BOOKMONGER
HEROISM COMES IN DIFFERENT FORMS
Book focuses on American
soldiers of Japanese
descent during WWII
In May 1944, the 4,100 men of the 442nd
Regimental Combat Team fought seasick-
ness and nerves as they steamed across the
Atlantic Ocean in a 90-ship convoy toward
a destiny they could not imagine.
The team was comprised entirely of
American soldiers of Japanese descent,
many of whom volunteered to fi ght in World
War II — even after they initially were clas-
sifi ed as “enemy aliens” by the U.S. govern-
ment and their families were ousted from
their homes and imprisoned behind barbed
wire in concentration camps throughout the
American West.
Despite that, these soldiers went on to
fi ght so valorously in eight major campaigns
in World War II that the team eventually
became the most decorated unit for its size
and length of service in U.S. history.
Daniel James Brown, of Redmond,
Washington, is the best-selling author of
“The Boys in the Boat.” Brown shares the
team’s story in his new book, “Facing the
Mountain.”
Brown focuses particularly on the lives
of four young men.
Katsugo “Kats” Miho was fi nishing up
his fi rst semester as a freshman at the Uni-
versity of Hawaii in Honolulu when pha-
lanxes of Japanese warplanes bombed Pearl
Harbor on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941.
In Spokane, Washington, 17-year-old
Fred Shiosaki heard the news while he was
listening to the radio in the apartment above
his parent’s laundry business.
In Salina Valley, 16-year old Rudy
Tokiwa was hoeing his family’s lettuce
fi elds when his sister came running to tell
him about the attack.
And at the University of Washington,
Gordon Hirabayashi knew that his decision
a year earlier to register as a Conscientious
Objector did not absolve him from duty.
This week’s book
‘Facing the Mountain’ by Daniel James Brown
Viking — 464 pages — $30
Brown tells how these four individuals
navigated the war by adhering to the princi-
ples that had been instilled in them by their
families, teachers and spiritual leaders.
Three of the four chose to enlist,
although they arrived at this decision in dif-
ferent ways. Even after these young men
were brought together into one racially seg-
regated unit, there were still distinct cultural
clashes between the kotonks (mainlanders)
and the Buddhaheads (from Hawaii). Brown
shows how they eventually overcame their
diff erences to fi ght as a formidably cohesive
unit in even the harshest circumstances.
As a committed pacifi st, Hirabayashi
became a fi ghter of a diff erent sort. When
he saw how drastically his own federal gov-
ernment was infringing on the rights of
Americans of Japanese descent, he decided
to use himself as a test case to challenge
what he believed were racially prejudiced
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and unconstitutional laws. This resulted in
court cases, labor camp sentences and time
behind bars.
Decades later, his conviction was over-
turned. Posthumously, he was awarded a
Presidential Medal of Freedom.
With “Facing the Mountain,” Brown
delivers a powerful message about the
multiplicity of identities and backgrounds
that have created “the spirit that has always
animated America.”
Especially now, at a time when hate
crimes against Asian-Americans are on
the rise, this deeply researched and richly
detailed book is a must-read.
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
McMichael, who writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, authors and publish-
ers of the Pacifi c Northwest. Contact her at
barbaralmcm@gmail.com.