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Nisei
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Government encouraged all eligible young men to enlist immediately in the fight against its enemies overseas--all eligible young men, except Japanese-Americans. Nisei is the story of Hideo "Bobby" Takahashi, a Hawaiian-born Japanese-American who must overcome prejudice, internment, and the policies of his own government to prove his loyalty to his country. Narrated by Bobby Takahashi and read by his son, Robert, forty-six years after Bobby's death, the story details the young Nisei's determination to fight honorably for his country and return to the young love he was forced to leave--a girl he cannot have because she is White.
292 pages, Paperback
Published June 30, 2016
10 people are currently reading
433 people want to read
About the author
J.J. White
6 books13 followersJ. J. WHITE has had articles and stories published in several anthologies and magazines including, Wordsmith, The Homestead Review, The Seven Hills Review, Bacopa Review, and The Grey Sparrow Journal. His story, “The Adventure of the Nine Hole League,” was published in the Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, Volume 13, and his story, “Lucky Bastard Club,” was published in the Saturday Evening Post, 2016 anthology. His debut novel, Prodigious Savant, was published in 2014 by Black Opal Books. His next novel, Deviant Acts, came out November 14, 2015, and was also by Black Opal Books. His latest novel is, Nisei, released June 30, 2016. He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize for his short piece “Tour Bus.” He lives in Merritt Island, Florida with his understanding wife and editor, Pamela.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 19, 2016
Robert is in debt and decided to sale his mother's house and then he plans on ending it all. While searching the house one last time he comes across a box with a memoir from his father. This memoir shows the life his father lived as a boy and after during World War 2. He witnesses the attack on Pearl Harbor and shortly thereafter he and his family suffer imprisonment because they are Japanese-Americans. Through all the hate and judgement he still showed love for his country and played a big role in his war years. He was honored with many medals for bravery in war. He was an American, no matter what others said.
This book was very interesting. World War 2 and the attack on Pearl Harbor has always been a great interest of mine. This book gives a little different view of this time. A view that isn't seen often, a view from what many see as the enemy side. It told a horrible and sad tale of hate, while also telling a wonderful story full of bravery and hope. This story was written very well. It was real and sad. It had action and showed the world at a horrible time. It painted a not so great picture of what being different can really mean when the world around you is at war.
This book is a book that I will gladly recommend to any lovers of history. It was a really good read. Just a heads up....the ending is a big tear jerker. I cried like a baby. I really loved how this story ended....Stormi
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This book was very interesting. World War 2 and the attack on Pearl Harbor has always been a great interest of mine. This book gives a little different view of this time. A view that isn't seen often, a view from what many see as the enemy side. It told a horrible and sad tale of hate, while also telling a wonderful story full of bravery and hope. This story was written very well. It was real and sad. It had action and showed the world at a horrible time. It painted a not so great picture of what being different can really mean when the world around you is at war.
This book is a book that I will gladly recommend to any lovers of history. It was a really good read. Just a heads up....the ending is a big tear jerker. I cried like a baby. I really loved how this story ended....Stormi
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August 11, 2016
I received this book as a gift and devoured it in just two nights of reading. Excellent book about the Japanese-Americans during the time of World War II and the issues facing them and all Americans. Down on his luck in the year 2000, Robert Takahashi is aimed to kill himself. That is until, he finds a memoir written by his late father, Hideo "Bobby" Takahashi. The memoir is touching, gripping and revealing more than Robert could have ever foreseen coming.
Having lived in Hawaii, with Hawaiian relatives, including Japanese members, I commend the author on his research and accuracy of Hawaiian pidgin and words. One couldn't get any closer to the subject and experience it other than being there.
This is an excellent book. Well written and researched and full of emotion!
Having lived in Hawaii, with Hawaiian relatives, including Japanese members, I commend the author on his research and accuracy of Hawaiian pidgin and words. One couldn't get any closer to the subject and experience it other than being there.
This is an excellent book. Well written and researched and full of emotion!
