''Soldiers in Hiding'' is the first novel by

Richard Wiley Richard Wiley (born November 19, 1944) is an American novelist and short story writer whose first novel, ''Soldiers in Hiding (novel), Soldiers in Hiding'' won the 1987 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He has published five other novels and a numbe ...

. It received the 1987

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US$5000. Fi ...

Amazon It begins in Tokyo in 1941, when Teddy Maki and Jimmy Yamamoto, two young Japanese-American jazz musicians, are stranded in Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, drafted into the Japanese army and sent to the Philippines, the scene of bloody conflict with guerrillas and American troops. Rather than act as true soldiers, the two young men attempt to disengage themselves from the savagery of a war in which they are unable to choose sides. But such innocence is impossible to maintain. Thirty years later, Teddy Maki, by then a star of Japanese television, is still haunted by Jimmy's death and his own failure to disobey the order of his commanding officer to shoot an American prisoner. The guilt that poisons his relationship with his wife and son and with the country in which he has chosen to live as a perpetual outsider speaks to the moral issues raised by all wars—from Auschwitz to My Lai.

References

1986 American novels PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction-winning works 1986 debut novels {{1980s-novel-stub