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Linda Boyden was the second (and since there have been many more) person that I had gotten to know in the online kid lit community who invited me to stay before meeting me. It was in October of 2012 and … Continue reading →

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Zenji Watanabe is 17 years old in the summer of 1941, a Nesei born on Honolulu to Japanese parents.  Naturally, he is fluent in both Japanese and English.  He has also just graduated from high school and is thinking about studying Buddhism in Japan, Meanwhile, he was working to help support his family - mother, older brother Henry, younger sister Aiko, father deceased.

All that changes when Zenji's JROTC commanding officer Colonel Blake shows up at his house one day.  He wants Zenji to be interviewed and tested, but for what?  To travel to the Philippines to translate some documents from Japanese to English.

But when Zenji arrives in Manila, he is instructed to stay at the Momo, a hotel where Japanese businessmen like staying, to befriend them and keep his ears and eyes open.  He is given the key to a mail box that he is required to check twice a day to be use for leaving and receiving information and instructions.  Zenji is also given  a contact person, Colonel Jake Olsten, head of G2, the Military Intelligence Service, and even a code name - the Bamboo Rat.

In December 1941, the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and the war in the Pacific begins.  It isn't long before the Americans are forced to withdraw from Manila.  Zenji chooses to remain, giving his seat on the last plane out to another Japanese American with a family.  Not long after that, he is taken prisoner by the Japanese, who torture and threaten him trying to make him admit he is the Bamboo Rat, and considering him a traitor to his county - Japan.

Eventually, the Japanese give up and Zenji is sent to work as a houseboy/translator for the more humane Colonel Fujimoto.  Fujimoto seems to forget that Zenji is a prisoner of war, and begins to trust him more and more.

By late 1944, it's clear the Japanese are losing the war in the Pacific.  They decide to evacuate Manila and go to Baguio.  Even though food is in short supply, Zenji starts to put some aside for the day he may be able to escape into the jungle and wait for the war to end.

But of course, the best laid plans don't always work out the way we would like them to and that is true for Zenji.  Will he ever make it back to Honolulu and his family?

WOW! Graham Salisbury can really write an action-packed, exciting and suspenseful novel.  Salisbury was born and raised in Hawaii, so he gives his books a sense of place that pulsating with life.  Not many authors explore the Japanese American in Hawaii experience during World War II and not many people realize that they were never, for the most part, interned in camps the way the Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians on the west coast of the US and Canada were.  And although Hawaii was only an American territory until it became a state in 1959, if you were born there, you had American citizenship, just like Zenji continuously tells his Japanese captors throughout Hunt for the Bamboo Rat.

At first, I thought Zenji was too gentle, too innocent and too trusting for the kind of work he was recruited to do, which amounted to the dangerous job of spying.  But he proved to be a strong, tough character even while he retained those his aspects of his nature.  Ironically, part of his survival as a spy and a POW is based in what his Japanese Buddhist priests had taught him before the war.

One of the nice elements that Salisbury included are the little poems Zenji's mother wrote.  Devising a form of her own, and written in Kanji, it is her way of expressing her feelings.  They are scattered throughout the book.  Zenji receives one in the mail just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor and keeps it with him as long as he can, deriving comfort from it.

Like the first novel I read by Salisbury, Eyes of the Emperor, one kept me reading straight through until I finished it.  It is the fourth novel in his Prisoners of the Empire series, and it is a well-crafted, well-researched story, but it is a stand alone novel.  Zenji's story is based on the real wartime experiences of Richard Motoso Sakakida.

True to form, Salisbury brings in a lot of history, along with real people and events, but be careful, fact and fiction are seamlessly woven together.  He also includes the tension between the Filipino people and the Japanese after the Philippines are occupied by the Japanese and the cruel treatment of the Filipino people.   And included is the tension between Chinese and Japanese in Hawaii because of the Nanjing massacre of Chinese civilians in 1937/38.

