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| Image: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
Happy Friday TMS Readers! We are approaching the halfway point of our summer vacation! Week five is almost in the books! How's your summer reading going? I can't wait to here about your faves! Fact Friday features Thirty Minutes over Oregon: a Japanese pilot's World War II Story by Marc Tyler Nobleman. You all know that my motto is, "never too old for picture books," right? I learn the best things from picture books! Like this. What? The Japanese actually bombed the mainland? Whoa!
We all know about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. But did you know that in September of 1942, Nobuo Fujita was catapulted off of a submarine in his plane toward the United States. His target was the forest beyond Brookings, Oregon. He dropped two bombs and returned unnoticed to the Pacific Ocean where the sub removed him and his plane and dove. The Japanese had hoped the bombs would result in a terrible forest fire. It did not. But news of the bombs made the residents of Brookings uneasy. Twenty days later, Fujita returned, this time under the cover of night.
After the war, Fujita opened a hardware store and thought often, of the residents of Brookings, Oregon. In 1962, the residents of Brookings invited Fujita to attend their Memorial Day parade as a way to boost tourism to the area. While there was some protest to the idea, there was also support from notable citizens, including President John F. Kennedy. Fujita returned, apologized and gifted the town his family sword.
The watercolor and ink drawings beautifully convey this spare, yet emotional story of duty and reparation. Lovely, affecting and emotional. Check it out!
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