To the Discussion Leader
Surprise Attack on America. The Courage of Heroes Inspires All. Fears of Future Attacks Abound. Foreigners Jailed. Isolationists Refuse to Be Drawn Into Foreign Conflict. These headlines could describe the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City and its aftermath as Americans dealt with tragedy and our response to the horrors of September 11th. The headlines also describe the "date which will live in infamy"-the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Willows, Hawaii, 1941 is Barry Denenberg's fourth book in the Dear America series. Twelve-year-old Amber tells the story of her family move to Hawaii and her first-person account of the Japanese attack. With a vantage point so close that with binoculars she could see inside the Japanese planes, Amber describes the incessant noise from the low flying foreign planes, the machine gun fire, the dull, booming explosions, and the chaos caused by the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. "By 9:30 A.M., it was over. Eighteen American ships were lost. Over 300 American military planes destroyed. Over 2,400 American lives were lost and 1,178 people were wounded."
The date which will live in infamy took place over sixty years ago. But, young readers will see contemporary parallels that make Amber's story as current as today's newspaper headlines.
Summary
"It's like we're moving to another planet," writes twelve-year-old Amber Billows when she learns that her family will be moving from Washington D.C. to Honolulu, Hawaii. It is October 1941, and Amber's father is relocating his family for the fourth time in Amber's life. Each time Amber has begun a new diary.
Amber and her family soon become acclimated to their new home. As her mom fixes up the house and becomes acquainted with the local merchants, Amber's dad enjoys golf and meets a nearby bookseller, Mr. Poole, who becomes a family friend. Amber's brother, Andy, joins the Boy Scouts and looks forward to taking a tour of Pearl Harbor, and Amber becomes best friends with a Japanese classmate Kame Arata. Kame suggests Amber join the Shakespeare Theater group at school, and the girls happily anticipate a dance to be held the evening of December 7th. Life seems like a dream.
Suddenly, however, "the dream was over, and the nightmare was about to begin." The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, and Hawaii is thrown into chaos. Amber says, "My whole world was disintegrating right before my eyes." The American fleet is massively damaged; many service men are dead, wounded, or missing. Even civilians are victims of the attack. Mr. Poole dies when a stray shell hits his bookstore. The wounded are too numerous to be accommodated in the hospitals. Amber's mom, a nurse, goes to help, and Amber and Andy try to make themselves safe at home. Confusion reigns, with riots in the streets and stores. The military take over the government. Citizens are required to stay home and darken their homes. "We spend much of our time now in the kitchen or the bedroom because they're the only rooms that are blackened out." There's no more school. People begin building bomb shelters. Gas masks are issued to everyone, even infants. Worst of all, perhaps, is how everyone is suspicious of anyone who is Japanese. Kame's father is taken away. Amber tells of her friend, "Kame is ashamed. Ashamed that she is Japanese. Ashamed that she has the face of the enemy. She is worried about her father. And she is worried about what will happen to her. She said she is afraid to go anywhere."
Amber remains close to Kame, and the two families plan to celebrate Christmas together. But life will never be the same. When Amber' s father tells the family they are moving back to the mainland, Amber is relieved. With this entry, she completes her Hawaii diary, "It was like a bad dream was finally ending. Isn't it ironic? The shortest diary I ever kept, and the saddest."
Thinking About the Book
1. Why did Amber and her family have to move to Hawaii? How does she feel about this move? Why?
2. In her October 27th diary entry, Amber writes that she likes to have "...just one best friend I can depend on." Why does she feel this way? Do you agree?
3. What are Amber's impressions of Hawaii before she moves there? Why does she think going there is "like moving to another planet?"
4. Amber writes a good deal in her diary about how different her mother is from her father. What are some of the ways Mrs. Billows differs from her husband?
5. What is an isolationist? Are Amber's parents isolationists?
6. Why do Lieutenant Lockhart and Mr. Poole argue at Thanksgiving dinner in the Billow's home?
7. Pick one of the following expressions and tell what you think it means:
"Experience is a costly school. But a fool will learn in no other. (p. 74)
"Behold the frog, who when he opens his mouth displays his whole insides." (p. 76)
"There is no prosperity in a family where the hen crows." (p. 63)
8. Why do the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor?
9. How do both Amber and Kame's lives change dramatically after the bombing of Pearl Harbor?
10. President Franklin D. Roosevelt called December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy." What you think he meant by these words?
