A Paradise Lost - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

like Japanese internment can be made tangible by rendering them from an individual
perspective. That is one of the prerogatives of historical novels. Thus, Graham Salisbury,
who has written several coming-of-age novels for adolescents, has captured the period
and its sway over Hawai’i very well in his 1994 novel Under a Blood-Red Sun. The
straightforward narrative, set in 1941, shares its main concerns with All I Asking:
Thirteen-year old Tomikazu has to negotiate the conflicting demands of American society
and Japanese ancestry:
But then, Grampa was issei, first-generation Japanese immigrant, and looked at
things a certain way. The Japanese way – which was stern and obedient. […]
Sometimes I thought he had a point. The old way was fair and honorable, which
was good. But it was so inflexible. Jeese. Who knew what to think? 307
Early on, class and ethnicity are introduced with the bullying landlord’s son. Tomi is
consoled by his loyal friends, a mixed bunch of Portuguese, Caucasian, and Japanese
youngsters, united by their passion for baseball. Their preoccupation with the game
signifies an innocent feeling of Americanness. But although Tomi still measures time by
baseball games, the war slowly forces its way into his conscience. Fighter planes
overhead, maneuvers at night, and the ever-growing army and navy presence in Honolulu
slowly prepare for what at least the adult reader knows must happen on December 7 th . The
actual attack catches Tomi and his friend at their early morning baseball practice:
An ear-shattering roar suddenly thundered down on us, a plane flying way too
low. A dark fighter. […] Billy and I waved, but the pilot didn’t notice us. What
was going on? They never flew that low. […] Another dark plane charged down
on us from behind, screaming out of the valley from the mountains. Billy and I
turned just as it boomed over, heading down toward the sea. The noise stabbed
into my ears. […] Then it hit me. Dark plane. Not silver. Not a navy plane. It
didn’t even have a star on it. It was amber. All the planes were amber. A rush of
fear swept over me. Amber. Amber, with a blood-red sun on the fuselage and
under the wings…blood-red sun…the symbol of Japan (105-7).
With a father out at sea on a fishing trip and a grandfather who is too Japanese not to be
suspicious to the authorities, Tomi wakes up to the weight of responsibility. His initiation
307 Graham Salisbury, Under a Blood-Red Sun, New York 1994: 5-6.
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