-So, if you haven't already followed
those important setup instructions
that you see in that pod below the picture of the museum.
Most importantly, make sure all other programs
are closed out on your computer.
That'll help Adobe Connect run a lot faster.
And hopefully you can hear me,
but if you can't hear me loud enough,
if you go to the audio setup wizard,
you can adjust your external speaker volume
and make sure that it's an optimal experience
for viewing for you all.
Also, so what's going to happen today
is for about the first 20 minutes or so,
I will spend some time reviewing
just a short review of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
And then the rest of the program is dedicated
to Mr. Salisbury and his book.
So, next to me right now --
you can't see him, he's off camera --
but is the Director of Education Kenneth Hoffman.
There's his hand.
And so he will be, when we get into the main presentation room,
he will be answering your questions in the Q&A pod.
We'll try to answer whatever we can in the time that we have,
but there might be lots of questions,
and we'll try to get to as many as possible.
And then after that, once we're kind of done
with our presentation, we'll turn it over to Graham,
and then in that same Q&A pod, we'll want you to type questions
specifically for him and about the book.
So, the first 20 minutes is kind of a historical overview,
and then the last about half-hour or so
are all about the book.
So, that is what we'll be doing today.
I'm gonna transition now into that presentation area.
Give it a second to.
Okay, so now once it's all loaded,
you all should see something
that says "Under the Blood-Red Sun."
You should see the Q&A pod below, and so as I said,
we're gonna spend the first 20 minutes
or so reviewing the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The 72nd anniversary is tomorrow, December 7th.
So, we kind of break it down as three things you need to know
about Pearl Harbor in this 20 minutes
or so we have together.
And here are the three things, at least in our book here
at The National World War II Museum.
We need to learn why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.
Number two is how did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.
And number three is what happened after the attack?
And I think for students,
sometimes the most important one is question one,
so we'll spend the most time on that today.
So, sometimes, actually to understand history, the best --
sometimes looking at maps is the best resource
you have to really try to grasp what's going on.
And that's what we'll be doing today.
So, before we actually get to the attack itself,
we'll be talking about Japan in the 1930s
and how Japan wanted to become
a more powerful country in the world.
They wanted to become a world presence,
but the problem was Japan lacked a lot of stuff to do that.
So, as I said, we're answering our first question here.
And there's Japan.
I've just highlighted in red right there.
Now, there are a lot of things that a country needs
to be powerful and strong,
but we're just gonna talk about three basic ones today,
and these three things are food, natural resources, and fuel.
And the problem was is that Japan
lacked a lot of these things
to really become a strong and powerful country.
They needed to find these things elsewhere.
But instead of trading for these things,
Japan decided -- as you can see,
here are these things elsewhere all across the Pacific.
You see plenty of abundant farmland and natural resources,
natural rubber from rubber trees, lumber, and fuel.
And what Japan decides to do,
instead of trading for these items with these countries
and with these territories is to invade
and take these very precious resources.
And so here's Japan again, and in 1931,
they invade an area called Manchuria.
They rename this area Manchukuo, and they create a puppet state,
which means that Japan can start
using all of these resources from Manchuria.
But there's a problem here, and the problem is you have
to have a reason for invading these countries,
and Japan had to provide some sort of reason
for the rest of the world,
and this was their reason.
As you can see, during this time in the Pacific,
there were a lot of Western colonies.
I'm bringing up some British ones right now on the screen.
Just like the United States was a colony of Great Britain
many, many years ago,
there were still Western colonies
in the Pacific at this time.
So you can see all the British ones on the screen.
You can see the French one right there.
Here's a couple more that you see coming up on the screen --
Dutch -- and of course a couple more Portuguese, as well.
And even the United States had a territory
at this time in the Pacific,
and that is kind of smack dab in the middle of all of it,
the Philippines right there.
So, you can see all these Western powers
controlling the Pacific,
and what Japan was saying is that
"We are going to in some ways kick out these Western powers
and make Asia for Asians."
And so they all go away, and this comes into
being The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
Phew! That's a mouthful.
I hope you don't have to remember it for a test,
but what that basically means is ridding this area
of these Western powers,
and now Japan is taking over the rule of these areas.
And this was interpreted in a couple of different ways
all across the world,
and that is what I'm gonna show you in a second --
some propaganda.
But for right now, as you can see now,
Japan is beginning to conquer
all of these different territories.
First Manchuria, and then they go into China in 1937 and wage
a very, very bloody war, killing millions of civilians.
Next, Japan goes into French Indochina.
