Grenade

What does the woman wearing the blue kimono strapped with dynamite represent? What message is conveyed about loss of innocence and beauty?

Discuss the evolution of Hideki’s ideas about US and IJA troops. Why does he reject the simplistic message that demonizes American soldiers and valorizes Japanese soldiers?

Chapter 23 is written from the points of view of both protagonists. How does Alan Gratz’s stylistic choice connect his main characters? What do they have in common? How are they different?

How does Hideki’s attitude toward mabui change during the novel? Compare the mission to protect Emperor Hirohito’s mabui to the treatment of the mabui of regular people.

Explore the symbolism of Hideki taking off his IJA uniform and discarding his last grenade to approach the American camp unarmed and in his underwear. What does this image symbolize and why?

Does the novel end on a hopeful or ambivalent note? Why does Gratz give readers both Hideki’s vision of a recovered Okinawa, as well as images of shell-shocked soldiers and Kimiko’s despair?

“His ancestor Shigetomo, he wasn’t a soldier. He was a farmer. So why had Hideki and his other descendants expected him to fight back against trained samurai warriors?” (250). How does Hideki’s acceptance of Shigetomo’s fear affect his acceptance of his own fear when facing US and Japanese forces?

Is Gratz even-handed in his condemnation of American and Japanese warfare on Okinawa? Is one force critiqued more harshly for their practices? Explain.