Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor

Why might this book have been unsuccessful if it had been published immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack?

The novel blends historical fact with dramatization to create an end product that infers many dialogues, thoughts, and minor actions in the lives of historical figures. In what ways does this aid the understanding of the events, and in what ways does this blend fiction and fact?

Where does identity come from? Is it heritage tied to shared traditions or ethnic ties linked to a certain people and place? Or does it come from one’s nationality at birth, regardless of ethnicity and heritage? For Douglas Wada, a second-generation Japanese American, where did his sense of identity come from and how did he remain rooted in his heritage while staying loyal to his nation?

What forces drove the US population to support concentration camps for Japanese Americans but not German Americans during WWII, and what role did the media play in sensationalizing reports of fifth columnists?

Wada was an interpreter who aided his nation in understanding their wartime foe, Japan. He was also a Japanese American. How were his skills specific and invaluable to the American Navy, and how does this type of diversity aid the United States in wartime and in peace?

Kenneth Ringle argued that it was racism that caused the incarceration of the Japanese while ignoring the incarceration of German, Italian, and Russian Americans. How have views of his assessment changed since the conclusion of the war?

The book asserts that the Issei in Hawaii were “sacrificed to stave off something worse” (82). What was the “something worse” that the Nisei feared?

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East focused its prosecution on 28 high-profile military leaders in Japan. What did this strategy hope to achieve, and why did they choose to limit their scope?