December 7—A Day That Will Live in Infamy

Today, December 7th, is Pearl Harbor Day. On this date in 1941 Japan attacked the United States Navy fleet lying at anchor in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. President Franklin D. Roosevelt went to the Congress the day after the attack to ask for a declaration of war. In his remarks to the members of Congress he called December 7 “a day that will live in infamy.” Congress passed the resolution of war, and three days later Germany and Italy (Japan’s axis partners) declared war against the United States. After years of isolationism, America fully committed itself to participate in World War II.

This largest of world wars deserves the study and understanding by all citizens of a free world. The war had a significant personal influence on my life as a young boy, and its aftermath impacted my military service and civilian employment as I matured.

The Bombing of Pearl Harbor by John F. Wukovits is a book in the World History Series published by Lucent Books. The author, a retired junior high school teacher, knows how to write for younger readers. Wukovits explains the menace facing peace-loving people before the United States entered World War II. Throughout the 1930s, the majority of Americans strongly believed in isolation. They wanted nothing to do with the warfare that Japan, Germany, and Italy were inflicting on their enemies. The book tells how President Franklin D. Roosevelt worked to prepare America for war while appeasing those who opposed him. The book explains why Japan decided to start the war with America and the impact of that choice upon the Japanese people. Photographs provide vivid illustrations of the destruction of the fleet at Pearl Harbor and of airplanes on nearby airfields. Wukovits builds his agonizing story from both primary and secondary sources. He concludes by discussing the effort required following the attack to rebuild the Navy and how the sneak attack changed the attitude of Americans overnight.

World War II in the Pacific by Don Nardo is another book in the World History Series by Lucent Books. The author, having written over 200 books, is recognized as a leader in producing history lessons for younger readers. He contrasts the cultures of the United States and Japan, and delves into the transformation of Japan into a world power. Nardo writes vividly about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Excellent maps enhance the reader’s understanding of how the Japanese pulled off the surprise. He explains the defeat of the Americans in the Philippines, and discusses the horrors of the Bataan Death March. Twenty-two thousand Americans died on the march. My first grade teacher’s husband was one of the few survivors of the Japanese atrocities committed against their prisoners in the Philippines. Nardo appropriately documents the turning point in the Pacific War as the Battle of Midway, when the United States reestablished its supremacy of the seas. The American aircraft carrier USS Yorktown was sunk during that battle. An uncle of mine was one of the survivors of that sinking. Nardo discusses the development of the nuclear bomb and explains why President Harry S. Truman dropped two bombs on Japan. The author concludes by explaining how this horrible event caused the Japanese to surrender.

Kamikazes by Earle Rice, Jr., is a title in Lucent Books’ The American War Library Series. The Japanese high command created the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps late in the war. Rice explains how Emperor Hirohito approved the use of this suicide weapon after determining the war was not going well for his country. Kamikaze means “divine wind” and carries strong religious overtones. The sacrifice of one pilot and one airplane in exchange for sinking one American warship became an acceptable way to die for one’s country. The Japanese Army already had a reputation for seldom surrendering. Japanese soldiers died in banzai charges against the Allied troops confronting them in the Pacific. The author explains how the Japanese warrior had traditionally committed honorable death through seppuku. Disemboweling oneself with a sword, known in the vernacular as hara-kiri, had been the preferred way for warriors to die since the days of the samurai. The book is well illustrated with the destructive actions the Kamikazes inflicted on the American fleet. Today’s younger reader is aware of the suicide bombings committed by radical Islamic terrorists. This book confirms that such a way of attacking an enemy is not new.

Yet another book in the World History Series by Lucent Books is The Making of the Atom Bomb by Victoria Sherrow. The author begins by explaining what led to World War II and how it generated an arms race that resulted in the United States developing the atomic bomb. She provides a section on the science of nuclear physics and the roles played by such famous men as Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi. She writes about the secretive Manhattan Project under the supervision of Robert Oppenheimer, known as the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” To test this unproven weapon, the Army detonated the first atomic bomb near Alamogordo, a town in central New Mexico. I had recently completed the second grade in Hobbs, New Mexico, when on that July 16, 1945, morning, the first bomb was exploded at 5:30 AM. Those in my town who were awake at that time described an unusually bright light appearing in the sky 200 miles to the west. Ms. Sherrow covers the planning and execution of dropping the first bomb by the aircrew of the B-29, Enola Gay. She delves at some length into the horrific death and destruction to Japan caused by the event. After a second bomb fell on Japan, the country surrendered, and the war in the Pacific concluded. Ms. Sherrow ends her book with a discussion of what might happen to the world if atomic weapons’ development continues. The concerns she identifies impacted me when I served as an Army officer during the Cold War. In the decades following World War II, the threat of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union resulted in me being stationed in Europe when the Berlin Wall was erected. Later, I was stationed on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean as part of the U.S. National Nuclear Test Readiness Program. Since then, several nations have acquired the atomic bomb. The question of further nuclear proliferation is pertinent today because of the ongoing disagreement between the United States and North Korea over their desires to possess nuclear weapons.

