we made in class?" she said.
I didn't, but I was on duty. "Uh, sure," I said.
She pushed the plate closer.
The kids did a magnificent job of stuffing back their giggles as I reached out and picked up a yummy-looking, but - I could tell -- very fake, cookie.
The teacher grinned and I played along and pretended to bite into it. "Bleecck!" I spat, and the kids roared, as if it were the funniest thing they'd ever seen in their lives.
And that's what got me: those beautiful, beautiful faces, all looking up at me in pure delight.
I ended up telling them a story of when I got stuck in a mass of mud, a story I love to tell, and they laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
I left that school a new man, and vowed then and there that someday I was going to expand my writing to include this group. Because I loved those faces and yearn to absorb that energy.
I also wanted to include this younger audience because teachers have told me many, many times that they just can't get their boys interested in reading. I know of their plight. I was one of those boys. I read only one book on my own in all my elementary school years: TARZAN OF THE APES, by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
So Calvin Coconut and I have a job to do. Call Calvin Graham Salisbury light, because I'm bringing real life situations and themes for discussion into every Calvin book, just like I do in my books for older readers. I won't get heavy, I won't get edgy, and I won't be gratuitous. None of this is about me. It's about every kid out there today who is just like the wandering fool I was. Besides the simple enjoyment of writing, my aim is simple: to build trust and turn boys into lifetime readers.
I finally became a reader at thirty. That's how hard it is to get some boys to read. I'd like to join all my very fine writer/teacher/librarian/parent colleagues in changing that a bit. Reading changes everything. Boy, does it!
This review is from: Eyes of the Emperor (Hardcover)
My seventh graders have read, discussed, and enjoyed Graham Salisbury's BLUE SKIN OF THE SEA for the past decade, but when I was sent an Advance Reading Copy of Salisbury's latest novel, I couldn't resist sharing passages from it with my students even before the book was officially published. This novel is Salisbury's best!
"Whoa!" "Cool!" "What detail": These are the kind of comments my 7th grade students made when I read them an excerpt from Chapters 16 and 17 of EYES OF THE EMPEROR. This section, recounting the capture of America's first prisoner of war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, enthralled my students. Although the Waimanalo Beach locale is familiar (the 7th grade spent the day at that same beach on their Class Day last October), my students were transported back in time by Salisbury's vivid description and very human characters. One student commented that the personality of Eddy the narrator was depicted so well he seemed like a real person, not a character in a book.
Like the popular companion novel UNDER THE BLOOD RED SUN, Graham Salisbury's new book is historical fiction focusing on the plight of Japanese Americans in the wake of the World War II Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In EYES OF THE EMPEROR, Salisbury uses a sixteen-year-old Japanese American narrator to subtly show the conflict between issei and nisei as well as the prejudice and ignorance of the American people and government against the Japanese Americans living in the United States in the 1940s. The main character and narrator Eddy Kubo, eager to serve his country, incurs the anger of his issei (first generation immigrant Japanese) father by enlisting in the United States Army shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Eddy, who is nisei, born and raised in the United States Territory of Hawaii, is hurt when his enlistment causes his father to stop speaking to him. Only when Eddy participates in the capture of a young Japanese sailor trying to get to Pearl Harbor in a mini submarine does he start to understand his father's perspective. Seeing the pride in the captured Japanese man, Eddy recognizes his own pop's allegiance to the Bushido code of the ancient warriors.
Once in the military, Eddy learns about prejudice. He sees the Hawaiians, Portuguese, and Chinese troops from Hawaii getting regular training, but he and the other Japanese Americans are separated because "To Them [the army] we all look like Hirohito. They see us they see the guys in those planes dropping bombs on them. We got the eyes of the emperor" (65). Young Eddy has the innocence and naivete to tell the story; he is a matter-of-fact observer--much like Twain's Huckleberry Finn--who lets the reader see the horror and unfairness of the treatment to which the Japanese American troops are subjected. He and his buddy Cobra later learn from the newspaper that persons of Japanese ancestry are being evacuated from Hawaii and West Coast states such as California and Oregon because "that is the way of war."
