Nisei soldiers break their silence coming home to Hood River

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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.
Author(s): Linda Tamura
Document: Book · Paperback · CIRC [ 0 ]
Edition: 1st Edition
Published: 2012
Physical Description: xx, 346 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.
Genre: Biography
Contents:

PrefaceAcknowledgmentsOral History MethodologyIntroductionPart 1 | Early Years1. “Growing Up in Two Worlds” | Balancing Japanese America2. “Nice People So Long as They Are in a Minority” | The Japanese American Community in Hood River Part 2 | World War II3. “Why Didn’t You Tell Us the War Was Coming?” | Community Fallout from Pearl Harbor4. “Fighting for Good Uncle Sam” | Nisei Enter the Military5. “The Two-Sided Sword” | Wartime Changes for Japanese American Families6. “Getting Shot from Ahead of Us and Behind Us” | War in the South Pacific7. “From Somewhere in Europe” | War Europe 8. “I’ve Got a Lot of Fighting to Do Right Here” | Charged with Willful Disobedience9. “Discard My Uniform for Good” | The End of the WarPart 3 | After the War10. “No Japes Wanted in Hood River” | The Hood River Situation11. “Ninety Percent Are Against the Japs!” | Veterans and Their Families Return 12. “You Could Feel It” | Resettling in the Community and Elsewhere 13. “Time is a Good Healer” | Rebuilding14. “Guilty of Courage” | Discipline Barrack Boys’ AppealsPart 4 | Today15. “Opening the Closets of History” | The Community Today16. No “Ordinary Soldiers” | The Patriot TestAfterwordNotesSelected BibliographyIndex
Subjects:

1900-1999, Biographies, Biography, Ethnic relations, Guerre mondiale, 1939-1945 Américains d'origine japonaise, History, Hood River (Or.) Ethnic relations History 20th century, Japanese American soldiers, Japanese American soldiers Oregon Hood River Biography, Japanese American soldiers Oregon Hood River History 20th century, Japanese Americans, O

 

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Last updated: 2025-02-10