Summary

Four pages before the first Chapter, Chee starts with a character list titled, “Character Registry” with six columns titled from left to right: name, other names, family number, sex, age at evacuation, and pre-evacuation address. The next two pages are styled like newsprint with big words printed in all capital letters but not in any sentence structure. The words include “WAR” (five times) with WAR as the biggest word on the bottom right, and others explaining the Pearl Harbor attack and using the phrase in the middle “JAPS BOMB U.S."

The novel starts with Chapter I titled “We Never Look Like Us” and “Minnow, 14” below and “March 1942” below that (1). Chee begins from Minnow’s first person perspective, “It’s been over three months since the attack on Pearl Harbor” (1). Minnow is hanging out after school though he knows his older...