Research Catalog

Title

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

Author

Tamura, Linda, 1949-

Publication

Seattle : University of Washington Press, c2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xx, 346 p. : ill.; 23 cm.

Summary

• "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 reception 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."--pub. desc.

Series Statement

Scott and Laurie Oki series in Asian American studies

Uniform Title

• Project Muse UPCC books
• Scott and Laurie Oki series in Asian American studies

Subject

• Hood River (Or.) > History > 20th century
• Japanese American soldiers > Hood River > Biography
• Japanese American soldiers > Hood River > History > 20th century
• World War, 1939-1945 > Japanese Americans
• World War, 1939-1945 > Participation, Japanese American

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• "Growing up in two worlds" Balancing Japanese America -- "Nice people so long as they are in a minority" The Japanese American community in Hood River -- 'Why didn't you tell us the war was coming" Community fallout from Pearl Harbor -- "Fighting the good uncle Sam" Nisei enter the military -- "The two-sided sword" Wartime changes for Japanese American families -- "Getting shot from ahead of us and behind us" War in the South Pacific -- "From somewhere in Europe" War in Europe -- "I've got a lot of fighting to do right here" Charged with willful disobedience -- "Discard my uniform for good" The end of the war -- "No Japes wanted in Hood River" The Hood River situation -- 'Ninety percent are against the Japs" Veterans and their families return -- "You could feel it" Resettling in the community and elsewhere
• "Time is a good healer" Rebuilding -- :Guilty of courage" Discipline barrack boys' appeals -- "Opening the closets of history" The community today -- No "Ordinary Soldiers" The Patriot test.

ISBN

• 9780295992099 (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 0295992093 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2012011201

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library