That term doesn't really exist today anymore,
but that's today's Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.
And then they set their sights on Malaysia
and the Dutch East Indies,
and this is actually when the United States
becomes very concerned,
because as you guys know, as we pointed out earlier,
there is the Philippines right there held by the United States,
and it's kind of, as I said,
smack dab in the middle of all this,
and so the U.S. decides to act,
but not necessarily to go to war yet.
And as I said, there are two sides of the story here,
two ways that it was really interpreted,
and one way we can really examine it
is through propaganda.
And I'm gonna show you these two propaganda pieces in one second,
but actually, this brings up our first poll question.
Now, if you all haven't done this with us before,
we periodically bring up poll questions in these programs
to have you guys vote or send in your responses,
so my first poll question for you all today
that I'm gonna open up is "What is propaganda?"
And that should come up on your screen really big,
and different from other polls
sometimes we have you all select,
this time I want you to type in your answer,
and then I will see them
and maybe read some of the best ones allowed.
So, maybe have a representative from the class
come in and type in
and say what is your definition of propaganda.
Okay, so we have some people saying advertisements.
Very good -- a form of political advertisement.
Those are the most common things I'm getting.
Great responses, you guys.
I think you can all see them.
Well, actually, maybe you can't.
Maybe I'll broadcast results so you can see them, too.
"A way to influence people."
Very, very good -- bias.
Oh, all these great responses.
Good job, you guys.
All right, I'm gonna close this poll for right now.
Those are all great responses.
Yeah, and so propaganda is biased information
spread by a group or government
that's used to influence how people think
or how people behave.
And let's look at two examples right here now.
The one that you see on the left
is actually a Japanese piece of propaganda,
and it looks very different from the one on the right.
So, the one on the left shows a Manchurian, Chinese,
and Japanese child walking arm-in-arm.
You see that the Japanese child is the largest.
He's holding the flag in the middle.
And there is a dove at the top, which you all know,
probably, symbolizes peace.
And the writing at the bottom says, "With Japanese, Chinese,
and Manchu working together,
a great peace can be brought to this world."
So, that's how the Japanese government was really trying
to sell this Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere
to the rest of the world.
But actually, if you take a look on the right,
this is a very different interpretation.
This is a piece from a Dutch -- this is Dutch propaganda here
and it shows this octopus
and its tentacles are going around the Philippines.
Behind the octopus' head you see the Japanese flag,
so taking over these territories.
And that translates into "The Indies must be free."
So, again, two different sides to the story here
that are being portrayed and painted in history.
So, as I said, the U.S. decide, though,
they're concerned about their territory in the Pacific,
and so U.S. does not want to go to war yet,
but we decide to act.
And this is what we do -- two things.
First, the United States cuts off oil and steel
exports to Japan.
And so no longer can Japan trade for these items with us.
Actually, Japan gets about 80% of its foreign oil from us.
That would make you pretty angry
if you could no longer get these items --
these very precious items you need to expand your territory.
Next, the Pacific fleet, which is stationed
in San Diego, California,
moves to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in February of 1941,
just so we can be a little bit closer
to the situation going on in the Pacific
and hopefully act faster if necessary.
So, these are the two steps that the United States
takes to prepare.
So, that brings me up to our first --
actually, second quiz question for the day.
Works a little bit differently than the other one.
This one is actually where you vote.
So, let me bring it up a little bigger.
And so you see "Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor?"
And I want you to vote for your reason why,
and then I will broadcast the results
from what you just learned.
Okay, someone just said the text
are too small for them to read on screen,
so I'm actually gonna read this question aloud for you guys.
Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor?
Is it "A" -- to protect their growing empire from U.
S. interference?
"B" -- to show the world
that Asians were better than Westerners?
"C" -- because the the Japanese people hated American people.
Or "D" -- as revenge for taking the Philippines.
And it looks like we have some results coming in,
so I'm gonna broadcast them right now.
And you guys can see how you did.
It looks like 85.1% voted for "A" --
to protect their growing empire from U.S. interference.
Very good.
The U.S. was becoming concerned
about their territories in the Pacific
and decided to intervene,
and Japan was upset by that. Very good.
To protect their growing empire from U.S. interference.
All right.
So, we go on to our second question.
I know this is quick review here.
And that is how did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor?
And let me show you actually a Japanese map
of the attack right here.
So, what happened is instead of planes
flying all the way from Japan to Hawaii --
they couldn't do that back then.
They couldn't fly that far and then come back to Japan.
You know, our technology is much more sophisticated today.
