Chap. 8 Discussion Questions

1) How was Mr. Wilson feeling when he spoke to Tomi? Why was he feeling this way?

2) Did Grandpa Joji care about Lucky's puppies? How do you know? What does this say about Grandpa Joji?

3) In Chap. 8, we discovered that the US Destroyer is sunk by a torpedo off Iceland. How does this event have an effect of Hawaii and the Japanese people living in Hawaii?

4) Why do you think G. Salisbury entitled this chapter "Thunder on the Moon"?


1) Mr. Wilson was feeling very grouchy and upset. He was feeling this way because Tomi’s grandfather put up the Japanese flag. I know this because the text says,” You tell your father I don’t want to see anymore of that Jap crap around my place…you understand? This shows Mr. Wilson also has a problem with Japanese people and things.
Can you think of something that may have happened more recently in the book that may have made Mr. Wilson even angrier? (Look in chap. 8)

2) Grandpa feels for the pups. He has a soft side for babies. I know this because the text says,” He wasn’t very interested in animals as pets, but he was kind of soft on babies.” This shows grandpa can be tough on animals as pets, but tiny babies (puppies) were okay with him. 

3) It has an effect on the people living in Japan and Hawaii because the ship that sunk was an American ship. I know because the text says,” I hadn’t realized it was an American ship.” This shows it has an effect because the people on the ship that was sunk could have had people they knew that were killed on the ship. Or maybe now we have less people to fight for our country.

4) I think G. Salisbury titled chapter 3,” Thunder on the Moon,” because it says,” Far away in the hills on the west end of the island, red flashes flickered in the sky, followed seconds later by rumbling sounds, like thunder on the moon.” This shows the sounds they were hearing must have been loud because he described it like thunder on the moon.
What was making those sounds?

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