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Title: Midnight in Broad Daylight

Subtitle: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds

Author: Pamela Rotner Sakamoto

Narrator: Emily Woo Zeller

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-05-16

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 91 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

After their father's death, Harry, Frank, and Pierce Fukuhara - all born and raised in the Pacific Northwest - moved to Hiroshima, their mother's ancestral home. Eager to go back to his own land - America - Harry returned in the late 1930s. Then came Pearl Harbor. Despite being sent to an internment camp, Harry dutifully volunteered to serve his country.

Back in Hiroshima, his brothers, Frank and Pierce, became soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army. As the war raged on, Harry, one of the finest bilingual interpreters in the United States Army, island hopped across the Pacific, moving ever closer to the enemy and to his younger brothers. But before the Fukuharas would have to face each other in battle, the US detonated the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, gravely injuring tens of thousands of civilians, including members of their family. Alternating between the American and Japanese perspectives, Midnight in Broad Daylight captures the uncertainty and intensity of those charged with the fighting and provides a fresh look at the dropping of the first atomic bomb.

Critic Reviews:

"A beautifully rendered work wrought with enormous care and sense of compassionate dignity." (

Kirkus)

Members Reviews:

Interesting history

Any additional comments?

The reading is very amateurish, but the history and story are fascinating and make it worth suffering through the performance....though, I would caution the author not to use the word 'penchant' so often you start to wait for it. It is inexcusable to mispronounce a President's name and the reader should learn how Delano is pronounced correctly. In short, it is not great reading, and the writing is sometimes clumsy, but the story told is a valuable one.

A must listen

I absolutely loved this book. I learned so much while truly being entertained by fascinating real life accountings surrounding the WWII conflict between the United States and Japan. Being half Japanese, it's a wonder how I was not more aware of the some of the details regarding this. I truly believe that this should be required reading for high school students, especially in places like Hawaii where there is such a large Japanese populace.

I love nonfiction books that weave a (true) story into the fabric of the historical events. This is one of the best!

Remarkable story

Mostly good. A few issues with the spin of the story. Calling relocation camps concentration camps is clearly meant to add drama and to link the American experience to the German experience. Who ever heard of anyone joining the Army from a concentration camp? And saying it was so hot they were offered sodium chloride tablets seems a way to make salt tablets sound more serious. This penchant to put a spin on the story detracts from the authenticity of the story. But The Harry story is definitely worth reading. He, and a lot of other people were uprooted by that unnecessary war. It was good to see him win.

great story

my grandparents were interned in minidoka. this story really helped fill in the timeline. it was really interesting hearing about life in Japan and how the war affected their family.

Great true story about Japanese Americans in WWII.

After reading so much about Europe and WWII, it's great to learn about the Pacific theatre especially through the eyes of a Japanese American family.