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Letters from the 442nd : the World War II correspondence of a Japanese American medic / Minoru Masuda ; edited by Hana Masuda and Dianne Bridgman.
Van Pelt Library D769.31 442nd .M36 2008
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Masuda, Minoru, 1915-1980.
- Series:
- Scott and Laurie Oki series in Asian American studies
- The Scott and Laurie Oki series in Asian American studies
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Masuda, Minoru, 1915-1980--Correspondence.
- Masuda, Minoru.
- Masuda, Minoru, 1915-1980.
- United States. Army. Regimental Combat Team, 442nd--Biography.
- United States.
- United States. Army.
- United States. Army. Regimental Combat Team, 442nd.
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American.
- World War, 1939-1945.
- Medical personnel.
- Japanese Americans.
- World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Japanese American.
- United States. Army--Medical personnel--Biography.
- Japanese Americans--Correspondence.
- Medical personnel--United States--Correspondence.
- Genre:
- Personal narratives -- American.
- Correspondence.
- Biographies.
- Autobiographies.
- Personal correspondence.
- Personal narratives.
- Physical Description:
- xviii, 290 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2008]
- Summary:
- This is the first collection of letters by a member of the celebrated 442nd Combat Team, which served in Italy and France during World War II. Written to his wife by a medic serving with the segregated Japanese American unit, the letters describe a soldier's daily life.
- Minoru Masuda was born and raised in Seattle. In 1939 he earned a master's degree in pharmacology and married Hana Koriyama. Two years later the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor, and Min and Hana were imprisoned along with thousands of other Japanese Americans. When the Army recruited in the relocation camp, Masuda chose to serve in the 442nd. In April 1944 the unit was shipped overseas. They fought in Italy and in France, where they liberated Bruyeres and rescued a "lost battalion" that had been cut off by the Germans. After the German surrender on May 3, 1945, Masuda was among the last of the original volunteers to leave Europe; he arrived home on New Year's Eve 1945.
- Masuda's vivid and lively letters emphasize his surroundings, his daily activities, and the people he encountered. He describes Italian farmhouses, olive groves, and avenues of cypress trees; he writes of learning to play the ukulele with his "big, clumsy" fingers, and the nightly singing and bull sessions which continued throughout the war; he relates the plight of the Italians who scavenged the 442nd's garbage for food, and the mischief of French children who pelted the medics with snowballs.
- Contents:
- 1 America & Algeria, August 1943-May 1944 9
- 2 Italy, June-September 1944 32
- 3 France, October-November 1944 91
- 4 France, November 1944-March 1945 132
- 5 Italy, April-May 1945 171
- 6 Italy, May-December 1945 215
- Appendix People Mentioned in the Letters 277.
- Notes:
- Maps on p. [2-3] of cover.
- Includes index.
- ISBN:
- 9780295987453
- 0295987456
- OCLC:
- 125404945
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