Unlikely Liberators

Unlikely Liberators PDF Author: Masayo Umezawa Duus
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824831403
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Unlikely Liberators is the action-filled story of the men of the 100th Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Not trusted to fight in the Pacific, these sons of Japanese immigrants were sent instead to the European theater. In the eyes of their own government and the Europeans they liberated, they were an unlikely group of fighting men. They nevertheless engaged the enemy with astonishing heroism, winning battle after battle at Anzio, Salerno, Cassino, and in the Vosges Mountains. At the end of the war, the 100th and the 442nd emerged as America’s most decorated units. They provided ample evidence of their patriotism to a country that had questioned their loyalty. Masayo Duus begins her story with the formation of the Japanese American units, which were an outgrowth of America’s ambivalent attitude toward the entire Japanese American community at the outbreak of the war. She recounts their experiences in training and during the early battles in Italy, including the conflicts between Japanese American and Caucasian troops. The final part of the story focuses on the battle in the Vosges forest, where the 442nd fought fiercely to rescue the "lost battalion" of Texans hopelessly cut off by the enemy. Based on extensive research in War Department archives and nearly three hundred interviews with veterans of the 100th and 442nd, Unlikely Liberators first appeared in serialized form in Japan, where it won the Bungeishunjusha Reader’s Prize. It is an absorbing and personalized account of young men suddenly separated from their families and friends, often confused and sometimes suspicious about what the army wanted from them. It portrays them as individuals confronting the multiple crises of war and social rejection and it shows that their greatest achievement was not their victory over a foreign enemy, but over prejudice at home. This book is a tribute to those men, who by their heroism reestablished for all Japanese Americans their personal dignity as full citizens in the country of their birth.

Unlikely Liberators

Unlikely Liberators PDF Author: Masayo Umezawa Duus
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824831403
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Unlikely Liberators is the action-filled story of the men of the 100th Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Not trusted to fight in the Pacific, these sons of Japanese immigrants were sent instead to the European theater. In the eyes of their own government and the Europeans they liberated, they were an unlikely group of fighting men. They nevertheless engaged the enemy with astonishing heroism, winning battle after battle at Anzio, Salerno, Cassino, and in the Vosges Mountains. At the end of the war, the 100th and the 442nd emerged as America’s most decorated units. They provided ample evidence of their patriotism to a country that had questioned their loyalty. Masayo Duus begins her story with the formation of the Japanese American units, which were an outgrowth of America’s ambivalent attitude toward the entire Japanese American community at the outbreak of the war. She recounts their experiences in training and during the early battles in Italy, including the conflicts between Japanese American and Caucasian troops. The final part of the story focuses on the battle in the Vosges forest, where the 442nd fought fiercely to rescue the "lost battalion" of Texans hopelessly cut off by the enemy. Based on extensive research in War Department archives and nearly three hundred interviews with veterans of the 100th and 442nd, Unlikely Liberators first appeared in serialized form in Japan, where it won the Bungeishunjusha Reader’s Prize. It is an absorbing and personalized account of young men suddenly separated from their families and friends, often confused and sometimes suspicious about what the army wanted from them. It portrays them as individuals confronting the multiple crises of war and social rejection and it shows that their greatest achievement was not their victory over a foreign enemy, but over prejudice at home. This book is a tribute to those men, who by their heroism reestablished for all Japanese Americans their personal dignity as full citizens in the country of their birth.

Completing the Union

Completing the Union PDF Author: John S. Whitehead
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 9780826336378
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
The story of the thirteen-year effort to add the 49th and 50th states to the Union.

Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence

Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence PDF Author: Linda Tamura
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295804467
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
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. Watch the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHMcFdmixLk

Going for Broke

Going for Broke PDF Author: James M. McCaffrey
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806189088
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description
When Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Americans reacted with revulsion and horror. In the patriotic war fever that followed, thousands of volunteers—including Japanese Americans—rushed to military recruitment centers. Except for those in the Hawaii National Guard, who made up the 100th Infantry Battalion, the U.S. Army initially turned Japanese American prospects away. Then, as a result of anti-Japanese fearmongering on the West Coast, more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent were sent to confinement in inland “relocation centers.” Most were natural-born citizens, their only “crime” their ethnicity. After the army eventually decided it would admit the second-generation Japanese American (Nisei) volunteers, it complemented the 100th Infantry Battalion by creating the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. This mostly Japanese American unit consisted of soldiers drafted before Pearl Harbor, volunteers from Hawaii, and even recruits from the relocation centers. In Going for Broke, historian James M. McCaffrey traces these men’s experiences in World War II, from training to some of the deadliest combat in Europe. Weaving together the voices of numerous soldiers, McCaffrey tells of the men’s frustrations and achievements on the U.S. mainland and abroad. Training in Mississippi, the recruits from Hawaii and the mainland have their first encounter with southern-style black-white segregation. Once in action, they helped push the Germans out of Italy and France. The 442nd would go on to become one of the most highly decorated units in the U.S. Army. McCaffrey’s account makes clear that like other American soldiers in World War II, the Nisei relied on their personal determination, social values, and training to “go for broke”—to bet everything, even their lives. Ultimately, their bravery and patriotism in the face of prejudice advanced racial harmony and opportunities for Japanese Americans after the war.

Heartbeat of Struggle

Heartbeat of Struggle PDF Author: Diane Carol Fujino
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9780816645930
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
Presents the biography of the courageous Asian American activist who, on February 12, 1965, cradled Malcolm X in her arms as he died, although her role as a public servant and activist began much earlier than this pivotal public moment. Simultaneous.

Men of Armor, Part One: Beginnings, North Africa, and Italy, Part I

Men of Armor, Part One: Beginnings, North Africa, and Italy, Part I PDF Author: Jeff Danby
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1636240143
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
“With its focus on tank crew members and their commanders this is a unique addition to the literature on WWII.” —A. Harding Ganz, Associate Professor Emeritus of the Ohio State University at Newark, author of Ghost Division After the shocking fall of France in June 1940, the U.S. Army embarked on a crash program to establish a new armored force. One of the units formed was the 756th Tank Battalion (Light), activated at Fort Lewis in June 1941. Because of severe equipment shortages, the new battalion trained without tanks for several months, but by early 1942 were equipped with new M3 light tanks. While companies A and C took part in Operation Torch, B was withheld for lack of cargo space in the transport ships and rejoined the battalion two months later in North Africa. The units undertook reconnaissance missions following the landings in Salerno. In December 1943 the battalion was ordered to upgrade to a medium tank (Sherman) unit. Given less than a month to reorganize and train in M4s, the battalion was sent into the Mignano Gap and supported the 34th Infantry Division in the capture of Cervaro and Monte Trocchio. B Company also supported the troops of the 100th Battalion on bloody but ill-fated attempts to cross the Rapido river before finally establishing a secure bridgehead. The nearby town of Caira was also captured, opening an avenue for an attack on Cassino. Based on decades of research, and hours of interviews with veterans of the 756th Tank Battalion, Jeff Danby’s vivid narrative puts the reader in the turret of B Company’s Shermans as they ride into battle. “The level of detail is impressive.” —WWII History Magazine

