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Author 411 July 2006 - Graham Salisbury Photo © 2003 Ray Warren
About House of the Red Fish: 1943, one year after the end of Under the Blood-Red Sun, Tomi’s Papa and Grandpa are still under arrest, and the paradise of Hawaii now lives in fear—waiting for another attack, while trying to recover from Pearl Harbor. As a Japanese American, Tomi and his family have new enemies everywhere, vigilantes who suspect all Japanese. Tomi finds hope in his goal of raising Papa’s fishing boat, sunk in the canal by the Army on the day of the attack. To Tomi, raising Papa’s boat is a sign of faith that Papa and Grandpa will return. It’s an impossible task, but Tomi is determined. For just as he now has new enemies, his struggle to raise the boat brings unexpected allies and friends. AUTHOR 411 Q. You conveyed a very colorful glimpse of what life was like in Hawaii in the 1940s. What drives your interest for this setting, and how have you come to know so much about it? How much of the story is based on true experiences? Many readers found the racism confronted by Japanese Americans quite upsetting. We’ve come a long way since then; to what do you attribute the improvement? How has Hawaiian society changed, in general, since the time when House of the Red Fish takes place?
A. Wow—many questions in one to consider. I’ll give you what I can. My interest in the setting—the Hawaiian Islands —is driven by history and love for what it is. My family has been there since 1820. I grew up there, and though I now live on the mainland (Oregon), I have in many ways never left the islands. As a writer, in fact, I spend a great deal of time there in my head. I also spend a great deal of time there in body, going back five or six times a year, which I have been doing forever. My family is all still there. I just love the wide open space of the American West. It amazed me when I first came here and it amazes me still. Not much of House of the Red Fish is based on my personal experience other than a fairly intimate knowledge of the people, culture, and setting. I wasn’t yet born at the time of this story. The characters and plots were created through the magic of writing (and writing truly does have some magic to it).
As for racism . . . well, that, unfortunately, lives everywhere in the world, then and now. Still, racism of any kind surely is upsetting. And ignorant. But in my opinion, racism in those days following Pearl Harbor was more fear-driven than ignorance-driven. Americans of Japanese ancestry became targets, and truly sadly so, as this group of Americans was highly loyal to the USA. What we did to them was terrible. But I can understand it if I look at it through the eyes of fear. We were attacked by Japan. Who among the Japanese in the USA was part of that? Who is out there waiting to do us more harm? Same questions many of us may have asked today about radical Muslim extremists. In that light, it’s not hard to see how the government came to do what they did, wrong as it was. Today we feel the shame of it.
Hawaiian society today is vastly different than it was in the early 1940s. The Japanese have made huge gains since then, largely due to the tremendous contributions made by the men I write about, the veterans of the 100th Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. These brave souls laid the groundwork for the generations to come. What they did proved beyond a shadow of a doubt just what they were made of. Heart. Honor. Steel. They were loyal Americans and they proved it. I have the greatest respect for all of them. Racism, however muted it may sometimes seem today, remains. It may always be so. And it’s not a Caucasian problem alone. It’s everyone’s.
Q. We’re impressed by how you portray your characters so realistically. In particular, readers were struck by the intricate relationships between characters. We’d love to pick your brain for more on a few of them. What is the nature of the bond between Tomi and Sanji? To what degree is Joji’s character development influenced by Fumi? How about Mr. and Mrs. Wilson—why won’t Mrs. Wilson stand up to her husband?
A. Mrs. Wilson is a typically subservient wife of the time. She would rather settle and accept than do battle with an angry man. There would be no way she could win. But she’s a good person down inside herself, somewhere. We see that on occasion. Sanji was one of Tomi’s heroes. Tomi loved certain things about him—his innocent curiosity, the gains he’d made purely by his own wits, his friendship with and respect for Papa, the fact that he was committed to his young family at such a young age. Respect is what linked Tomi to Sanji, though Tomi was not aware of it at the time. It was intuitive. Respect is something he will understand over time. Sanji was kind of like Tarzan was to me as a kid—mysterious, gutsy, strong, capable. We all need heroes, and Sanji filled the bill for Tomi.
Grampa Joji’s character does not change with the introduction of Fumi. What she does for Grampa is allow him the freedom to be who he really is way down under that grumpy old façade. Grampa cares, and though you would never know it, he loves Tomi as deeply as Mama and Papa do. Grampa is one of the finest men I know. He’s just . . . um . . . grumpy? Q. Keet is a remarkably complicated character who has provoked a strong reaction in many readers. Is Keet really such a bad guy, or do you think he’s just misunderstood? What in Keet’s life do you think contributed to the character he’s become as a teenager? Can you tell us more about Keet’s poor relationship with his father, and perhaps how that fueled the bully inside him? Do you think Tomi and Keet could ever reconcile their differences and become friends again?
