Midnight in Broad Daylight

A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds

By: Pamela Rotner Sakamoto

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

After their father's death, Harry, Frank, and Pierce Fukuhara - all born and raised in the Pacific Northwest - moved to Hiroshima, their mother's ancestral home. Eager to go back to his own land - America - Harry returned in the late 1930s. Then came Pearl Harbor. Despite being sent to an internment camp, Harry dutifully volunteered to serve his country.

Back in Hiroshima, his brothers, Frank and Pierce, became soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army. As the war raged on, Harry, one of the finest bilingual interpreters in the United States Army, island hopped across the Pacific, moving ever closer to the enemy and to his younger brothers. But before the Fukuharas would have to face each other in battle, the US detonated the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, gravely injuring tens of thousands of civilians, including members of their family. Alternating between the American and Japanese perspectives, Midnight in Broad Daylight captures the uncertainty and intensity of those charged with the fighting and provides a fresh look at the dropping of the first atomic bomb.

©2016 Pamela Rotner Sakamoto (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A beautifully rendered work wrought with enormous care and sense of compassionate dignity." ( Kirkus)

great, moving historical account

A great, moving historical account of a family split by WWII ...unlike any other book

Enlightening Novel

This is a really wonderful book to read. I learned so much about this part of history.

Great true story about Japanese Americans in WWII.

After reading so much about Europe and WWII, it's great to learn about the Pacific theatre especially through the eyes of a Japanese American family. I didn't particularly like the narrator.

Amazing

Incredible, unimaginable journey for a single family. At times it was hard to follow, possibly due to my unfamiliarity with the pacific theater and Japanese culture. Overall, it is well worth the read simply to appreciate the hardships of this generation of young men and their families.

Everyone should read this book

I was privileged enough to be assigned this reading for class at university. Anyone with even a glimmer of interest into the social history of WW2 needs to read it. This is one of the finest books I have ever read.