Pearl by Sherri L. Smith

This graphic novel opens in 1886 with the story of Amy's great-grandmother who was an ama, or a pearl diver on the shores of Honshu in Japan. Amy hear many stories about her sosobo especially one where she found a large, perfectly round pearl, the size of her fist. She was able to hold her breath for ten minutes and dive down a quarter of a mile to extract pearls from oysters. The day she found the large pearl, she was seen by a fisherman and they eventually married. She gave birth Amy's grandfather and he in turn had a daughter and a son who became Amy's father. Her father moved to Hawai'i and married her mother, whose family had lived in Hawai'i for four generations.

In 1941, war raged on in half of the world. With her best friend, Amy was able to live her life and deal with the racial discrimination she encountered. When went to the movie theatre, and they spent time together. But then her parents received a letter from family in Japan that her Sosobo was ill. Because her mother had just had a new baby, Henry, they couldn't travel so Amy would have to make the trip to Japan alone. She had never been away from home, nor had she ever visited Japan.

Upon arriving in Japan by ship, Amy found it "familiar, yet strange". She was met by her Uncle Michi, Aunt Hina, and her cousin, Ken. The trip to her uncle's farm just outside of Hiroshima was made by oxen and cart and was long. Amy found life very different in Japan, but the food was somewhat like home. Gradually Amy came to understand her Sosobo's thick accent. 

With the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, Amy finds herself in a country at war with her own country, the United States. It was at this time that Amy's sosobo told her how she fled her home in the Ryukyu Kingdom on Okinawa when the Japanese invaded in 1879. Although it was difficult, she managed to make a new life on the main island. She tells Amy she must somehow survive.

With Japan now at war, Amy's cousin Ken enlisted and her Aunt Hina reminded her that she is Japanese. But Amy was American. Eventually  war touched Amy's life when it was discovered that she spoke English. She was forced out of her uncle's farm and taken to Hiroshima, a military city, along with other Nisei, or American Japanese. It would be Amy's job to translate American radio communications. But who was Amy loyal to, Japan or America? And how would she survive caught between two cultures?

Discussion

Pearl is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel that explores the issues of identity and belonging. Young Amy is tasked with spending three months in Japan to help her father's family who are dealing with the declining health of their elderly sosobo, or great-grandmother. Amy initially adapts to life in Japan but then finds herself caught up in World War II after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. This change frightens Amy but her sosobo explains that change in life is inevitable and that surviving it is important. 

In Pearl, Amy's Sosobo tells her great-granddaughter how she too faced frightening change and invasion when she was uprooted by the invasion of the Japanese to her island of Okinawa in 1879. Although not much information is provided, this was a real historical event. Okinawa is the smallest of the five large Japanese islands in the Japanese archipelago. It was part of the Ryukyu kingdom which was founded in 4129 by King Sho Hashi through the unification of three smaller kingdoms. Ryukyu had substantial trade with China, Japan and other Asian countries. However, in 1609, Japan invaded Ryukyu and 1879 it became Okinawa. The king was forced to relocate to Tokyo and the monarchy abolished. At this time, the Japanese attempted to abolish Ryujyuan language, religion and other cultural practices. 

For Amy's sosobo, she faced the challenges of change and made her own life on the mainland. Amy found herself facing the same challenge, with the war between America and Japan. Immediately after Pearl Harbor, Amy was recruited and forced to work as a "Monitor Girl", listening in on American broadcasts and forced to translate them, Amy had hoped that the Japanese would come to understand Americans. However, Amy's perspective changed when she learned from her Uncle Michi that America had imprisoned Japanese Americans, including her parents, in prison camps and that her baby brother, Henry had died in such a camp. Her patriotic feelings towards America vanished and she became determined to help Japan. Living in Hiroshima, Amy found herself terribly injured in the atomic bombing of the city. With terrible burns and radiation illness, all she could remember was the message of her sosobo, the importance of surviving.. 

To that end, Amy's determination and resiliency is shown by her recovery from her wounds, and her helping the Americans in the post-war period, during the occupation of Japan. After being refused permission several times to return to the United States, Amy was finally able to do so in 1952. What she found was much more than she had ever anticipated. Just as she had, her family had also survived and thrived. Despite the loss of Henry, her parents now had three more children, and a new home. Amy came to realize that her identity was more than just American and Japanese: she was a survivor, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. She also came to understand that life was a gift not to be wasted.

While Pearl is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel, the sparse storytelling doesn't capture the full extent of the emotions Amy had to be experiencing: the fear and uncertainty travelling to Japan alone to meet family she didn't know and live in a culture that was very different from America, the anger at learning her parents and brother were imprisoned and the death of little Henry, the inner conflict of being both American and Japanese, the joy of returning home and seeing her parents happy and thriving. 

