Two young Americans of Japanese heritage, Jimmy and Teddy, travel to Japan in 1941 to pursue their careers as jazz musicians. They get sucked into war between the US and Japan, never to be the same. I believe the expression is "carried along by events beyond their control". It is a story told from several different perspectives, one of which is the story of the Japanese people, in particular those living in
Tokyo during the war--a point of view that I have to admit I was not familiar with prior to reading this.

I have made a habit of reading aware winners on a regular basis; this novel won the PEN/Faulkner in 1987. I find that most of these aware winners are at least decent and occasionally I come across one that is a real winner for me and often it is by an author I have never read. Soldiers in Hiding falls into the latter category. I have read some very good novels in 2018, but this has been the best. I had to read the entire novel just to determine how I truly felt about some of the characters. My opinion in some cases was changing up to the last few pages. Some readers have described this novel as slow. Not for me. Richard Wiley is now someone who I am going to need to try again. ( )

In the early 1940s, two Japanese-American youth travel to Tokyo to play their music, and then Pearl Harbor prevents their return. They are, by default, drafted into the war and serve in the Philippines, to disastrous results. The story is told interspersed with flashbacks on the events that shape an old man's life: his marriage, mistress, career in radio, his wily treatment of American tourists on the streets. Written with intensity in language that sings with action and aliveness, that makes distinctions between Asian and American despite the book being written in English, the character as both an old man and his youthful self is easy to love, though he is not the most honorable or courageous of men. He is drawn with clear humanity, his flaws presented without judgment, though he himself judges others. The writing is rich with metaphor and vivid detail, and rewarding with surprising wisdom and astute observation of the action. And action does happen; plot evolves and climaxes; and we discover along with the main character what is truly important in life, even one that is so heavily laden with history and regret. ( )