The protagonist Koji “Alex” Maki is a nisei, the son of Japanese immigrants, who grows up on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Alex’s parents are strawberry farmers, and he helps them on the farm. His father wants Alex to be a dentist to spare him from a life of hard labor, but Alex harbors dreams of being a comic book artist; his drawings are often featured in the letters that he sends to his French pen pal, a Jewish girl named Charlie. Alex is introverted and bookish, preferring to read and draw rather than make friends. He dreams of visiting Charlie in France and worries intensely as France is occupied by Germany and begins to crack down on its Jewish citizens.

Alex’s character arc shows him maturing from an introverted kid with his head in the clouds to ultimately become a decorated war hero. From a young age, Alex is made aware of his “otherness” in American society: although he feels as patriotic and American as any other teenage boy, Alex recognizes that he is not considered to be a “real” American because of his Japanese heritage. An early incident in which his father fails to resist an act of racism causes Alex to develop a great sense of shame for being a minority and a son of immigrants.