June 19, 2025
I teach about the Holocaust each year in my English class. We read The Diary of Anne Frank. I try to give the most accurate information about that time as I can. Most students have never heard much about the Holocaust. This last year when I asked students to write down everything they knew about the Holocaust, the majority said the only things they knew was that it was about World War II, the Nazis, Hitler and Jews were involved. That is it. When we finish that play I usually follow up with the reading of Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuke and James D. Houston. If I have done a good job of teaching and frontloading information about the Holocaust my students soon realize that we had concentration camps right here in the united states. The difference is we called them “internment camps”.
The author of the book Nisei tells the story of a Japanese American who went through this. His story of how they were rounded up like the Jews, given a short amount of time and a limit on what they could bring with them parallels the story of the Jews. However, they were taken to the middle of a desert where plywood houses were constructed. Families shared houses with blankets and sheets separating them. His story goes far beyond the life inside these internment camps. Instead this author chose to look at the life of a young man, Hideo Bobby Takahashi. He was a Hawaiian-born Japanese-American citizen. These young men were called on to fight in the war. However, they were often sent on missions where the majority of them would never return. They did this because even though Executive Order 9066 put you in a concentration camp like you were the enemy, you were still a proud American and would do anything to prove your loyalty to your country, even dying for it. If you want a book that will show you what it was really like for Japanese American Citizens here in the United States then this is a must read book. I highly recommend it.
The author of the book Nisei tells the story of a Japanese American who went through this. His story of how they were rounded up like the Jews, given a short amount of time and a limit on what they could bring with them parallels the story of the Jews. However, they were taken to the middle of a desert where plywood houses were constructed. Families shared houses with blankets and sheets separating them. His story goes far beyond the life inside these internment camps. Instead this author chose to look at the life of a young man, Hideo Bobby Takahashi. He was a Hawaiian-born Japanese-American citizen. These young men were called on to fight in the war. However, they were often sent on missions where the majority of them would never return. They did this because even though Executive Order 9066 put you in a concentration camp like you were the enemy, you were still a proud American and would do anything to prove your loyalty to your country, even dying for it. If you want a book that will show you what it was really like for Japanese American Citizens here in the United States then this is a must read book. I highly recommend it.
December 16, 2016
Having only heard mentioning of the atrocities forced upon American-born Japanese or those who’d immigrated prior to WWII, I was educated to the facts by Nisei. Although, as with all races in the U.S. then and now, there are those who will always have connections—sentimental, familial, and inherited—to their homeland, it is quite difficult to distinguish the terroristic and treasonistic from those who are loyal to America. It is an inner choice, an opinion, just as all things are. Only when the negativity is acted upon—as in death, destruction of property, and imposed fear—that profiling is done, both subconsciously and on purpose.
During WWII, we were battling Germans and Italians in Europe, and had been attacked by the Japanese December 7, 1941. Not only were Japanese Americans being watched, so was anyone with an accent or ties to Europe or Japan. Yet it is what was done to the Japanese that stands out the most. Racism and prejudice spread; the seed of which was fear, just like today. It is only with knowledge, understanding, and love can this be stopped.
In Nisei, an innocent, Japanese American young man’s artwork was used to facilitate the attack on Pearl Harbor. Now we have satellite phones that can transmit instantaneously. It has become technologically challenging to protect our borders, to guard our families, to prevent another 9/11. It is my hope we do not revisit our past mistakes, but we must protect the United States. Thank you, JJ White, for bringing this part of American history to light. Let us not forget.
— CJ Loiacono
During WWII, we were battling Germans and Italians in Europe, and had been attacked by the Japanese December 7, 1941. Not only were Japanese Americans being watched, so was anyone with an accent or ties to Europe or Japan. Yet it is what was done to the Japanese that stands out the most. Racism and prejudice spread; the seed of which was fear, just like today. It is only with knowledge, understanding, and love can this be stopped.
