Grenade

Chapters 1-10

Reading Check

1. “Love Day” is on April 1, the same day as April Fool’s Day. (Chapter 2)

2. Photography assistant (Chapter 3)

3. He shoots him dead. (Chapter 6)

4. “[T]o protect the Divine Emperor’s photographs” (Chapter 7)

5. Barbecue (Chapter 8)

6. They walk off the cliff. (Chapter 8)

Short-Answer Response

1. Hideki and his classmates are outside their bomb shelters because the American invasion of Okinawa has begun, and they are receiving a “graduation” ceremony to the “Blood and Iron Student Corps.” As part of their graduation, every boy receives two grenades: one to kill American soldiers, and one to kill themselves. (Chapter 1)

2. Big John is a fellow Marine and Ray’s “foxhole buddy.” While Ray is careful to read and understand the differences between Okinawans and Japanese, Big John insists that he should just shoot and that “[a] Jap’s a Jap.” (Chapter 2)

3. Shigemoto is Hideki’s “cowardly ancestor” who has brought shame upon the family. Shigemoto’s “mabui,” or spirit, lives inside Hideki, causing him unrest and bringing him shame. (Various chapters)

4. Ray was told that landing on Okinawa would be dangerous and filled with gunfire; however, other than the kamikaze pilots targeting the ships, there are no Japanese soldiers on the island. Ray and the other Marines are cautious as they begin to explore. (Chapter 4)

5. As Hideki takes shelter from the battle outside, he recalls the day his family left for Japan. Hideki was going to join his parents and siblings when an officer singled him out for being old enough to stay in Okinawa to fight. Despite his parents’ protests, he decided to stay in Okinawa, hoping to amend his family’s shameful curse. (Chapter 5)

6. Both Hideki and Ray come face-to-face with the realities of war. Hideki watches how his classmates accidentally kill themselves with the grenades they received little training on, and Ray narrowly escapes death. They are both shaken from the surrounding chaos. (Chapters 9-10)

Chapters 11-20

Reading Check

1. Principal Kojima’s body (Chapter 11)

2. Photographs from the bodies that either he or his fellow soldiers killed (Chapter 12)

3. Big John (Chapter 14)

4. Okinawan refugees (Chapter 16)

5. “Germany surrendered. Hitler committed suicide. The Nazis are through.” (Chapter 18)

6. Shuri Castle (Chapter 19)

Short-Answer Response

1. After deciding that he will continue to protect the Emperor’s mabui by keeping his photographs safe, Hideki sees that the US planes are dropping leaflets that say “HOW TO SURRENDER” in Japanese. Hideki decides to take the photographs and go to his family’s tomb (i.e., haka). (Chapter 11)

2. Ray and the other soldiers keep tossing grenades into the tombs hoping to kill Japanese soldiers; however, the reality is that they are usually killing Okinawan civilians as well. Ray suggests they toss in smoke grenades instead to at least draw out the people in hiding. (Chapter 12)

3. As Hideki enters his family’s tomb, he discovers his father, Otō, who is injured. Otō reveals to Hideki that his mother and brother were killed by a torpedo as they fled Okinawa, and now they need to focus on finding Hideki’s sister. Otō also tells Hideki that the island of Okinawa is a “sute-ishi” (i.e., “sacrificial pawn”) for the Japanese, meant to distract US troops while they focus on preparing the mainland for defense. (Chapter 13)

4. As Ray and the other soldiers are waiting to hear about the fate of Sergeant Meredith, whose body was damaged from an accidental grenade explosion, they learn that President FDR has died in office. Ray is saddened by the loss, while Big John states, “Losing the sergeant means more than losing some politician off in Washington. The president dying don’t change a dang thing for any of us on Okinawa.” (Chapter 14)

5. Hideki and Otō are forced to leave the tomb by a Japanese private who now wants to use it as a hiding space. As Hideki leads his father out, Otō tells him that Shigemoto was not a coward, and that Hideki must focus on finding his sister. Since Hideki cannot return to the tomb to bury him, and since he does not have the supplies to bury him outside, he leaves his father’s body and promises to return to bury him later. (Chapter 15)

