December 7, 1941.
Best friends Frank and Stanley have it good. Their dads one a Navy pilot, the other a flight crew chief are stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, where the air smells like pineapples, the clear blue water sparkles in the sun, and dozens of US battleships, cruisers, and aircraft carriers stand silent sentinel. World War II is raging everywhere else, and its all anyone can talk about but so far, the United States has remained neutral. For Frank and Stanley, that means more time to daydream about becoming comic book creators. Theyve made up their own superhero in the mold of new characters like Superman, Captain America, and Wonder Woman, and with Stanleys drawing skills and Franks writing skills, theyre sure theyll get their own comic published one day.
And then everything explodes.
Frank and Stanley are touring the battleship USS Utah when planes roar overhead, dropping bombs and firing machine guns. Surprised sailors scramble to respond, and as Frank and Stanley take cover they finally understand whats happening: its a Japanese sneak attack! The United States wouldnt go to war, so the war has come to them.
The boys fight to make their way home amid the chaos and carnage, but disaster and danger are everywhere from torpedoes and bullets to the shocking cruelty of their former friends and neighbors. Because Stanleys mom is Japanese American, which makes her, and him, the enemy in most peoples eyes. And try as he might, Frank cant truly understand what his best friend is going through.
If Frank and Stanley make it through this infamous day, can their friendship and their dreams survive? Or has everything they know and love been destroyed?
