Set on a small Pacific North West island with a large Japanese population, in the years leading up to and following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour, this book is incredibly atmospheric and the historical sections of it really drew me in. The court case side of things let it down a bit though. The tensions between islanders as a result of the war, and how that plays into the seemingly predetermined result of the trial is interesting at first, but it loses its appeal about half way through and ends up as a repetitive gimmick to introduce back story, and although there's some tension initially it just sort of fizzles out in the end.
Still, I enjoyed it for the most part and as someone who is currently on a Japanese/American history binge, it was a bit of a more personal look at these events than other things I've been reading.