Under the blood-red sun

Under the Blood-Red Sun is a historical novel by the American writer Graham Salisbury, published in 1994 by Delacorte Press. It is set in Honolulu in the months either side of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the boy who tells it, Tomikazu Nakaji, is Japanese American.

Tomi's concerns before December 1941 are ordinary ones: baseball, his mother's expectations, his father's fishing boat, and a boy who keeps picking fights with him. The attack changes the shape of every day that follows. Police and soldiers take his father and grandfather to a camp on the mainland, the family loses the boat it lives from, and Tomi becomes the one holding the household together. He leans on his white friend Billy, who stays loyal when the neighbourhood turns, and the two boys try to reach the men who have been taken away. Another friend, nineteen-year-old Sanji, is killed, and Tomi's father is shot in the leg.

The novel follows the suspicion Tomi's family meets in their own town, the pressure to appear more American than they feel, and Tomi's determination to be treated as an American boy. A feature adaptation written by Salisbury and directed by Tim Savage was released in 2014.