Letters from the 442nd: The World War II Correspondence of a Japanese American Medic (Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.61 (705 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0295987456 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-01-13 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Hawaiiboy Great reading - as a previous review mentioned - "Min" is an excellent letter writer. The power is putting down mundane every day tasks and events as they happen - these are things that most histories are missing. Being grubby and dirty, basically living without a home, fear, longing for loved ones and hopes for the future - all this makes this a powerful record of war from a ordinary sold. "Compelling and Remarkable" according to S. Bell. Masuda, his family and friends suffer the humiliation and shame of being forced into camps. Then Masuda decides to fight for the country that put them in the camps. His remarkable choice is never questioned in years of letters, no matter how painful his combat experience. His correspondence reflects not only what is happening on the Europe front, but, insofar as it responds to corresponden. "One Star" according to jules f bonjour. The text was heavily marked and made reading the material difficult
Readers will cherish and find inspiration in his gentle humor, keen insights and colorful observations of America at war not only abroad, but at home against some of its own citizens."The Advocate. "Letters from the 442nd offersa unique and compelling account of what the men of the 442nd experienced on and off the battlefield. Thanks to army censorship and concern for his wife's feelings, Masuda put little blood and guts in his letters. But they richly and movingly detail the medic's
Two years later the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor, and Min and Hana were imprisoned along with thousands of other Japanese Americans. The letters are accompanied by snapshots, a drawing made in the field, and three maps drawn by Masuda.. They fought in Italy and in France, where they liberated Bruyeres and rescued a "lost battalion" that had been cut off by the Germans. In April 1944 the unit was shipped overseas. In 1939 he earned a master's degree in pharmacology and married Hana Koriyama. He describes Italian farmhouses, olive groves, and avenues of cypress trees; he writes of learning to play the ukulele with his "big, clumsy" fingers, and the nightly singing and bull sessions which continued throughout the war; he relates the plight of the Italians who scavenged the 442nd's garbage for food, and the mischief of French children who pelted the medics with snowballs.Excerpts from the 442nd daily medical log provide context for the letters, and Hana interposes brief recollections of her experiences. Written to his wife by a medic serving with the segregated Japanese American unit, the letters describe a soldier's daily life.Minoru Masuda was born and raised in Seattle. This is the first collection of letters by a member of the legendary 442nd Combat Team, which served in Italy and France during World War II. After the German surrender on May 3, 1945, Masuda was among the last of the original volunteers to leave Europe; he arrived home on New Year's Eve 1945.