Reorienting the Pure Land

Reorienting the Pure Land PDF Author: Michael Kenji Masatsugu
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824896572
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Post–World War II historical developments, including Japanese American resettlement, the US occupation of Japan, the Cold War, and decolonization in an emerging “Third World,” created both a climate of uncertainty and possibility for the future of Japanese American Buddhism in the United States. As both a racial minority and as adherents of a non-Christian religious tradition with roots in Asia, Nikkei Buddhists faced distinct challenges in asserting their religion as part of their ethnic heritage. Adaptations associated with Nisei Buddhism sought to prioritize cultural assimilation as prescribed by US government officials and other proponents of racial liberalism, while also seeking to maintain Shin Buddhist tradition, claiming it as integral to Nikkei heritage and part of a tradition of American religious freedom. Nisei also presented Buddhism as a world religion, which served as more than a rhetorical strategy, since many Nisei extended their vision of the sangha (community of Buddhists) to include connections with Buddhists in Japan and South and Southeast Asia. But Nisei Buddhism's emerging influence among American Shin Buddhist communities would be challenged by converts and a younger generation of more progressive Nikkei during the 1960s. Reorienting the Pure Land is the first historical study of Nisei Shin Buddhists in the United States during the tumultuous period between World War II and the early decades of the Cold War. This book examines Nisei-led adaptations to American Shin Buddhist institutions and organizations in an effort to reconstitute Nikkei Buddhist communities following the end of World War II and release from US-government-sponsored concentration camps. Taking a transnational perspective, this text establishes the importance of Buddhism in shaping networks in the United States and across the globe, and is the first to highlight the centrality of ethnic Buddhism in building the terms of racial inclusion and the construction of Asian Americans as a model minority. In addressing themes of religious adaptation, cultural nationalism, and global connection, Reorienting the Pure Land makes new contributions to the fields of Japanese American history, the history of Buddhism in America, and the study of Cold War racial liberalism.

American Sutra

American Sutra PDF Author: Duncan Ryūken Williams
Publisher: Belknap Press
ISBN: 0674986539
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
Winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion A Los Angeles Times Bestseller “Raises timely and important questions about what religious freedom in America truly means.” —Ruth Ozeki “A must-read for anyone interested in the implacable quest for civil liberties, social and racial justice, religious freedom, and American belonging.” —George Takei On December 7, 1941, as the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, the first person detained was the leader of the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist sect in Hawai‘i. Nearly all Japanese Americans were subject to accusations of disloyalty, but Buddhists aroused particular suspicion. From the White House to the local town council, many believed that Buddhism was incompatible with American values. Intelligence agencies targeted the Buddhist community, and Buddhist priests were deemed a threat to national security. In this pathbreaking account, based on personal accounts and extensive research in untapped archives, Duncan Ryūken Williams reveals how, even as they were stripped of their homes and imprisoned in camps, Japanese American Buddhists launched one of the most inspiring defenses of religious freedom in our nation’s history, insisting that they could be both Buddhist and American. “A searingly instructive story...from which all Americans might learn.” —Smithsonian “Williams’ moving account shows how Japanese Americans transformed Buddhism into an American religion, and, through that struggle, changed the United States for the better.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer “Reading this book, one cannot help but think of the current racial and religious tensions that have gripped this nation—and shudder.” —Reza Aslan, author of Zealot

Cat Island

Cat Island PDF Author: John Cuevas
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786485787
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
Just off the coast of the Gulf Islands National Seashore lies Cat Island, an isolated, T-shaped sliver of sand with a remarkable past. A coveted hiding place for Jean Lafitte's pirate treasure in the late eighteenth century and illegal booze during Prohibition, Cat Island also witnessed the first shots of the Battle of New Orleans, an encampment for Seminoles during the Trail of Tears and the first lighthouses on the Mississippi coast. As a child, author John Cuevas learned that his family had owned and lived on the island for three generations beginning with his ancestor, Juan de Cuevas, referred to as "The King of Cat Island," who received it by way of a Spanish land grant. In this engaging work, Cuevas chronicles the historic events that occurred on the island's shores and offers a tribute to the legacy of one of the Gulf Coast's pioneer families.

Unsung Hero: The Col. Young O. Kim Story

Unsung Hero: The Col. Young O. Kim Story PDF Author: Woo Sung Han
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0983935408
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
The story of Col. Young Oak Kim reveals the hidden truth about the role of Asian Americans in World War II and the Korean War. Kim, a Korean American, led the famous 100th Infantry Battalion in World War II. He was instrumental not only on the frontlines of war, but also as a humanitarian. Kim spent the rest of his retired years helping others.