All of this gives Hunt for the Bamboo Rat a feeling of authenticity.  There is some violence and reading the about Zenji's torture isn't easy, so it may not appeal to the faint at heart.

Hunt for the Bamboo Rat is historical fiction that will definetely appeal to readers, whether or not they particularly enjoy WWII fiction. And be sure to look at the Author's Note, the Glossary and additional Resources at the end of the novel.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was purchased for my personal library

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The ukulele, a small four-stringed instrument of Portuguese origin, was patented in Hawaii in 1917, deriving its name from the Hawaiian word for “leaping flea.” Immigrants from the island of Madeira first brought to Hawaii a pair of Portuguese instruments in the late 1870s from which the ukuleles eventually developed. Trace back to the origins of the ukulele, follow its evolution and path to present-day popularity, and explore interesting facts about this instrument with Oxford Reference.

1. Developed from a four-string Madeiran instrument and built from Hawaiian koa wood, ukuleles were popular among the Hawaiian royalty in the late 19^th century.

2. 1893’s World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago saw the first major performance of Hawaiian music with ukulele on the mainland.

3. By 1916, Hawaiian music became a national craze, and the ukulele was incorporated into popular American culture soon afterwards.

4. Singin’ In The Rain vocalist Cliff Edwards was also known as Ukulele Ike, and was one of the best known ukulele players during the height of the instrument’s popularity in the United States.

5. When its sales reached millions in the 1920s, the ukulele became an icon of the decade in the United States.

6. Ernest Ka’ai wrote the earliest known ukulele method in The Ukulele, A Hawaiian Guitar and How to Play It, 1906.

7. The highest paid entertainer and top box office attraction in Britain during the 1930s and 40s, George Fromby, popularized the ukulele in the United Kingdom.

Headline image credit: Ukuleles. Photo by Ian Ransley. CC BY 2.0 via design-dog Flickr.

The post Seven fun facts about the ukulele appeared first on OUPblog.

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Edgar Cayce in his numerous readings made many references to dreams but relatively few to intuition itself. Recently, for a class at the University of Hawaii Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) I gave a presentation on intuition as it is seen in Edgar Cayce’s readings which, by the way, can be accessed when one is a member of The Edgar Cayce Association for Research and Enlightenment.

To prepare for the class I reviewed many of the readings and came up with these observations.

1. Intuition is a force of the mind that works to promote the good. The mind is what Case called the Builder in that it is what constructs our views, which in turn manifests the results on the physical plane.
2. Intuition is different from the Sixth Sense which he defined as a force, an activity, of the soul. Reading 5754-1 says that the Sixth Sense is that part of us that represents our Ideal and stands “ever on guard before the throne of the Creator itself.” We can catch glimpses of it in dreams. Intuition’s role is to bring us into sync with this Sixth Sense and its purpose for our lives.
3. Intuition helps us understand the Oneness of all things. All truths ultimately go back to one truth and intuition helps us see and experience this interconnectedness of all things and all people.
4. Intuition informs the mental which in turn influences the betterment of health in the body. Intuition is a driving force that inspires us to get a better understanding of what it means to live a life truer to our ideal and treat our body in better ways so that we can become healthy. Disease and unhappiness result when we lose sight of our Ideal and chase after other distractions.
5. Insights from intuition and dreams can promote better health.  Intuition and dreams are ultimately accessing the same kind of information. Edgar Cayce thought that we need to get in touch with our bodies and learn from the body 1) through meditation or 2) by being aware of our dreams. These methods would help us to grow spiritually and understand what our bodies need to be healthy.
6. Tapping into the subconscious mind brings us into contact with all other subconscious minds.  Edgar Cayce was able to do this to a very high degree. When we meditate we can also begin to experience this kind of insight. Imagine being able to have access to what is in the minds of the greatest people who have ever lived or will live. Imagine what it would be like to look into the heart of Jesus or the mind of the Buddha. You can also tune into the minds of doctors, scientists, musicians and artists to help you in your life!