World War II—Pacific by Barbara Williams is part of Lerner Publications’ America’s Wars Series. This book summarizes the entirety of World War II in the Pacific. Excellent maps allow the reader to follow the war from the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 through the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. The author covers each of the major battles through the intervening years. She provides information on the soldiers and sailors as well as the ships, aircraft, and armaments they used to wage war. A brother-in-law of mine served as a bomber pilot in the battles fought in the South Pacific. Ms. Williams also describes the effort required on the home front to support the war. She includes a short section on the unfortunate Japanese-American internment camps where thousands of men, women, and children were incarcerated in the United States during the conflict. The author writes about the special effort American women provided during the war. Williams’ book includes a timeline of the significant battles and events comprising the Pacific war. Although shorter than the other titles reviewed here, Williams’ book provides the younger reader an easily understood account of the entire war in the Pacific.

Today, December 7, is a good day for middle-grade students to commence or continue their study of World War II. They live in a world created by the results of that mammoth conflict.

Sara K Joiner: Women's History Is History

Statue of Joan of Arc

at Mont St. Michel in France

When I was younger, I only read books that featured girls or women as the main characters. That's still my preference, but I'm not as exclusive as I once was. I went through a phase where I read nothing but biographies—though describing those particular books as biographies is a bit of a stretch; they would more accurately have been called historical fiction.

But what I loved most about them were the stories. Stories about strong, independent women who pushed themselves to the limit and changed the course of human history. Women like Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie and Amelia Earhart.

Equally important to me now are stories about the lives of women lead, whether real or fictional, contemporary or historical. How they deal with the times and situations they find themselves in. Some of my recent favorites include:

Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy by Elizabeth Kiem is about Marya, a Soviet ballet dancer, who is forced to defect and flee to the United States with her father after her mother, a star with the Bolshoi Ballet, disappears. Is her mother a spy? Has she been arrested? But most important, can Marya make a home in America? The novel tells a unique immigrant story from the 1980s. It is followed by the sequel Hider, Seeker, Secret Keeper.

Elizabeth Wein's Rose Under Fire is the brilliant sequel to the equally magnificent Code Name Verity. Rose Justice is an American pilot who is captured by Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the women's concentration camp. There, she is tortured but manages to form powerful friendships with other suffering prisoners.

Cece Maloney, the main character in Radio Girl by Carol Brendler, wants nothing more than to perform in a radio serial. Unfortunately, her mother refuses to let Cece work. Nothing can keep Cece from realizing her dream, but when everyone on her street panics during Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast, only Cece knows it's a hoax because she's secretly been working at CBS with Mr. Welles himself.

Touched by Fire, a novel by Irene N. Watts, features the early twentieth-century immigrant experience. Miriam and her family flee the Jewish pogroms in Russia and move to Germany. For years the family struggles to save enough to immigrate to the United States. Miriam's father leaves first, and years later Miriam joins him. While they wait for the rest of the family to join them, Miriam begins working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.

Verity Boone returns to her Pennsylvania home in The Caged Graves by Dianne K. Salerni and discovers the graves of her mother and aunt are encaged in iron bars. Why? In trying to determine the reason for what she believes is desecration, Verity also learns more about the man she is engaged to marry. The novel is inspired by two real caged graves in Pennsylvania.

Sara K Joiner: Medical Historical Fiction

Historical nursing display at a Houston hospital.

Last month my mother underwent shoulder surgery. While the procedure went well, there were some slight complications afterward that were blown out of proportion. As I sat in hospital rooms and listened to a parade of medical professionals ask the same questions over and over, I wondered about the distinctions between her care in the 21st century and the care she would have received 50, 100 or even 200 years ago for the same injury.

The emergency room visit was certainly enlightening. After X-rays and CT scans, we were told her upper humerus was fractured. Although no one told us her shoulder was dislocated, it apparently was. Many shots and sedatives later, the ER doctor worked to set her arm. Except for the drugs, this procedure has probably changed little over the years—pull and push the arm back in place. The doctor even had to climb up in bed and use her foot to help set Mom's arm. I have no doubt that would have been unbearable for anyone without drugs.

But what has changed in medicine?

Some progress has been and is still being made in eradicating disease. In the novel In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters, readers learn about various and sundry treatments for the Spanish Flu. The main character is living in San Diego in 1918. The city is in crisis because seemingly everyone either has the flu, had the flu or will get the flu. People are dying in the street. Desperation (and a lack of medical knowledge) leads people to try anything—including eating onions multiple times daily or even trying sugar cubes soaked in kerosene.

With the ease with which diseases travel now, the mere thought of coming in contact with someone who has a highly contagious illness can be terrifying. The recent Ebola scare in Texas and New York demonstrated that. The same panics have happened throughout time. Laurie Halse Anderson's novel Fever 1793 shows how Philadelphia panicked to such a degree that Congress fled the city rather than fall victim to the epidemic.

Throughout history, there have been countless individuals who have risked their lives to relieve the suffering of the dying, treat the symptoms of the sick or discover the causes of contagion. Doctors, nurses, scientists and ordinary people have done all these things. The novel Deadly by Julie Chibbaro creates a mystery surrounding the causes of typhus in several New York homes and the search for the woman called "Typhoid Mary."

These are just some of the books featuring medical history. You can find more at your school or public library.

Sara K Joiner is the author of the upcoming novel After the Ashes published by Holiday House. She is also the children's coordinator for the Brazoria County Library System.