Nevertheless, the message does come across in this exquisite graphic novel: change is inevitable and needs to be embraced. It is survivable and often leads to opportunities and experiences that were never considered. 

Book Details:

Pearl by Sherri L. Smith
New York:  Graphix    2024

133 pp. 

On The Horizon by Lois Lowry

 In her newest book, On The Horizon, Lois Lowry, award winning author of Number The Stars and The Giver, has penned a collection of poems about lives lost or forever changed in the bombing of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor and the dropping of the atomic bombs in Japan.

These events are told through Lowry's own personal experience of having lived both in Hawaii and in Japan during the time they took place.  

Lowry was born in Honolulu in 1937. Her father was an Army dentist so this meant Lowry's family moved frequently. She lived in Hawaii until 1940 when her family moved to New York. Years later, Lowry watched an old home movie her father had taken in 1940 of her playing on the beach at Waikiki. In the distance, the silhouette of the fated USS Arizona could be seen. A little over a year later, on December 7, 1941, almost all the men on the ship would be dead. The USS Arizona would sink during the bombing of Pearl Harbor and 1.177 men would perish. Lowry moved to Tokyo, Japan in 1948 when her father was stationed in the city.

In various forms of poetry, Lowry begins her story with the sinking of the USS Arizona. Part I On The Horizon is comprised of a poetry Lowry has composed about the men on the USS Arizona. There are poems about seventeen-year-old Leo Amundson whose Scandinavian heritage is shared by Lowry. Other poems are about George and Jimmie Bromley, one of thirty-seven sets of brothers on the Arizona,  Everett Reid, a machinist who lived off the ship and survived because he was at home celebrating his birthday, the musicians - Neal Radford, Alexander Nadel, Bill McCary and Curtis Haas in the ship's band, and Captain Isaac Campbell Kidd whose "Naval Academy ring was found melted and fused to the mast."

Part 2 Another Horizon is about the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in southern Japan. Lowry's poetry features the victims of the bomb, naming them and describing what they were doing at the time of the explosion. There is Koichi Seii in a town called Tabase, Takeo playing tag in a schoolyard, Shinichi Tetsutani on his red tricycle, Akira Ishida a high school student operating a tram, and Chieko Suetomo and Shinji Mikamo. 

Part 3 Beyond The Horizons several events from Lowry's life in the post-war period in Japan are described. Lowry lived in Shibuya, a part of Tokyo. Her father had bought her a green bike when she first arrived in Japan. At that time Koichi Seii along with his mother and sister, survivors of Hiroshima,  had also moved to Shibuya. In a series of poems, Lowry tells about riding her green bike through the city and how with her blue eyes and blond hair she stood out. In the poem Girl On  A Bike, Lowry recounts stopping outside a school to watch the children, and they watched her. In the poem, Gaijin, unknown to her, Koichi Seii was a student at the school and he watched the girl with the blond hair on the green bike.  In the final poem, a triolet titled Tomodachi, Lowry expresses how they could not yet be friends, as they needed to heal.

"We could not be friends. Not then. Not yet.
Until the cloud dispersed and cleared,
We needed time to mend, forget."

Discussion

On The Horizon is a touching tribute to the human spirit, the power of forgiveness and how our lives are often connected in ways that are not immediately apparent, and often remain unknown to us. Lowry who grew up during World War II and the post war period, weaves together the threads of her life to show a remarkable interconnection of people, places and events. This is done through a series of beautifully composed rhyming poems. 

Beginning with an old family home movie that captured a young Lowry playing on the beach at Waikiki with the outline of the USS Arizona on the horizon unnoticed at that time. Lowry weaves a thread that connects this beginning to many other events. A little over a year later, the USS Arizona sank during the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  In the poem, Child On A Beach, Lowry wonders about the things we don't notice, the connections we miss...

"I think back to that sunlit day
when I was young, and so were they
If I had noticed? If I'd known?
Would each of us be less alone?...

I've learned that there will always be
things we miss, that we don't see

on the horizon. Things beyond
And yet there is a lasting bond
between us, linking each to each
Boys on a ship. Child on a beach"

When Lowry's family moved to Tokyo to join her father, she was given a green bike. Lowry stopped one day to watch the Japanese children playing in the school yard. Unknown to her, young Kochi Seii was watching back, the memory of a blond haired girl with a green bike that would stay with him over the years. Unbelievably, years later in 1994, Lois Lowry and Kochi Seii now known as Allen Say, met at a library convention. They discovered their lives had intersected years before. In the poem, Girl On A Bike Lowry muses about how they had lived in each other's country, and from their own horizons had experienced war without realizing their lives would one day intersect once again.

