Nisei soldiers break their silence : coming home to Hood River / Linda Tamura.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tamura, Linda, 1949-

Series:

Scott and Laurie Oki series in Asian American studies

The Scott and Laurie Oki series in Asian American studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Japanese American.

World War, 1939-1945.

World War, 1939-1945--Japanese Americans.

Japanese Americans.

Japanese American soldiers--Oregon--Hood River--History--20th century.

Japanese American soldiers.

Oregon--Hood River.

History.

Japanese American soldiers--Oregon--Hood River--Biography.

Hood River (Or.)--Ethnic relations--History--20th century.

Hood River (Or.).

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xx, 346 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2012]

Summary:

Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence is a compelling story of courage, community endurance, and reparation. It shares the experience of Japanese Americans (Nisei) who served in the U.S. Army during World War II, fighting on the front lines in Italy and France, serving as linguists in the South Pacific, and working as cooks and medics. The soldiers were from Hood River, Oregon, where their families were landowners and fruit growers. Town leaders, including veterans' groups, attempted to prevent their return after the war and stripped their names from the local war memorial. All of the soldiers were American citizens, but their parents were Japanese immigrants and had been imprisoned in camps as a consequence of Executive Order 9066. The racist homecoming that the Hood River Japanese American soldiers received was decried across the nation.

Linda Tamura, who grew up in Hood River and whose father was a veteran of the war, conducted extensive oral histories with the veterans, their families, and members of the community. She had access to hundreds of recently uncovered letters and documents from the private files of a veterans' group that led the campaign against the Japanese American soldiers. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Early Years

1 "Growing Up in Two Worlds": Balancing Japanese America 5

2 "Nice People So Long as They Are in a Minority": The Japanese American Community in Hood River 18

Part II World War II

3 "Why Didn't You Tell Us the War Was Coming?": Community Fallout from Pearl Harbor 33

4 "Fighting for Good Uncle Sam": Nisei Enter The Military 48

5 "The Two-Sided Sword": Wartime Changes for Japanese American Families 62

6 "Getting Shot from Ahead of Us and Behind Us": War in the South Pacific 75

7 "From Somewhere in Europe": War in Europe 89

8 "I've Got a Lot of Fighting to Do Right Here": Charged with Willful Disobedience 104

9 "Discard My Uniform for Good": The End of the War 122

Part III After The War

10 "No Japes Wanted in Hood River": The Hood River Situation 137

11 "Ninety Percent Are Against the Japs!": Veterans and their Families Return 159

12 "You Could Feel It": Resettling in the Community and Elsewhere 179

13 "Time Is a Good Healer": Rebuilding 190

14 "Guilty of Courage": Discipline Barrack Boys' Appeals 210

Part IV Today

15 "Opening the Closets of History": The Community Today 231

16 No "Ordinary Soldiers": The Patriot Test 250.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780295992099

0295992093

OCLC:

783520848