Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds

by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto

ON THE MORNING OF MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1941, Frank rose early to attend a track meet. At 7 a.m., he was standing on the platform at Takasu Station, having decided to catch a train to conserve his energy before the race. Housewives were heading to market despite the latest government slogan chiding them, “Kawanu kesshin, kachinuku ketsui.” “Decide not to buy, resolve to triumph!” Frank focused on staying warm. He limbered up, jumping on tiptoe until the train rolled into the station. Above the clamor of the screeching wheels, a man behind him yelled—something about a victorious assault on Hawaii. Frank hopped on the train. Bewildered, he grasped that the news was important. “I was excited and didn’t know what was going to happen.” After the meet, he ran home to find that his mother had already heard about Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Everyone had. A Japanese naval hymn had trumpeted forth from strategically positioned loudspeakers, jarring citizens before they sipped their first cup of green tea that morning. “Defend and attack for our country,” the announcement blared. No one knew what would happen next. The next day, Kinu opened her local Chūgoku Shimbun newspaper to martial headlines from official Japanese news sources throughout the Pacific. The titles were so bold, they roared. “Surprise attacks” in “every direction”—“first air raids on Honolulu”; Singapore “under bombardment,” too; Davao, Wake, Guam, as well. In Shanghai, the British fleet “sunk,” the American one “...