"I'd lived in his country, then.
And now he's moved to mine, so when
we met (his name was Allen now),
we mused and pondered how

from our horizons we had viewed
a war begin, a war conclude.
We were young.We were alike.
Boy in a schoolyard. Girl on a bike."

On The Horizon also offers readers the chance to reflect on war, on the innocent lives lost, but also how with time, two countries healing from war can come together both individually and collectively. This is shown in her poem Now which tells about Japanese tourists bowing as they look down at the wreck of the Arizona, while Lowry herself at the Hiroshima memorial bows and weeps too.

Perhaps Lowry's final words in her Author's Note say it best:

"It has taken many years for me to put these things together, to try to find some meaning in the way lives intersect -- or how they fail to. I guess the important thing is also the simplest: to acknowledge our connectedness on this earth; to bow our heads when we see a scorched tricycle or a child's message to his lost grandpa; and to honor the past by making silent promises to our fellow humans that we will work for a better and more peaceful future."

Many of the poems are illustrated with the black and white artwork of SCBWI Golden Kite Award Winner, Kenard Pak.

On The Horizon is a lovely reminder of how our lives are often interconnected, often on the horizon of others, offering a unique perspective that we only realize when we discover that connection.

Book Details:

On The Horizon: World War II Reflections  by Lois Lowry
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt      2020
72 pp.

And Then The Sky Exploded by David A. Poulsen

Thirteen-year-old Christian Larkin is attending the funeral of his beloved great-grandfather, William Deaver. GG Will as he was affectionately known was a kind man who had worked in the area of material physics. However his funeral is met by protesters yelling about Deaver being a killer and a bomb maker. A few days after the funeral, Christian approaches his mother to ask her why there were protesters at GG Will's funeral but she won't tell him and refers him to his dad. But Christian's dad, who is vice-principal at Anna Fernicola Middle School also won't talk to him about what happened.  The only thing Christian has learned, from the local Trimble Times-Herald, is that the protesters were at the funeral to protest Mr. Deaver's involvement in the Manhattan Project.

Both Christian and his sister Carly attend Anna Fernicola Middle School and this is where Christian begins to understand what his great-grandfather was involved in. The class bully, Lorelei Faber accuses Christian of having a great-grandfather who "helped kill millions of people." She mentions the Manhattan Project, in which a group of scientists from all over the world worked on a building an atomic bomb that was eventually dropped on Japan. This leads Christian to do his own research on the Manhattan Project.

He discovers that his great-grandfather was among the famous scientists who worked on the secret Manhattan Project. They were developing an atom bomb using uranium and plutonium. The first atom bomb to be used in war was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Christian learns that over two hundred thousand people died either directly or indirectly because of the first bomb. As he tries to comprehend that number of people dying, Christian wonders "if there were any Anne Frank-type stories about Hiroshima" to help him understand the human side of what happened.

Christian's best friend is a deaf boy, Carson Tinsley whom he met in football camp during the summer.The two boys like to eat and talk football. Because of his disability, Carson who is sixteen is in Christian's grade nine class. Carson can drive and so he often takes his father's 2003 Chevy Cavalier to school, picking up Christian along the way.

Christian attends the first meeting of the Weston Comprehensive High School Travel Club. The club's twenty-six members has to decide on a destination for it's trip this year. The students have suggested France, England, Germany and Portugal as possibilities, but Christian suggests that they consider Japan because of its very different culture. The club's advisor, Mr. Pettigrew wants them to consider all of these options including Japan. After the meeting one of the club members and a classmate, Zaina Nawal asks Christian to go see a Japanese movie showing at the Variety Theatre on the weekend. However, Chris who is infatuated with the beautiful Julie LaPointe, who happens to be dating another guy, turns her down. But Carson tells him he needs to forget about Julie and think about the girl who is actually interested in him.

At a second meeting of the Travel Club, Mr. Pettigrew tells the members that he has discovered there is a program through the Japanese embassy which helps with the cost of travel. Due to the 2011 tsunami disaster there has been a decline in tourism to Japan and the government is providing funding for school trips from abroad. So Mr. Pettigrew suggests that he and Chris research more into this option. After the meeting, Chris talks to Zaina and apologizes to her for turning her down, telling her he would in fact like to go to the movie with her. They exchange numbers.

After completing their research on Japan, Mr. Pettigrew tells Chris that they must get approval for the trip from the school administration and the Parents Council for the trip.At the Parents Council meeting, Lorelei's mother who is the vice-chair strongly voices her opposition to the Japan trip. However, Lorelei stands up to her mother and the trip is approved by the Parents Council.