So, what the Japanese decided to do was bring the planes
as close as possible to Pearl Harbor,
and how did they do that?
Well, by aircraft carriers.
So, six aircraft carriers left Japan on November 26th of 1941,
and it took them a few days to get there,
but eventually, these aircraft carriers docked --
or anchored about 260 miles or so northwest
of Hawaii, of Oahu,
December 7th of 1941.
So bringing the planes as close as they possibly
could to launch an attack.
And this is a new way of fighting.
You know, using aircraft carriers became really,
really important in the war in the Pacific.
So, actually, how I want to at least do this today
to recount the attack is actually to use our text
from "Under the Blood-Red Sun."
Now, you guys have this version in front of you right here.
We're gonna be reading from page 113,
which you see on the screen if you want to read along.
And this is how our main characters experience
the attack in the book.
So, feel free to read along for a little bit.
So, it's Sunday, December 7th, at 7:55 a.m.
"The rumbling grew in the distance.
More planes dotted the sky, like a swirl of flies,
some circling out over the ocean,
some heading towards the mountains
and banking back towards Pearl Harbor.
'We'd be better off hiding in the jungle,' Billy said.
'They're not going to bomb trees.
Kaboom! The earth rocked.
A shudder rumbled through the dirt under my feet.
'There!' Billy said, pointing to a cloud
of black smoke rolling skyward.
It looked like it was over the ridge near our school.
You couldn't tell for sure.
Another plane burst past and shot up the valley.
A wide path of earth and trees shivered beneath it.
It was so close you could see the rivets on the wings,
and the red sun."
And that is how our main characters in the book,
you know, felt the attack on Pearl Harbor,
and of course we'll be hearing from Graham
a little bit later on this topic,
but I wanted to bring it up now.
And as you all might know, it was a secret attack
in the morning of December 7th of 1941
by not just only planes,
but submarines under the waves, as well.
And here are some statistics on the attack.
19 ships, including 8 battleships --
the one you might know is the USS Arizona --
they were destroyed or damaged.
328 American aircraft destroyed or damaged.
And in all, it was a horrible day.
2,471 Americans were killed, including 68 civilians.
About half of this death toll
actually came from the USS Arizona,
which its forward magazine was struck by a Japanese bomb.
And it still rests today in Pearl Harbor,
and you can visit it if you have the opportunity
to go to Hawaii one day.
All right, I know that was quick,
and we're going to out number three lickety split,
and it's what happened after the attack on Pearl Harbor?
And there's a very famous speech
that happened after the attack on Pearl Harbor
that I will play for you in one second.
It's called the "Day of Infamy" speech,
where Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our president at the time,
is asking Congress to declare war on Japan.
But before I actually play the speech,
I want to hear from you one more time.
And this is actually --
this is maybe more of a question for your English class,
but does anybody know what infamy means?
This is the "Day of Infamy" speech
I'm about to play for you.
Now, vote.
What does infamy mean?
And so here are the responses.
So, "A" -- being known for something good.
"B" -- being known for something bad.
"C" -- being known for something funny.
Or "D" -- being a part of a family.
I'll let you guys input your votes for the next few seconds.
All right, looks like we might have
an overwhelming majority here. Phew!
100% -- You guys are smart --
for "B," being known for something bad.
And that is --
-Yesterday, December 7, 1941,
a date which will live in infamy.
The United States of America was suddenly
and deliberately attacked
by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
-Okay, so there is just the beginning of that famous,
famous speech to Congress
where Roosevelt asked for them to declare war on Japan.
And it does happen almost unanimously,
and so the United States is now at war.
And actually, not only in the Pacific, but now even in Europe.
Unfortunately, we don't have enough time
to talk about that today, but now we have to mobilize.
We have to get ready for war.
And the United States did,
and you can see we mobilized in a couple of ways.
One -- our military mobilized.
Before World War II, we had not a very large military at all,
and then through enlistment and through the draft,
we had 11 million people in our U.S. Army,
4 million in the Navy, and 700,000 in the Marine Corps,
which totals to about 16 million people in our military --
the largest military we've ever had in our history.
And if you weren't maybe serving in the military,
you might be working in a defense factory building
all these things we need to win the war --
planes, tanks, ships,
jeeps, weapons, uniforms,
all those things that we needed, our military needed to succeed.
And sometimes factories were open
24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
People were working double shifts to do anything
they could to support the war effort.
Here's just a short list I'm gonna put on screen
of the things that we built,
and it's astounding just this list in and of itself.