In Nisei, an innocent, Japanese American young man’s artwork was used to facilitate the attack on Pearl Harbor. Now we have satellite phones that can transmit instantaneously. It has become technologically challenging to protect our borders, to guard our families, to prevent another 9/11. It is my hope we do not revisit our past mistakes, but we must protect the United States. Thank you, JJ White, for bringing this part of American history to light. Let us not forget.
— CJ Loiacono
January 24, 2018
FTC: I received a free copy of this book from PJ Nunn in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.
Nisei by J.J. White was a fantastic book. I read this book in a few hours because once I started reading the book, I didn’t want to put it down until it was done. I loved this book because it gave me another look into some of the things that happened during WWII. I did know that we put Japanese people into internment camps during WWII because as I have said before I love WWII so I know so much about it, and this is the first book I have read that talks about something that not many people know happened.
Anyway, let’s get back to my thoughts and feelings about this book. Like I said once I started reading this book I didn’t want to put it down because I was so interested in what was going to happen and how things were going to end up. I can’t say enough good things about this book because it is one that I will be keeping in my personal collection of books because I am sure I will want to reread it in the future. I also loved this book because it gave me insight into something that I didn’t know much about before I read this book. If you are looking for a new book to read I would for sure recommend this one to you especially if you love books that take place during WWII.
Nisei by J.J. White was a fantastic book. I read this book in a few hours because once I started reading the book, I didn’t want to put it down until it was done. I loved this book because it gave me another look into some of the things that happened during WWII. I did know that we put Japanese people into internment camps during WWII because as I have said before I love WWII so I know so much about it, and this is the first book I have read that talks about something that not many people know happened.
Anyway, let’s get back to my thoughts and feelings about this book. Like I said once I started reading this book I didn’t want to put it down because I was so interested in what was going to happen and how things were going to end up. I can’t say enough good things about this book because it is one that I will be keeping in my personal collection of books because I am sure I will want to reread it in the future. I also loved this book because it gave me insight into something that I didn’t know much about before I read this book. If you are looking for a new book to read I would for sure recommend this one to you especially if you love books that take place during WWII.
May 17, 2017
A view of World War II from the point of view of a Japanese-American: life in the internment camps. the U.S. Military side by side with a hunger for his first love. The characters and settings are believable and the plot is realistic. Nothing sentimental about this book but a good look into the Japanese-American experience before, during, and after the war.
October 17, 2024
Go for broke
Truly a masterpiece. Such bravery and courage from men who were never afraid to put their lives on the line!! Should be mandatory reading for anyone who wants to know about real patriotism!
Truly a masterpiece. Such bravery and courage from men who were never afraid to put their lives on the line!! Should be mandatory reading for anyone who wants to know about real patriotism!
November 11, 2016
Bobby Takahashi had three passions, sketching, joining the navy and a redhead named Mary O’Connor. Unfortunately, although Mary loved him, her father forbade their relationship, the navy was off limits to a Japanese-American from Hawaii and a sketch that he made of the battleships at Pearl Harbor fell into the hands of the Japanese. The whole Takahashi family, and many others, found themselves in internment camps in California immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Bobby, real name Hideo, had more trouble than that. His father promised him in an arranged marriage to an older, and fallen, geisha from Hiroshima. An aspiring sumo wrestler named Eddie also bullied him from high school to the battlefields of Europe. Because Bobby’s sketch of the harbor was found in the cockpits of several Japanese zeros shot down during the raid, he was separated from his mother and unwanted spouse, and sent to a high security camp near the Oregon border. Through a tragic and convoluted chain of events, he was given the choice of joining the army or going to jail. Before shipping out to basic training in Mississippi, he returned to Hawaii where he had a brief affair with his true love who had since married a white naval officer. She gets pregnant, as does Bobby’s sluttish wife who screwed Bobby’s best friend back in the internment camp. When the Japanese-American regiment arrived in Italy, their military accomplishments were unparalleled. Bobby separated from the army after being wounded six times and attaining the rank of captain.
