"Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence" is a compelling story of
courage, community, endurance, and reparation. It shares the
experiences 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
private files of a local veterans' group that led the campaign
against the Japanese American soldiers. This book also includes the
little known story of local Nisei veterans who spent 40 years
appealing their convictions for insubordination.
Linda Tamura is professor of education at Willamette University
in Salem, Oregon. She is the author of "The Hood River Issei: An
Oral History of Japanese Settlers in Oregon's Hood River
Valley."
"An important book about significant wartime events, a group of
heroic World War II veterans, and the anguished experience of a
community coming to grips with its own social sins. It is a superb
oral history, a compelling community history, and a cautionary
story about what happens when a democracy goes to war." -William L.
Lang, Portland State University
""Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence" speaks to contemporary
concerns about multiculturalism and diversity with an absorbing and
powerful story that encompasses both U.S. military and civilian
life and strategically links the past with the present in a manner
that vivifies what William Faulkner meant when he said that 'the
past is not dead, it is not even past.'" -Arthur A. Hansen,
Professor Emeritus of History and Asian American Studies,
California State University, Fullerton
General
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