Less than half of the story takes place in Hawaii. Shortly after the capture of the Japanese sailor, Eddy and his friends are shipped to the Mainland United States. Probably the most chilling example of prejudice is the little-known, but true, incident of the top-secret K-9 training on Cat Island, Mississippi, in which Eddy and his Japanese American friends participate after they are shipped out of Hawaii. Even here, Salisbury's Eddy Kubo reports on his activities with only occasional grumblings and complaints. In it to the end, Eddy is proud to serve his country, his president. The pathos with which he comments on the bigotry which even the president must have shared to condone the K-9 experiment is powerful because of the simplicity of Eddy's words:
"I don't know why, but right then I thought of President Roosevelt
and how he believed we might smell different from white guys.
My president.
Made me feel sad" (215).
In EYES OF THE EMPEROR, Salisbury surpasses his previous works in several ways. He seamlessly puts the reader into places familiar today but with the tension and historical accuracy of the World War II setting; he uses a narrator in conflict with his culture and his country--but not bitter about what is occurring around him--to convey with immediacy and sensitivity the injustices suffered by the Japanese Americans during WWII; and he brings a human dimension to both sides of both conflicts. This is a fine book to explore with teen readers the issues of prejudice, patriotism, and the moral ambiguities of war. It is a "teachable moment" waiting to happen!
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This review is from: Eyes of the Emperor (Hardcover)
Sixteen-year-old Eddy Okubo is tired of just sitting around Honolulu helping his father fix up boats. He has already graduated from high school, and two of his good friends have already joined the U.S. Army. Despite the fact that Eddy's father is still fiercely loyal to Japan (a portrait of the emperor graces their foyer), Eddy knows he's an American through and through. As World War II grows ever closer to American shores, Eddie fudges his birth certificate so that he can join the military too.
At first, Eddy's father is deeply disappointed that Eddy has turned his back on Japan to join the American military. But when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, everything changes. Soon Eddy's father begins to respect Eddy's loyalty to their new country.
Life in the military is not easy for Eddy and his friends. All Americans of Japanese descent, even those in the military, are under suspicion. Eddy's friend Cobra says, "To them we all look like Hirohito. They see us, they see the guys in those planes dropping bombs on them. We got the eyes of the Emperor. They scared of us. Scared."
Eddy and his all-Japanese-American platoon travel from place to place, unsure of their mission or of their role in the army. Soon, they travel to the Gulf of Mexico to help with the training of highly skilled K9 dog troops. But Eddy and his friends are not there to be trainers for the dogs; instead, they are there as targets for the dogs to prepare to attack Japanese soldiers. How can the young men maintain their faith in their country --- and in themselves --- in the face of the prejudice and misunderstanding they have encountered?
Graham Salisbury has explored the attack on Pearl Harbor in his previous novel, UNDER THE BLOOD-RED SUN. In EYES OF THE EMPEROR, he again sheds light on a troubling period of American history. The impact of the Japanese attacks on Americans of Japanese ancestry is explored with sensitivity and attention to detail. In the character of Eddy, Salisbury explores how, in the wake of such turbulence, one young man must discover what it means to be a son, a man, and an American.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
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This review is from: Eyes of the Emperor (Hardcover)
Eyes of the Emperor By graham Salisbury is a great book. It as made a grat impact on me and my outlook on history of WWII. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read stories that can be easily followed and to anyone interested in war especially WWII. This story portrays many great qualities and characteristics that any young man should have, Such as loyalty, bravery, and honesty and other strengths that they can use to prove themselves by using in the real world. The book follows a young Japanese man and his Japanese friends as they go through daily life of being in the United States army. How they are treated and the jobs they get and they trust they don't.
Not only does the book teach you about life in the army but it teaches you about respect for your country and for you family. The book has a strong cultural influence in which it portrays the a message stating that when you leave you family life becomes harder and there may not be someone alongside of you to help you along your way.
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