107 aircraft carriers.
352 destroyers.
That's a type of larger ship.
88,000 tanks.
300,000 airplanes.
26 million machine guns.
And 41 billion bullets, all in the only three and a half years
or so that the United States was involved in the war,
so people really stepped up to the challenge,
and we were able to not only fight in the Pacific,
but also in Europe, and eventually be successful
and be a part of winning the war.
So, here's our quick wrap-up of the three things we need to know
about Pearl Harbor in lightning speed.
First is why -- why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor?
To prevent further U.S. interference
in Japanese expansion.
How did they attack Pearl Harbor?
It was a secret attack on December 7th of 1941
by aircraft carrier-based airplanes
and by small submarines.
And then the what -- what happened after?
The U.S. quickly and successfully
mobilized for World War.
All right, did we do that fast enough for you all?
So, those were our three questions, but actually, I lied.
I have a fourth question.
And actually, that fourth question is who.
Who are we talking to next?
And we're actually talking to Graham Salisbury,
the author of "Under the Blood-Red Sun"
and many other books.
You can see them on screen.
I'm going to invite him right now
to unmute his microphone and start his webcam
and hopefully we'll be able to see and hear him shortly.
-Hey, aloha.
-And then your job is for you all
to start inputting questions.
There he is. Hello, Graham.
Welcome.
Aloha. I like that.
All right, well, we have a lot of classrooms in here
that are eager, not to hear from me,
but to hear from you, of course.
And so they will be inputting questions
in this little Q&A pod below,
and we'll take some of the ones that are most frequently asked
or the ones that we think are really great
and we'll have you answer them.
But actually, to start, what I'd like you to do
if you don't mind
is to give everybody just a brief description
of what this book is about
just in case we might have some people in the audience
that might not have read it yet.
So let's get everybody kind of up to speed, so...
-...a young person in Honolulu
on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed.
My family's been in Hawaii since 1820,
so of course we were around.
I wasn't born yet.
I was still to come, but December 7, 1941,
my grandparents lived about five miles away from Pearl Harbor
and were affected by this horrific event.
And so later on in my life as I became a writer,
I started to wonder,
you know, what I know that would be interesting.
So I wanted to explore what it would've been like on that day,
so that's basically what "Under the Blood-Red Sun"
is about.
-Great. So, you told me that, you know,
you're telling the audience that you grew up in Hawaii
and your family's been there for a long time now.
Now, when you were a student, when you were growing up,
did you want to be a writer?
-When I was growing up, I was a big fan
of people like Elvis Presley
and The Everly Brothers and The Beach Boys and such,
and that's what I wanted to do and I did give that a shot.
However, later in life, I became a few other things.
You know, people who are kind of artsy, we're kind of scattered,
and, you know, I've done several things in my life,
but I stumbled upon writing by accident.
So that's how I became a writer.
It's not something I aspired to.
-Stumbled upon. [ Laughs ]
I like it, I like it.
And so I know that a lot of your books are about Hawaii itself,
of course, including this one.
So, is that one of the topics you enjoy writing about?
What else do you really like writing about in your books?
-...stories set in Hawaii,
and that's because kids in Hawaii
are always reading about you guys on the mainland,
and they never get to read about themselves.
So I thought it would be nice for them
to have their own author who just focuses on them,
so everything I write is set in the islands,
and I'm very comfortable doing that.
-That's great.
So, could you tell me a little bit more?
You said that getting back maybe to -- sorry, can't help it,
we're The National World War II Museum
-- getting back to history,
the history side of things, can you tell me
either your grandparents', or you said
your father's experience
about the attack on Pearl Harbor?
What they saw that day?
-My mother wasn't in our life yet, but he was a young ensign,
and as a matter of fact, he is mentioned in the famous book,
"Day of Infamy," which is this one here.
It's all about Pearl Harbor.
And he's Lieutenant Henry, or Hank, Graham is his name,
so he's on page 163 or something like that.
But yeah, he was there, and he had just gotten off
his ship to go to church early
that Sunday morning, December 7, 1941.
He was walking away from his ship
and they saw these planes
coming to the pass above Schofield Barracks
and then coming around by Barbers Point
and all coming down to swirl around Pearl Harbor,
and then suddenly, you know, the world fell apart
and all my father could do on that day
was help put out fires and save people's lives.
And he did survive Pearl Harbor and went on
to become a Navy pilot,
flew off aircraft carriers in the South Pacific.
And then he almost made it through the war,
but he was shot down and killed
on my first birthday two months
before the World War ended.