6. Hideki and Ray’s first encounter is in a destroyed school room. Hideki hears an American soldier approaching and pretends to be dead, while Ray enters the room and takes a photograph off the wall of the students in the class. Hideki witnesses this, wondering what he would want with a photograph. (Chapter 17)

Chapters 21-30

Reading Check

1. Because he realizes that the Japanese army “expected them to die” (Chapter 21)

2. Hideki (Chapter 24)

3. “[A]n old Japanese camp” (Chapter 25)

4. Because he has Ray’s mabui attached to him (Chapter 27)

Short-Answer Response

1. After a lull in the fighting, the Marines see an Okinawan woman with dynamite strapped to her body (the same woman that Hideki was with prior). Ray is unable to shoot her dead before she comes, so Big John does it. (Chapter 22)

2. Both boys are running away from the fighting: Hideki from the Japanese lieutenant and Ray from the battlefield where he was fighting Japanese soldiers who used Okinawans as bait. Hideki and Ray run into each other around a tree; initially, they are dazed, but after the shock wears off and they realize that the other person is the enemy, they try to kill each other. (Chapter 23)

3. After finding refuge in an abandoned camp, Hideki goes through Ray’s belongings to try and find food. He is surprised to come across the photographs of Japanese people, wondering if he knew about mabui and was carrying the photos to preserve the people’s souls. He realizes that Ray was the soldier he saw at his sister’s school and that another officer had referred to him as “rei.” In this moment, Hideki makes the connection that “rei” means ghost. (Chapter 25)

4. Hideki accidentally runs into Yoshio, the boy who bullied him at school, and notices he looks much older. Bracing for a physical assault, he is shocked when Yoshio approaches him like an old friend and says he is relieved he is alive. Yoshio is living in a cave with Okinawans and a Japanese soldier named Private Maeda. (Chapter 26)

5. Private Maeda smells the American cigarette that Hideki lights for the ceremony to rid himself of Ray’s mabui and accuses him and the old Okinawan woman of being traitors. Hideki threatens to blow everyone up with his grenade, then he quickly steals Private Maeda’s rifle and runs from the cave. (Chapter 28)

Chapters 31-40

Reading Check

1. “[T]o watch for Japanese infiltrators at night” (Chapter 31)

2. “An empty metal cabinet” (Chapter 34)

3. “[T]o use the Okinawan children as human shields” (Chapter 26)

4. To get past the unexploded bomb (Chapter 37)

5. To use his grenade (Various chapters)

Short-Answer Response

1. When Hideki realizes that there are Japanese soldiers dressed as Okinawan refugees, he determines that it is safer for him to walk alone. He comes across the bodies of American soldiers, and he raids their packs for food as well as photographs. (Chapter 31)

2. The Miyagis are a family hiding in the tomb that Hideki sleeps in. He shares his food and encourages them to surrender to the Americans. After a discussion, the family agrees, and Hideki helps them with their successful surrender to US troops. (Chapter 33)

3. Masako reveals that the nurses ran out of supplies in the early part of the war and were often forced to wash bandages in the river. She said their primary task “was [to] hold the wounded soldiers’ hands and talk to them while they died.” (Chapter 35)

4. Kimiko shares with Hideki that she became a yuta after an accident where she hit her head and momentarily died. After coming back to life, she then had a special connection with the dead, and this makes her no longer want to die again. (Chapter 36)

5. In order to distract the soldiers and let Kimiko, Masako, and the Okinawan children pass, Hideki pretends to be a soldier from the high command with a secret message. Hideki offers the Japanese soldiers cigarettes, while the two soldiers offer him photographs to add to his collection. (Chapter 39)

Chapters 41-45

Reading Check

1. Only their underclothes (Chapter 41)

2. His grenade (Chapter 41)

3. The Japanese army (Chapter 44)

Short-Answer Response

1. Hideki and his companions are hesitant to move forward because the Americans accidentally shot one of the younger boys. Hideki urges the group to be slow and cautious as they approach the US troops. (Chapter 43)

2. In a final conversation between siblings, Hideki finally feels Shigemoto’s mabui leaving him; however, he realizes that he still carries Ray/Rei’s mabui on him and that he has lost his own mabui. The siblings talk about the fate of Okinawa after the war, to which Hideki notes, “This isn’t the end, Kimiko. It’s a beginning.” (Chapter 45)