I was born in the United States; my great-grandparents came over from Italy and Ireland. My best friend was also born in the US, but her parents came here from Spain.
Eddy’s parents moved to Hawaii from Japan before he was born. When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Eddy joins the US Army to show where his allegiance lies. The Army, however, can’t see past his Japanese looks… his eyes like the Emperor’s. Eddy and the other men from Japanese descent are shipped off to an island in Mississippi where they are first treated like the enemy, kept on machine-gun watch all day, and not allowed to anywhere, even when they have to go to the bathroom. Finally Eddy’s former high school teacher, Major Parish, brings a group of the boys to another island for some special training. Eddy’s hopes and desires to make his father proud are finally about to be realized; he’s about to become a special agent for the US Army. Or so he thinks.
Major Parish hesitated. “You see, men… you are here to represent the enemy these dogs will encounter in the Pacific. We’re going to train them to find you by your Japanese scent. You’re not the trainers… you’re… you’re the bait. We’re going to teach them to smell you, track you down, and attack you.
Eyes of the Emperor is based off of real events that took place after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. While Eddy is a fictional character, the pain, suffering, and degrading tasks the men of this story go through really happened. Eyes of the Emperor is a moving story about the horrors of bigotry, and about the resolve and willpower of a group of extraordinary young men.
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