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Midnight in Broad Daylight
A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds
1 of 1 copy available
As the war raged on, Harry, one of the finest bilingual interpreters in the United States Army, island-hopped across the Pacific, moving ever closer to the enemy and to his younger brothers. But before the Fukuharas would have to face each other in battle, the U.S. detonated the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, gravely injuring tens of thousands of civilians, including members of their family.
Alternating between the American and Japanese perspectives, Midnight in Broad Daylight captures the uncertainty and intensity of those charged with the fighting and provides a fresh look at the dropping of the first atomic bomb.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
January 5, 2016 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781494599454
- File size: 345029 KB
- Duration: 11:58:48
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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The Fukuhara family was intimately affected by the events of WWII, both in the Pacific Northwest and in Hiroshima, Japan. With a deliberate yet delicate tone, narrator Emily Woo Zeller traces the paths of various family members back and forth to Japan for reasons of education and family, then to internment camps following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the brothers' service in the Japanese and the United States Armies, and, ultimately, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Woo Zeller's narration is adequate, though lacking the kind of the energy that would have made this fascinating story even more engaging in the audio format. Uniquely positioned with roots on both sides of the conflict, the Fukuhara family makes history come alive in a story that focuses on real individuals who lived through the dramatic events. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine -
October 12, 2015
In this sweeping portrait, historian Sakamoto explores family dynamics as she profiles U.S. Army Col. Harry Fukuhara (1920–2015), an eminent linguist whose brother served in Hirohito’s army during WWII. Sakamoto draws on extensive interviews as well as a long acquaintance with her subject and his family to infuse the narrative with great poignancy. Opening in Seattle with the 1929 stock market crash, Sakamoto’s account introduces Harry, his brothers Frank and Pierce, and their sister, Mary, whose world crashed with the 1933 death of their father. Desperate, their mother whisks them to her hometown of Hiroshima, where the children suffer culture shock. Unable to assimilate, Harry returns to the U.S. in 1938, a year and a half after Mary does, but both of them end up in an Arizona internment camp in 1942. When Army recruiters scouted the camp looking for translators, Harry passed the test, embarking on a career in U.S. military intelligence. Despite their efforts to avoid battle, his brothers in Japan were drafted in a 1945 last-ditch “mass mobilization.” Frank’s experiences as a teenager in the Japanese Army provide the counterpoint to Harry’s wartime reminiscences. Sakamoto presents a gripping story of colorful individuals, though her novelistic tone often undermines the gravity of the story she relates.
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