Wednesday, April 23, 2008

A Boy at War (Pearl Harbor)

I recently finished a short book based on a boy living in Hawaii and was there when Pearl Harbor happened. I think it's a fictional book but is obviously based on an event that really happened. There's a boy who's dad is in the navy so they're always traveling and are now living in Hawaii. His dad's ship is the Arizona, the one that took the most lives and damage during Pearl Harbor. He met a boy that's Japanese and he even goes to his house which is in a part that he's not supposed to go. Eventually his dad finds out he's friends with him and tells him that he can't be anymore. They end up sneeking to go fishing in Pearl Harbor which they're not supposed to do. They found a small boat hidden in some bushes and went out in the Harbor. After a few minutes of fishing an airplane comes in and drops a bomb on one of the ships and this keeps happening to all of the ships and there are a lot of airplanes but they think it's just a movie being made or something so are just kind of laughing. When they see the red circle's and figure out that the Japanese are attacking the main character attacks the Japanese boy out of impulse. When they're separated finally a Zero (the Japanese fighter/bomber during world war 2) starts shooting bullets at their raft and the other boy with them, the one that seperated them, get's a huge pencil size splinter in his chest. The main character (I forget the names, that's why I'm saying main character and such) get's shot in the back. When they get back to shore, the guy that has the splinter get's rushed to the hospital but there are tons of people scurrying around on the dock so it was hard to get him in an ambulence. The boy that got shot in the back stays because he isn't very hurt. He wants to go see if his father's okay so he get's in a raft and a sailor get's in and tells him to row to his ship. When they get there they have to stay on it in case the Japanese came back. They didn't so they pushed of and looked for survivors. The one's that survived were usually in terrible condition either by oil or from serious burns. When the raft was full and they got back to shore, they needed extra people to help with all of the confusion so they gave the main character a hat and machine gun and held back the people scurrying to get in. He then snuck away and got in a truck and headed for home to see if his mom and sister are alright. They run out of gas going through a corn field but he finds an abandoned jeep which he takes and on his way out sees a man with a parachute. At first he thought it was a Japanese paratrooper but then finds out it's just a guy that had to ditch his plane. When he get's back to the house he hides his gun and goes in to find out if his family's okay. After that all that really happens is that his father ends up being dead and they leave Hawaii for the mainland. I think it was a good quick read which gave good facts about what happened during Pearl Harbor.

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