So -- at least the war in the Pacific ended.
So, yeah, I never really knew my dad.
I just know that anybody who can fly a small plane
off an aircraft carrier
and a huge ocean has got to have a lot of guts.
So my dad was a gutsy guy and smart,
so at least I have that.
-Right, right.
Yeah.
I think I've learned that, too, with working here
that there are a lot of things
that I see that brave young men and women did in the war
that I know that I probably couldn't do myself,
so, you know,
I feel like we're encountered by these amazing stories,
including the one of your father,
on an everyday basis with World War II,
and that's why one of the reasons, you know,
we here at the museum
really like to examine it further.
So, my next question for you,
and I don't want to steal too many student ones,
so I'm looking at some so I hopefully
don't steal any of theirs,
what kind of messages do you hope
students take away from this book
and take away from these characters that you write about?
-I also have a series of books for younger readers called
"Calvin Coconut," and in every book I write,
I have, you know, a sub-purpose
that sort of sits in my subconscious, really.
It's not something I consciously do,
but that just comes out because it's who I am.
When I was growing up, I had three fathers,
but I never knew any of them.
My second father, who was also a Navy man,
died when I was 10 years old,
and then my mother married her third husband,
and he was totally inaccessible.
I mean, you'd ask him a question,
his answer would come in grunts like...
So, I really couldn't learn anything from anyone,
so I was sort of on my own.
In the seventh grade,
my mom sent me away to a boarding school.
It was an all boys school
and it was like being sent into the army,
which is something I thought was awesome.
So here I was at this boys school in these barracks
and such, and I just had a great time
because for the first time in my life,
I was given something I really needed,
and that's called limits.
And once I had limits, you know, I started to grow,
and the headmaster of that school would talk to us
about values and virtues,
things like friendship, loyalty, hard work.
And this is the kind of stuff that goes into my books.
I like to talk about those values
because being a traditional American,
I really believe in what we stand for as a country,
and I want that to be part of what I do, part of what I write.
It's part of my message, so that's basically why I write.
-That's great.
Now, was this book in some ways --
I guess in any of the books you write, is it sometimes
difficult to envision
and shape these characters,
or do you pick them from your life and your experiences?
-I mean, it kind of has to because I have to know
a sensibility to write about a sensibility.
However, I don't base my novels --
well, I shouldn't say that.
At least all my Calvin Coconuts are sort of based
on me growing up,
and a lot of my historical novels,
I use people from history or people that I've talked to,
and I mold their stories
of their actual experiences
into my fiction.
So there is a lot of that going on,
but in creating my main characters,
I'm basically inventing them out of nothing.
I don't find that terribly difficult.
I find it actually kind of thrilling.
It's really a lot of fun to be a writer.
I mean, you can make things happen, and, you know,
you can make them happen.
It's really an exciting thing to do to be a writer.
However, I must say that in writing
"Under the Blood-Red Sun"
-- which to this date, I've written 20 books --
"Under the Blood-Red Sun" is my most popular book,
and it has been that way all along.
And I had to write that book two times.
So, those of you in classrooms, when your teacher says,
"Have you looked at your work? Have you read it?
Have you revised it," and you go, "No."
Well, I want to tell you if you want to do well in any class
or any subject or anything in your life,
you've got to think about it and you've got to read it over
and re-work it until it's the best you can do,
because you don't want to give somebody
something that's not your best work.
I mean, that just doesn't speak well for you.
So, what I did is I wrote "Under the Blood-Red Sun"
from Billy's point of view is the first time I wrote it,
and I gave it to my editor and she said,
"Well, this isn't your best work.
This doesn't have a heartbeat."
And I go, "Really?"
She gave me 300 pages back and said, "Try again."
So I said, "Okay, I like this story.
What am I gonna do?"
I got into Tomi's head and I became Tomikazu.
And that story just flowed out of me
and it had a heartbeat from page one.
Why?
What's the difference?
Well, here's the difference.
Tomi in the book is much more like me
'cause I grew up in Hawaii as he did.
Billy in the book was a haole from the mainland who came over.
What did I know about his life?
I knew way more about Tomi's life.
That's why that book sang for me,
so I learned a big lesson
on getting into the proper point of view
before telling a story.
So, there's a lot to be said for thinking,
and, you know, I struggle with thinking.
Like, I'm an artist. What do I know about thinking?
I know about feeling, right?
So, you know, this is what I've learned.
