Eyes of the Emperor

Eyes of the Emperor is a historical novel written by Graham Salisbury, and is currently published by Laurel-Leaf, which is an imprint of Random House Children's Books, in the United States in paperback. The first edition was published in 2005. The first edition was published by Wendy Lamb Books in hardcover format in the same year.

In 2006, Eyes of the Emperor won the Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature.

Plot summary

The story starts in Honolulu in 1941, where a Japanese boy, Eddy, lives. He has a brother, Herbie, and numerous friends. His friends are in the army, and Eddy, who is 16 years old, joins the US army by illegally altering his birth certificate to appear 18 years old. They enlist in Camp McCoy. Eddy's father strongly opposes this as he feels that Eddy is betraying Japan, but soon Japan attacks Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Eddy and his Japanese company must do manual labor, such as digging trenches, while the soldiers of other nationalities go on with regular army training. He then is mobilized by Lieutenant Sweet to Cat Island, Mississippi, along with his comrades. They then embark on a secret mission commissioned by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which is for training dogs: Dogs are trained to smell the Japanese people, and this is training them so that when they are released in the Pacific theater, the dogs would track and kill the Japanese soldiers. This severely demoralizes the soldiers. Later, when they commute from the island to the mainland, their boat motor stalls. When they call for assistance, the US Coast Guard comes and shoots the boat, suspecting that they were the enemy. Accidental attacks continue, and the treatment of the Japanese-American soldiers becomes worse as the war worsens. Eddy is nearly killed once when his dog's trainer, Smith, calls the dog back slightly late. The soldiers are forced to treat the dogs harshly, which is against their will.

After a few weeks of grueling treatment of the Japanese, the government observes and evaluates this project. It is deemed unsuccessful, and Eddy now is assigned to combat in the European theater.

Characters

Eddy Okubo

The protagonist of the book. He lives in Hawaii, and is a Japanese boy native to America. He is 16 years old at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Eddy is more loyal to the United States than his home country, Japan. His fathers name is Koji Okubo.

Pop

Eddy's father. He was strongly opposed to Eddy joining the US army, but after the Pearl Harbor attack he favors Eddy's decision. Pop is a boat-builder. He was loyal to Japan, but after the attack his loyalty changed, and he turned himself in to the immigration office for shame of his country.

Major Parrish who is very smart and was promoted as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Chik-Usually has 2-3 girlfriends at a time Cobra- He is very strong and muscular

Sources

• Salisbury, Graham (2005). Eyes of the Emperor. Laurel-Leaf. pp. 222. ISBN 978-0-440-22956-8. 

See also

• Under the Blood Red Sun, an earlier novel about Japan, Hawaii, and World War II by Graham Salisbury. Eddy and Herbie both briefly appear in it, although Eddy's name was not mentioned.