A. Tomi and Keet could absolutely reconcile their differences. They could even become friends again, as they were early on in their lives. But it would happen because of Tomi, not Keet. Tomi has the bigger heart, and the emotional maturity to see beyond the actions Keet takes. He can, if again only intuitively, understand why Keet is as he is. Maybe Tomi will step up to this task. I suppose we’ll all have to wait for the last book in this series to see, huh? Is Keet such a bad guy? No. Is he misunderstood? No. He’s flat out nasty, and anyone can see this. Is he hopeless? Not at all—and that’s because he is not nasty at his core, as true bullies are. He is a bully only by the circumstances that define his life. Those circumstances are: he’s a white kid raised with a sense of entitlement, his father is a bully and a racist, his mother is weak and gives him no guidance, he goes to an elite high school where it is not popular to like Japanese, he’s lonely, and he has no good role model to fashion a life after. This is not to justify his actions, which are deplorable. But looking at Keet Wilson on a flat playing field I can see some hope. At his core, he likes and respects Tomi—it just irks him to do so because of the circumstances that rule his world. I hope this makes sense. Q. Readers have commented on the values that you stress in your book. What lessons do you think come from reading House of the Red Fish? Tomi’s decision to raise the boat has sparked quite a debate. On one hand, raising the Taiyo Maru invoked pride and triumph among Tomi and his supporters, and was an important sign of solidarity and determination during hard times. Then again, by pursuing this mission, Tomi risked some pretty serious consequences. How would you have advised Tomi as he faced this difficult decision? Was raising the boat a good idea in retrospect? A. In World War II the segregated, all-Japanese US Army 100th Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team fought as well, if not better, than any regiment in the service. They fought to save their dignity and prove their loyalty to the USA. Tomi, in much the same way, is fighting for his own dignity and his family, by daring to risk what he risked in raising the boat. Were I his friend at the time I would have done exactly as Billy did—and remember, Billy did mention the trouble he could get into. Yet Tomi believed that, even if the Army came down on him, he would be able to reason his way out. Knowing me, I would have risked it—but I probably would have told a trusted adult about it to get a better take on it. But in a story like this, I wasn’t all that excited about having an adult step in to solve Tomi’s problem. It was his problem, and he had to solve it on his own. Otherwise the story would have gone down faster than the Taiyo Maru.
Q. Speaking of Tomi, is his character based on anyone you know in real life? In what ways can you, Graham Salisbury, relate to him?
A. Tomi is not based on any real person. I know him intimately, however, because he and I had similar upbringings. We talked the same way, ate the same foods, played the same sandlot baseball. I got into his head as easily as a heated swimming pool. He and I, like with every major character I have ever created, are very good pals. Q. The red fish flying from Tomi’s house is a very powerful image. But why did that become the title of the book? Why not a reference to the Taiyo Maru, for instance?
A. I love the sound of House of the Red Fish, for one. It’s a title that makes you wonder what the spit the story could possibly be about—so you pick the book up and read a little. Plus, the story is really about Tomi’s determination rather than the boat. The red fish is a symbol of Tomi’s road to manhood, so to speak. It honors him. He earns what he gets on his own, and we respect that. At least I do. Q. Many aspiring writers look up to you, and we’d appreciate any expert advice you might share. In what kind of environment—physical and circumstantial—do you find most comfortable to write? What draws you to writing historical fiction, and have you considered other kinds of writing—nonfiction, or even science fiction or fantasy, for that matter?
A. Really? Aspiring writers look up to me? Wow. Well . . . expert advice. This question is insightful. Writing environment is a key writing issue—for me, anyway. First of all, a writer needs to know a little about him/herself. I know that I am a “morning person,” that my mind is sharpest in the zone before lunch. After that, I get lazy. I coast. So I get up at 4:45 a.m. every weekday and am at work by 6:00. I can’t work at home. Many can, but not me. I used to work in my “office,” which is a 900-square-foot “cabana” built out over a lake. It’s dreamy, for sure. But there’s something there that impairs me greatly: my computer. E-mail. So, I devised a plan to fool myself into being more dedicated, and thereby more productive. I now work from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. at any one of four local coffee shops. I move around to stay fresh. And you know what? I get ten times more work done that way. I like the hum and buzz of the morning crowd. I like the anonymity of sitting at a table with my research, my notebook, my journal, my fictional world spread around me. My laptop (an unpolluted laptop, by the way, one that never goes online, so it has zero bugs) is Power Mac. But this routine is how I fool myself, and I wouldn’t have discovered that if I had not thought about who I was as a person, and looked at my weaknesses and faked my way around them. A writer needs to be aware of stuff like this. I am not necessarily drawn to historical fiction, though I seem to wander that way. I have become fascinated by World War II. I have met and interviewed actual men I have read about in my research, and that, to me, is stunning. I have wanted to try writing in two other genres, but am not talented enough—mysteries and picture books. Maybe someday.
Q. And of course, we have to ask; what’s coming next? We’ve become so attached to your characters by the conclusion of House of the Red Fish, that we’re dying to know what happens beyond your final sentence. What becomes of Fumi and Joji? Can we expect a romance between Tomi and Suzy? What happens to Tomi’s father? Will you mention details about the internment camp? And what about that crazy goat?! We’ll take any information you’re willing to give us!
A. I have, at this point, envisioned a five-book series that I call “Hawaii at War.” House of the Red Fish is the third in that series. The fourth is in fact on my plate as I write this. This book will be the sequel to Eyes of the Emperor. The conceived final book will close all the doors I have heretofore left open in previous books—including something about Suzy. That said, I am having so much fun writing about the heroes of World Ward II that I want to do more than I had originally envisioned. Whether or not I end up doing that is still open for discussion. The really important thing for me is that I enjoy what I am doing and that it seems worthwhile for me to be doing it, that it has value. I can honestly say that I am amazed. I must have done something good somewhere, sometime, to be in the lucky place I am as a writer. If anyone had told me that this would be the way I would live my life, I would have laughed. As a kid I was an idiot. But look where even idiots can go if they put their mind to it. There is hope for all of you out there. I know. I am one of you.
Thanks to the following Teen Book Groups for participating! Brook Haven School Teen Book Club Sebastopol, California Burlington Public Library Teen Book Club Burlington, Wisconsin Monami Book Group Albuquerque, New Mexico The St. Therese Book Club Dumont, New Jersey
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