As part of his preparation for the Japan trip Chris goes to the library with his girlfriend Zaina to research the Manhattan project. He tells Zaina that "someone in my family might have been partly responsible for the deaths of thousands of people..." and that he needs to learn more. Christian's best friend, Carson questions him as to why he wants to go to Japan. Christian tells him that partly it's for himself, that he wants to be proud of his great-grandpa. He also tells Carson that "I know it's crazy, but I can't help it.I keep having these thoughts that maybe there's something I can do to...I don't know...make a difference..."

Will Christian find what he's seeking in visiting Japan - a way to come to terms with his grandfather's actions and to understand an important part of world history?

Discussion

And Then The Sky Exploded is a short piece of historical fiction that explores the ethics of dropping the atom bomb on Japan, unfortunately not in a very in-depth way. Poulsen does this through his main character, young Christian Deaver, whose great-grandfather, the fictional William Deaver,  was one of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb. Unfortunately, no one in his family will openly discuss this with him, leaving him to feel conflicted over the actions of a beloved great-grandfather.

Children's Peace Monument
http://www.city.hiroshima.lg.jp/shimin/heiwa/monument.html

In order to demonstrate to young readers what that day was like in Hiroshima, seventy years ago, Poulsen presents a separate narrative of a young girl, Yuko which chronicles the experience of a survivor of the atomic bomb explosion. Christian was able to better understand the effects of the Holocaust by reading Anne Frank's diary and wishes to better understand what it was like in Hiroshima.  "Anne Frank. I read that book a couple of years ago and I felt like crap when I'd finished because I knew she'd died...I was actually able to feel something because it was one person.Or a few people. And because of the diary, I knew them -- especially Anne. I wondered if there were any Anne Frank-type stories about Hiroshima." And so through Yuko's narratives the reader learns what it was like that day when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. However, for Christian, he begins to understand when he visits the Atomic Bomb Dome. "And standing there at the Dome, I could see in my mind's eye people sitting at desks, maybe some talking on the telephone, some typing, just starting their day's work. This place -- this made it personal. Like Sadako. Like Anne Frank. Both young girls. Both died in the war."  The two narratives intersect when Christian meets Yuko's grand-daughter and asks if he can meet her Obaasan,  Yuko. Apologizing on behalf of his great-grandfather and explaining to Yuko that his relative tried unsuccessfully to stop the atomic bombing of Japan, brings healing and forgiveness to Christian and peace to Yuko. She tells him, "You have done something for me, Christian-kun. You have heard my words. You have listened with respect to me. And believed me. And cared. That is enough."

Poulsen doesn't delve too deeply into a consideration of the ethics of dropping the atomic bombs on Japan. It's easy enough to understand what led to the decision to drop the bombs (America wanted to end the war quickly) and easy to criticize through the lens of time. Zaina points out to Christian that sometimes people had no choice as to what they did during wartime, but Christian counters that the scientists on the Manhattan Project were not prisoners and were not forced to work on the bomb - they did so willingly. But Zaina states, "...maybe it's a case of doing what you have to do to end the war and stop more people from dying." Christian at first considers this argument mainly because he hasn't heard a counter argument to it. Eventually through his friend Carson, Christian learns that some of the scientists working on the Manhattan project did attempt to appeal to President Truman not to use to bomb. One of those scientists was Christian's great-grandfather.

For the most part, And Then The Sky Exploded is a short, high interest novel about the bombing of Hiroshima. This novel would make a good introduction for younger readers of the issues surrounding the use of atomic/nuclear weapons. Catholic readers also might consider exploring the Catholic theological doctrine of just war.

There is the odd stereotypical character such as the class bully, Lorelei Faber who is a "big, overweight, round-faced, nasally voiced rich kid" who "does her hurting with words, not fists." But even Lorelei turns out to have redeeming qualities.Christian has a good mix of supporting characters including Carson who helps him work through his mixture of feelings and Zaina who gets him to think differently about Lorelei. Disappointing is the lack of parental input into Christian's journey to understand his family's connection to the atomic bombing and the backstory. If this had been included it could have made Christian's journey more engaging.

Readers can check out the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum website which provides a wealth of information including a virtual museum, survivor stories and a section on Sadako a young survivor who is mentioned in Poulsen's novel and who died from leukemia and for whom the Children's Peace Monument was erected.

Information on the Children's Peace Monument can be found here.

The Manhattan Project webpage of the U.S History website has a wealth of information as well as links to other useful site.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission website has a page devoted to Canada's Historical Role in Developing Nuclear Weapons.


Book Details:

And Then The Sky Exploded by David A. Poulsen
Toronto: Dundurn Press    2016
pp.206