Gregg Jones > Quotes

“This is the history of the world with perhaps a stronger dash of hypocrisy than usual to soothe our feelings.”
― Gregg Jones, Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines, and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dream

“Ben loved America, but these past four years had illuminated the imperfections of the American experiment. His parents had come to this country as immigrants more than forty years earlier. They had worked and paid taxes, and yet federal law prevented them from becoming US citizens. State las in Nebraska prevented them from owning land. Why? Why were Black Americans and Japanese Americans forced to fight in segregated units during the war? Why couldn't they ear in certain restaurants or stay in certain hotels? These questions haunted Ben, and he believed they should haunt other Americans.”
― Gregg Jones, Most Honorable Son: A Forgotten Hero’s Fight Against Fascism and Hate During World War II

“Ben tried to explain the obsession that burned inside- his compulsion to prove himself loyal, his desire to avenge compatriots and friends who had been cut down by Japanese bullets and bombs. he tried to explain why he was willing to put his life on the line by undertaking a combat tour in another theater when no one was asking him to do so. If he struck a blow against Japan and showed his willingness to shed the blood of his own ancestral kin, no one could ever call him a "lousy Jap" or question his loyalty to his country.”
― Gregg Jones, Most Honorable Son: A Forgotten Hero’s Fight Against Fascism and Hate During World War II

“Since December 7, 1941, the ghost of Pearl Harbor had haunted Ben, as if he somehow shared personal responsibility for the deeds of the Japanese forces. In his anguish and his shame, Ben had convinced himself that only by confronting Japan in combat could he prove his patriotism and atone for the deaths of more than ninety thousand Americans in the three years of Pacific Combat.”
― Gregg Jones, Most Honorable Son: A Forgotten Hero’s Fight Against Fascism and Hate During World War II

“He had fought to prove his loyalty to American. Now he would fight for a cause that was bigger than he was, and far more important than his personal quest for respect and acceptance - a cause that went to the heart of what America was, and what America would be.”
― Gregg Jones, Most Honorable Son: A Forgotten Hero’s Fight Against Fascism and Hate During World War II