With their graphic novel Pearl, Sherri L. Smith and Christine Norrie bring readers a historical fiction account of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent response from the United States. In this version, Amy Hakata lives in Hawaii in 1941. However, when a family member in Japan grows ill and her parents are unable to travel, Amy flies to a country she has never visited.
Once in Hiroshima, she sits with her sick Sōsobo. Here, only the food tastes familiar, but as Amy gets to know her grandmother, she learns of Grandma’s legacy as a pearl diver.
However, everything changes in an instant, and soon Japan is at war with the United States. Because she speaks English, Amy is pressed into service by the Japanese military as a Monitor Girl. In this role, she feels like a traitor, yet she hopes this work could lead to peace. “Maybe by translating, I could help Japan understand America” (67), Amy thinks.
Trapped between two cultures and conflicted about her identity, Amy struggles. But time changes everything yet again, and soon Amy is faced with the unthinkable and must draw on her grandmother’s lessons about survival.
This is a poignant book, not only about the trauma of war but about self-discovery.
- Donna