Student Activities
1. For the long plane trip to Hawaii, Amber brings along several books to read: two Nancy Drew mysteries, The Little House in the Big Woods, and The Yearling. Have you read any of these books? If you were taking a long trip what books would you take along to read and why?
2. Imagine you're a reporter like Amber's dad, and write a column for your newspaper back on the mainland describing the events at Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941.
3. Research one of the following and share your findings with your group:
| blackout | sushi | victory garden | rationing | tofu |
4. Amber's father enjoyed twice baked potatoes, and her mother showed Kame's aunt how to make them. Try out the recipe at http://www.lightlife.com/bpotato.html and see if you like them, too.
5. After Pearl Harbor was bombed, Kame and her family, along with many Americans of Japanese ancestry, were sent to internment camps on the mainland. Find out about internment camps at http://home.jps.net/~gailhd/Hall_5.html. Read The Journal of Ben Uchida, Citizen 13559, Mirror Lake Internment Camp, a My Name Is America book also written by Barry Denenberg, and see what that experience was like for a young Japanese-American boy.
6. Read My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck, Long Island, New York, 1941. How is Maddie's story different from Amber's, how are they alike?
An Interview with Barry Denenberg
Richard F. Abrahamson, Ph.D. & Eleanore S. Tyson, Ed.D.: So many parallels seem to exist between the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the attack on the twin towers in New York City in 2001: surprise of the attack, concerns over the possibility of a chemical or biological strike, attention to homeland security, a sense of disbelief and a desire for revenge. Are there lessons from the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and how we dealt with that tragedy that we should remember in our ongoing war with terrorism?
Barry Denenberg: I think the most important lesson is this: Prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 65% of the American population was opposed to our direct involvement in the war despite clear contemporaneous evidence that Germany, Italy and Japan were intent on a course of action that if allowed to proceed would eventually threaten us.
The President's role, in my estimation, is not to follow the wishes of the populace. Given the information to which he is privileged, he must make decisions about the security of the country. An untold number of lives-and not just the lives of Jews-would have been saved if world leaders at the time of Munich (and even before) had acted with intelligence, determination and a willingness to make the difficult decisions necessary.
The isolationists then thought, protected by the Atlantic Ocean, we didn't need to involve ourselves in a foreign war. This wasn't true then and it is not true now. Today's isolationists with their ostrich-in-the-sand mentality should take a lesson from history.
RFA & EST: Lieutenant Lockhart is one of the most unlikable characters in Amber's diary. Was he actually an officer on the USS Arizona?
BD: Lieutenant Lockhart was not an officer on the USS Arizona. In the sense that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, Lockhart's individual characteristics are all grounded in actual people's thoughts and actions. Someone had to embody the myriad of unenlightened views at the time and Lieutenant Lockhart admirably served this purpose.
RFA & EST: Other than Amber, who is your favorite character in the book? Why?
BD: Without question, I'd choose Amber's mother. I was struck during my research (as I was when researching my book on Vietnam) by the heroic efforts of the nurses on the island in the hours immediately after the attack. I also thought it was important to present to the reader the real results of the attack-not just facts and figures about how many died- but rather the immediate pain and heartache.
RFA & EST: In Amber's diary and in several of your other Dear America and My America titles, your main characters often write about the books they have read-reading is a solid part of their lives. What did you enjoy reading as a youngster? Did these books inspire you to be a writer?
BD: You got me here. I try not to be autobiographical but talking about reading is just too tempting. To say that reading saved my life is probably not an understatement. I read incessantly: then history, later fiction, and now back to history. Reading inspired me to become a writer in that writing the books I write allows me to spend endless amounts of time researching. Although I have come to love the writing process, the reading is the thing. You can't write a proper history book without doing a large amount of research.
RFA & EST: You have written several books set during World War II. What did you discover in your research for Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows that interested or surprised you most?
BD: What surprised me the most was one scholar's view that the reason the Japanese were rounded up was because the white people in California wanted their prosperous farms.
RFA & EST: What is one question you'd like to ask children after they've finished reading Amber's diary?
BD: Does the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor have any meaning for you or is it just dry, dusty ancient history? If it does have meaning, tell me how.
RFA & EST: What is one thing you hope young readers will take with them after reading Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows?
BD: I hope they take away an admiration for the Issei and Nissei living in America who were placed in the camps and the way they conducted themselves.
Discussion Guide written by Richard F. Abrahamson, Ph.D., Professor of Literature for Children and Young Adults, University of Houston, Houston, Texas and Eleanore S. Tyson, Ed.D., Clinical Associate Professor, University of Houston, Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Houston, Texas.
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