Albert Marrin - Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience During World War II

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THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Text copyright 2016 by Albert Marrin

Cover photographs copyright by U.S. National Archives

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Childrens Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Marrin, Albert.

Title: Uprooted : the Japanese American experience during World War II / Albert Marrin.

Description: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. | Audience: 12-up.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015025406 | ISBN 978-0-553-50936-6 (trade) | ISBN 978-0-553-50937-3 (lib. bdg.) | ISBN 978-0-553-50938-0 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Japanese AmericansEvacuation and relocation, 19421945Juvenile literature. | World War, 19391945Japanese AmericansJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC D769.8.A6 M329 2016 | DDC 940.53/170973dc23

Ebook ISBN9780553509380

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For those who seek densh, to pass on to future generations

We were suddenly uprooted.We were in shock. Youd be in shock. Youd be bewildered. Youd be humiliated. You cant believe this is happening to you. To think this could happen in the United States. We were citizens. We did nothing. It was only because of our race.

M IN O KUBO , ARTIST

Yesterday, December 7, 1941a date which will live in infamythe United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

P RESIDENT F RANKLIN D. R OOSEVELT (D ECEMBER 8, 1941)

On this bright Sunday morning, deck crews scurried about, hurrying to make final preparations. A huge flag bearing the red rays of the Rising Sun fluttered from the tall radio mast of each ship. These ships had graceful, poetic names: Misty Island, Shimmering Mist, Haze, Daybreak Cloud, and Wind on the Beach. Such names, however, belied the terrific firepower of the thirteen battleships, cruisers, and destroyers of the task force. At its heart were the six aircraft carriers they protected. The flagship, the 36,500-ton carrier Red Castle, steamed ahead, followed by the Flying Dragon, Green Dragon, Increased Joy, Crane Flying in Heaven, and Lucky Crane. Their objective was a shallow harbor on the western coast of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands, the U.S. Navys chief Pacific Ocean base. Native people called it Wai Momi (Pearl Waters) for the pearl-bearing oysters that once were plentiful therePearl Harbor.

The coming attack was part of a grand scheme to make Japan the ruler of Asia. To that end, the countrys forces had invaded

A Japanese navy carrier attack plane takes off for Pearl Harbor as its crewmen shoutBanzai!(December 7, 1941)

At 6:00 a.m., the carriers turned into the wind to launch their planes from a position 270 miles north of Pearl Harbor. At a signal from the Red Castle, pilots raced their motors. As the planes sped forward, deckhands shouted Banzai!, meaning Long life!, Hurrah!, and Forward! Hours earlier, on the other side of the globe, in Washington, D.C., Operation Magic, a top-secret program for decoding Japanese radio signals, had told President Franklin D. Roosevelt that an attack was coming, but not where. So the War Department sent an alert to bases throughout the Pacific. Yet communication foul-ups prevented the message from reaching Pearl Harbor until after the attack.

It was a normal peacetime Sunday morning at Pearl Harbor. The navy ships were at anchor and tied up at their docks. No bugle calls woke their crews. Sunday was a day of rest, and captains ordered late hammocks, so the sailors could get up whenever they liked. That was good, since many nursed hangovers from Saturday night in Honolulus saloons, dance halls, and social clubs.

The USS Shaw explodes during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor. (December 7, 1941)

At 7:55 a.m., early risers heard the drone of motors overhead. Moments later, 360 Japanese raidersfighters, dive-bombers, torpedo planesswooped down, each heading for its assigned target. Meeting little organized resistance, within a half hour they sank, ran aground, or severely damaged 18 warships. Three battleships became total wrecks, and 177 planes that had been parked on airfield runways were blown to bits, with a loss of only 29 Japanese planes and pilots. The enemy killed 2,403 Americans and injured 1,178 others. The next day, President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.