-Right. [ Laughs ]
Yeah, so is your advice to students who are enjoying
writing and are burgeoning writers to keep on going,
keep writing more drafts, more drafts,
keep trying again, that sort of thing?
-... 'cause if you think about it,
say your teacher says write a 50-word essay.
Okay, you write 50 words, and then you read it.
"Eh, it's okay."
Maybe you think about and you
try to make it a little bit better,
and you take the words that are kind of dull,
words like, say, "He walked through the door."
Okay, you see somebody walking through the door.
But if you say, "He shouldered his way through the door,"
then you see a big guy coming through the door, right?
And so the words you use help
to create images in the reader's mind.
So these are the things you think
about when you're revising.
You say, "I could make that sentence better
just by using these words,"
or "I can make this work by re-ordering these sentences,
putting the exciting part at the end."
It's really fun, guys.
I know you don't believe me, but it's really fun.
Revision is my favorite thing to do.
-[ Laughs ]
Yeah.
Yeah, I know, that sounds, you know,
when you're working on a paper,
yeah, revising is like, "Oh, gosh," stressful.
But yeah, having that sort of mind-set
totally turns it around.
And actually, speaking of students,
I thought I'd actually take some of our first
few really great questions,
and this kind of relates to one that you just talked about,
but a lot of students are asking how long did it take you to --
well, long to write "Under the Blood-Red Sun"?
I know you said a couple revisions,
but generally, how long does it take you to write a full book?
-...start to finish,
'cause those are, you know, a lot shorter for one thing
and they're just me being silly,
but having a good point to being silly.
I'm not being silly just to be silly.
And a book like "Under the Blood-Red Sun,"
I have a lot of research to do,
and I really enjoy that part
because I do a lot of book research,
I do online research, I go to the library,
but really the best thing that I do for my historical novels,
if I can possibly do it,
is try to do some primary researches where I go out there
and I try to find people who were actually there,
and I did for all three of my war books --
"Under the Blood-Red Sun,"
"House of the Red Fish," and "Eyes of the Emperor"
and my new one that I'm working on right now --
I've talked to people who were there,
and the things that they tell me are often so powerful
and stuff that most people have never heard that I'm just going,
"Wow, wow, thank you.
Thank you so much."
So, if you could talk to somebody --
just think of your grandparents, for heaven's sake.
Go and talk to your grandfather.
"What did you do when you were younger?"
Or your grandmother.
"What did you do?"
And you'll find stories that, you know,
that come out of them that you'd never heard before.
So that's a really good way to do research.
It's called primary research.
-So, since you were speaking about your new book,
can you give students a sneak peek
about what you're writing about right now?
-And my new book is called "Hunt for the Bamboo Rat,"
and it takes place in Honolulu and the Philippines.
It's a story based on a Japanese American
by the name of Richard Sakakida
who was used as a translator for the Army,
but also as a spy, and his story is an amazing story.
So, that's basically what I'm following.
However, it's entirely fictional,
but I'm using his path as the pathway of my story,
and I've got to say, I really like the way this is coming out,
and I'm hoping that it's very exciting
to those of you who read it.
It should be out about fall of next year.
"Hunt for the Bamboo Rat."
So, yes, takes place in the Philippines.
I got to say, Chrissy --
-Great, well, students and teachers,
keep an eye out for that next installment from Graham.
I've got a few more questions, too,
but yeah, sorry, I cut you off.
-I've been revising, so... -Oh, my gosh.
-This is how it looks before it becomes a book.
-[ Laughs ]
-Wow.
Wow.
So, we've got a couple from students
asking you really about your youth.
What was your favorite subject in school,
and kind of maybe on a somewhat related note,
then how old were you when you wrote your first book?
Were you relatively -- you know,
were you jotting down notes when you were a student?
I know you said the last thing you thought of
was being a writer, but what were those
inspirations to eventually become a writer?
-In a sense, I have been a writer,
however it's a totally different kind of thing.
In school, in high school,
my favorite subject would've been geography,
especially Pacific geography.
And in college, my -- right behind you there.
My favorite subject in college was geology.
-Whoo!
-And the only reason that those two classes
were my favorites were
because I had really outstanding teachers
who made the subject come alive for me.
I mean, they just were outstanding.
So, that's why I like those two courses.
As a writer, I should've enjoyed English,
but I was not good in English in high school,
and when I went to college, I flunked English two times,
and the third time I took it,
I got a straight-A because I had changed.
By that time, I had changed my attitude about learning,
and it's all about attitude, you know?
I can go on and on about attitude
and how to get good grades in school,
if you want to hear that.