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The birds of Hawaii, in their multitude of colors and forms, strut and alternate their strides with their heads held high. Bipeds that are confident. Secure. Fearless. Their flight plan involves plopping right down in your personal space, breathing your air and eyeing your food, waiting for you to leave so they can partake, but they always patiently wait their turn by eating the crumbs fallen at your feet. For days, I’ve been watching these birds and I can attest that they are completely undaunted by your presence here in their Hawaii. For you are a mere human, mortal–and you certainly cannot fly. The birds here are showy, pluming and preening their feathers in front of you, as if they are courting you with their Aloha Spirit. Californian birds, or the birds from my home state, are much more enigmatic, evasive, skittish and untouchable, sometimes like the people who live there–some of whom would snatch your bag of Doritos right out of your hands if you’d let them.

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An adult book today...


Vowell, Sarah. 2011. Unfamiliar Fishes. Simon and Schuster Audio.

If you're looking for something recent in adult nonfiction, try Sarah Vowell's, Unfamiliar Fishes, which chronicles the transformation of Hawaii since the arrival of Captain Cook and more importantly, the first missionaries. As is her way, Ms. Vowell is both erudite and playful, offering carefully researched history punctuated with the droll realities of the contemporary and the commonplace. (e.g., why Barack Obama is our first "plate lunch" president)  Though she does not count herself among the believers of any religion, she is nevertheless well-schooled in and respectful of the beliefs of native Hawaiians and the later arrivals. She gives credit and scorn equally, deservedly and humorously. If you've never heard her quirky little voice before (she is the voice of Violet in The Incredibles), you're likely to love it or hate it. I love it. Listen for yourself.

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GoodReads is currently sponsoring the Independent Book Bloggers Contest. Independent bloggers who live in the US, are over 18 and have a GoodReads account entered their blog to be voted as a readers favorite. Winners in each of the four categories will receive a trip to BookExpo America this summer. I entered my blog. I want to go to BookExpo, but I didn’t expect to win. I did expect to expose my blog to people who may never have heard of it, but for some reason, GoodReads didn’t put my blog in the running. I did look through the blogs that did get entered and found a couple that I found quite interesting.

I found the Hawaii Book Blog. Their mission statement reads

“The world’s books are as diverse as the people who read and author them. Hawaiʻi’s own literary landscape is beautifully unique because of the various cultures that inhabit its islands. Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London—these are well known names in literature, but they are also important to Hawaiʻi’s individual literary history. These great authors had much to say about our islands and there are many more authors like them to be found still. The main purpose of this blog is to provide people with a comprehensive platform to learn and discuss books about Hawaiʻi and the Pacific, books by local authors, or books published by local companies. Hawaiʻi’s books are multi-cultural and multi-generational with universal conflicts and themes.”

The blog announces many reading related activities on the islands such as the annual Celebrate Reading . To celebrate National Poetry Month, they’re collecting poems for Poems in you Aloha-shirt day on 24 April.

Also from Hawaii is Michelle and Leslie’s Book Picks.Michelle and Leslie are two sisters!

Michelle is 24 years old and I live in Hawaii. She has adegree in elementary education  and is currently pursuing hermasters in library science.  Her favorite books to read are young adult fiction and contemporary and historical romances. Leslie is  a 14 year old high school sophomore. Her favorite genre is YA with paranormal and fantasy elements. (Take from their “About Us page”)

Have you found any noteworthy blogs in the contest, or is yours entered?

Do any of you Pinterest? I’ve avoided it for a long time, but recently got an invitation and am planning to put the May releases by authors of color on there.

Filed under: Diversity Issues, Technology and Gadgets Tagged: GoodReads, Hawaii, Independent Book Bloggers Contest, Pinterest 0 Comments on Blogging Diversity as of 4/18/2012 10:24:00 AM