HAWAII: Bombs and Barbed Wire

by Nancy Uno

December 7, 1941 we say is the day World War Two started for the United Sates. For my husband that date represents the day his life, as he knew it, ended for all time. Boogie was his nickname : a Japanese-Hawaiian boy living on the Island of Maui, Hawaii. For his thirteenth birthday he was given a trip with his father by airplane to the neighboring island of Oahu. "Some good", he grinned, saying it was going to be the best two days of his life. But instead of a holiday, he witnessed the horrific Japanese air attack. He saw the planes with the Rising Sun on the wings fly over Oahu in three waves setting Pearl Harbor aflame, sinking the USS Arizona and other ships, killing two thousand four hundred and three people. The presses of the Japanese language newspaper immediately were halted—putting his father out of his job. The Buddhist temples padlocked...priests deported. Japanese language school locked...teachers deported. Japanese doctors forbidden to practice. By nightfall Hawaii was in total blackout...the American citizens of Japanese ancestry ordered to sundown curfew. Bombs and Barbed Wire is a novel that tells the heartbreaking ending of that paradise, not from the viewpoint of historians, but from the experiences of the children who lived it.Two weeks following the attack, Boogie's brother was the first death on Maui. The little five year old child had to be given a quick and secretive cremation with only the family present because Japanese-Hawaiian locals were not allowed to assemble. His ashes were placed in a tomato soup can, the only available "urn". To commemorate those tragic years the ashes still rest in the vault of the Buddhist Temple in Wailuku in that can. Boogie and his family believe it a fitting Memorial to the time in Hawaii's history when there was no trust. Nancy Uno

269 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2013

Reviews

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved looking at Hawaii from the perspective of an American of Japanese desent. Happenings on Maui after Pearl Harbor was bombed. A very good read.

[Suzanne Crowson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable

Memoirs of a 13 year old boy and the aftermath of December 7 in Honolulu and on the island of Maui.

[Claude Bealer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hawaii: Bombs and Barbed Wire

This is an outstanding true story of a Japanese family living in Maui during the war with Japan. It is touching and well written.