But anyway, yeah, I became a writer later in life in my 40s,
and I'm now 109, so that was a while back.
I just kind of stumbled on writing by accident,
and that's a whole other story,
but it wasn't something I aspired to.
-Yeah.
Well, okay, so the next couple questions
I have are kind of related in some ways
to what the students read about in the book,
and the first one is do you still see prejudice
towards Japanese and Japanese American in Hawaii today?
Like we see, you know, with the arrest of Tomi
and his father and grandfather?
-...their broken reputation, I guess.
I don't know what word to use there,
but, you know, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor,
they all became suspect and they had to work
really hard to rebuild what they have lost,
and they've done an outstanding job.
I don't see that prejudice today in the islands.
As a matter of fact, Japanese Americans
there are very well thought of and a very successful people.
And I am just a great admirer of their story,
which is why I focus on that.
They're just amazing people.
-And then this one is also related to the book
and kind of drawing from your personal experiences.
One student asked,
"Were you ever bullied by anyone like Keet?"
-Probably every fight I got into was my problem to begin with.
I was a pretty peaceable guy.
I got along with everybody,
so I didn't have that kind of trouble.
However, I did see it going on around me.
And here's a little aside.
You may know that we are filming "Under the Blood-Red Sun"
at the moment, and the young man that we got --
his name is Bryce Moore -- who we got to play
Keet Wilson is perfect for the part.
When you see the movie, he's just perfect for the part.
He comes off as the meanest guy, but you know what, in real life,
he's the nicest guy, so it's --
yeah.
-Right.
He's a good actor.
Great, well, let me actually, since you brought it up,
let me show some pictures from it on this
next slide you can see.
So, I will preface and say that Graham, for the past month --
the last month you were in Hawaii filming,
or longer than that?
All right, yeah.
Yeah, about a month.
Graham is the screenwriter of the film production
of "Under the Blood-Red Sun,"
so you guys not only tune in for his next book,
but also this movie coming out.
And you can see on screen some images of them filming,
and actually, Graham, is that you
with the actor who's playing Tomi, right?
-...the most brilliant faces, yeah.
-So, are the people that you all cast, even the kids,
are they all professional actors of these kind of --
people that, you know, they found scouting.
You're like, "You would be the perfect Tomi.
You would be the perfect Keet."
-...grouping this cast together, and everyone in the cast
and the crew is local --
all from Hawaii except for one actor, Chris Tashima,
who is our Academy Award winning actor from Los Angeles,
and he plays Papa.
But all of these people have done a little bit of acting.
Some of them are more professional than others,
but they're all equally as talented.
-So, I guess kind of my next question for you
is was it difficult -- So, you wrote the book.
Was it difficult to write the screenplay?
How did you envision translating it to now film?
-The producer who optioned this film said,
"Well, why don't you write the screenplay?"
I said, "Well, I've never written a screenplay.
Are you kidding?"
She said, "Well, just give it a shot."
So I did, then, you know, I found that
I really enjoyed writing a screenplay.
It was really a lot of fun because as a writer,
my strong point is dialogue,
and movies are all about dialogue.
So, I found it perhaps easier than some might.
So I just looked at all the dialogue in my book.
Now, of course, a movie's a lot briefer than a book,
and, you know, I had to kind of get to the point in a movie.
So I had to leave a lot out.
And I also had to create a few new scenes
to make it more movie friendly that aren't in the book,
so it has a different beginning than the book does
and it has a different ending than the book does,
which offers it a little bit of closure.
So, when you see the movie, it'll be a little bit different,
but equally as good, I believe.
I'm very excited about the script and the way it came out.
-All right, well,
our students are wondering are you in the movie?
Are you having a cameo at any point?
-"Would I have to say anything?"
And they said, "No, you don't have to say anything."
Well, I ended up saying one thing.
I said, "Have a good day, boys."
So, yes, I play Mr. Davis,
and basically all I do in the movie
is drive them to school and --
-Dropping them off at school, right,
or something like that, yeah?
-...like 1941, and, you know, big ol' round glasses.
It was awesome.
It was really...
I guess I could.
-Great.
Now you can add actor to your résumé, right?
Yeah.
-Yeah, I'm gonna go back to Honolulu in January --
-And they're also wondering
when do you think the movie will come out?
I know you have a little bit of filming left to do, right?
-We are hoping to have this movie ready to go
by maybe August or September of 2014,
and it's an independent film.
It'll be premiering in various locations across the country,
and of course it'll be available on, you know, DVD
and all the other sources.
As far as theaters go, I have no knowledge of that.
It depends on distributing.
But definitely.
-Yeah, yeah. Well, great.
So, yeah, tune in, and yeah,
maybe we'll see you on the big screen,
which'll be exciting.
And I guess can you talk a little bit more about
how, you know how it was to be a part
of the filming process in Hawaii?
I mean, I'm sure it was thrilling,
but being able to interact with the actors
and shaping the scenes.
I mean, was that, I mean, I'm sure a totally new experience,
but it had to be fun, right?
-...appreciation for all the work
the crew goes through
just to set up a scene.
And, you know, there's a lot of setting up
and then filming then tearing down
and moving to another place
and setting up and filming and tearing down,
and these guys work hard.
We didn't have one day that was shorter than 10 hours,
and the average is about a 12-hour day.
And, you know, the days just zoom by.
I never found any of it to be a drudge.
It was all fun, and the people were absolutely wonderful.
These are really highly professional,
skilled cast and crew that I was working with,
so I was just honored to be there among them.
-That's great.
Well, I'm trying to think, Kenneth.
Do we have any more questions coming in?
Oh, yeah.
Since tomorrow is the anniversary and,
you know, your family really did experience Pearl Harbor,
is there a way that you commemorate it
every year and remember the day?
-...my father, and it's framed,
and around him are all his war medals.
And so I kind of look at him and say,
"Have a good day, Dad."
So, but I'm just extremely thankful
for what everyone in World War II did
to preserve freedoms in the world.
I'm a very patriotic guy, and I honor all of our veterans
and all the people in the military now,
and also am very thankful for police and nurses
and all the people.
I call them angels, all of them,
because without them, where would we be?
These are really fine people.
-Great, well, I really appreciate you sharing that,
and, you know, we hope that, you know,
you all watching with us all across the country will,
you know, try to remember tomorrow's anniversary
in a really special and unique way, too.
If you ever get a chance to actually go to Hawaii,
and maybe some of you have been out in the audience
or maybe even some --
We're talking to maybe some people from Hawaii now, too --
to visit the USS Arizona memorial,
and I'm sure they have a lot going on there,
as well, too, tomorrow.
But on that note, I want to say Graham,
thank you so much for being with us today.
It was just a pleasure and a joy to talk to you
and hear about "Under the Blood-Red Sun."
I'm sure everybody out here feels the same way,
so we really, really appreciate the time
that you spent with us today,
especially the day before such a big anniversary.
-...you honor me, you honor the veterans,
you honor everybody that's worked so hard
to put this together, so thank you, and it's been a blast.
I'd do it any time for you, Chrissy.
-Awesome.
Well, we might bug you again then, too,
and I wanted to tell everybody to,
you know, of course keep an eye out for the film production
of "Under the Blood-Red Sun,"
Graham's new book, and then also I guess just briefly tell us,
too, there is a sequel to this, right --
"House of the Red Fish" --
that picks up Tomi's story again, correct?
-It just continues the story of "Under the Blood-Red Sun,"
and then I have another companion novel
called "Eyes of the Emperor."
There it is.
"Eyes of the Emperor," and this is a companion to it.
There's a small link between the stories.
This one is also very well thought of.
It's used in a lot of schools across the country.
And then I'll have "Hunt for the Bamboo Rat,"
and next fall, you'll see all of these four books
re-branded into new covers
and it'll be very exciting again.
-Awesome.
Well, you guys have a lot to read,
so that's your next challenge now,
your assignment from me to you all
is to read the rest of the companion novels
about Tomi and his family.
So, again, thanks again, Graham.
I'm gonna actually switch into a new little area
and I'm just gonna give out a few announcements
before we close out today,
and you guys can see in this little notes area.
Teachers, if you want to be a part of our
Calling All Teachers monthly e-newsletter,
you can submit your e-mail address in the chat pod.
We also have a website,
an online exhibit about the attack
on Pearl Harbor, Guam, the Philippines,
and Wake Island called infamydecember1941.org.
Our education department also puts out a few materials
about Pearl Harbor, and you can find a link there,
and you can also download -- you see at the bottom
this files download right here.
You can download some lesson plans
and some educational information from our department.
And then on the last note, we have another webinar
in 2014 coming up about the Monuments Men.
That's another book turned film by author Robert Edsel.
He'll actually be here next to me here in New Orleans,
and I think that date, I will say tentatively now,
is January 23, 2014.
But keep an eye out on our website about it, too.
So... -Aloha.