Confused? Well, maybe a little, but Nisei is a superbly crafted book told in the format of a first person memoir discovered by that son conceived with the redhead but raised by the geisha who reads it on the eve of his intended suicide. Oh, yes, the story is complex, but it is a tale of redemption. The prose is an engaging Hawaiian jargon. The pace is never slow although the plot is complex and winding. J.J. White deserves kudos for a marvelous recounting of the plight of loyal Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. I loved this book and cannot recommend it more strongly.
Confused? Well, maybe a little, but Nisei is a superbly crafted book told in the format of a first person memoir discovered by that son conceived with the redhead but raised by the geisha who reads it on the eve of his intended suicide. Oh, yes, the story is complex, but it is a tale of redemption. The prose is an engaging Hawaiian jargon. The pace is never slow although the plot is complex and winding. J.J. White deserves kudos for a marvelous recounting of the plight of loyal Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. I loved this book and cannot recommend it more strongly.
August 22, 2016
This is definitely a genre I steer clear of normally (Historical/War-Military/Japanese-American)--I am not into war. That said I am very glad I agreed to read this one when asked. The things they don't teach us in history class--unbelievable. This is a work of fiction but based on real events!
Let me clear up some of the words first since a lot of us don't know the meaning--
Nisei - A Japanese son or daughter, born and educated in the United States, whose parents emigrated from Japan
Issei - A man or woman who were born in Japan but emigrated to the United States
Haole - A White American
This book uses a lot of words that the Hawaiian Japanese used back then and some even in pidgeon-but all words are explained within the pages of this novel. Also be sure to read the Author's note at the beginning of the novel.
This is the story, written in the form of a memoir, from Hidio Takahashi as he was dying to his son, Robert Yakahashi. He had a translator write down his story as he spoke it. It tells of his life, how he was accused wrongly of being a spy and how he and his family were sent to an interment camp, and what they were like. It tells of his love from an early age for Mary (who did love him back)-but how both their fathers forbid it. It also tells the story of the soldiers of the 442nd--a unit in the army of Hawaiian Japanese Americans who fought for the United States in WWII.
Will what is written stop Robert from committing suicide? Will the revelations about who he really is haunt him or set him free?
Yes, this is also a love story written beautifully and I hope that all people read this book---To forget history means it might just happen again (heaven forbid).
Nisei
Let me clear up some of the words first since a lot of us don't know the meaning--
Nisei - A Japanese son or daughter, born and educated in the United States, whose parents emigrated from Japan
Issei - A man or woman who were born in Japan but emigrated to the United States
Haole - A White American
This book uses a lot of words that the Hawaiian Japanese used back then and some even in pidgeon-but all words are explained within the pages of this novel. Also be sure to read the Author's note at the beginning of the novel.
This is the story, written in the form of a memoir, from Hidio Takahashi as he was dying to his son, Robert Yakahashi. He had a translator write down his story as he spoke it. It tells of his life, how he was accused wrongly of being a spy and how he and his family were sent to an interment camp, and what they were like. It tells of his love from an early age for Mary (who did love him back)-but how both their fathers forbid it. It also tells the story of the soldiers of the 442nd--a unit in the army of Hawaiian Japanese Americans who fought for the United States in WWII.
Will what is written stop Robert from committing suicide? Will the revelations about who he really is haunt him or set him free?
Yes, this is also a love story written beautifully and I hope that all people read this book---To forget history means it might just happen again (heaven forbid).
Nisei
Read
September 9, 2016Wow!!! Having lived in Hawaii from 1991 until 1996 I came to know several members of the "Go For Broke" soldiers, among them Senator Daniel Inouye. The book clearly and honestly tells the story of what these proud American men and women went through during WWII to prove their loyalty. I cried at the end of the book. I recommend that anyone wanting to learn about this part of history to read it. Thank you J J White for writing from your heart and thank you Bobby for living.
Read
December 13, 2018Excellent
I truly enjoyed this book. I started to read it just to get acquainted but could not put it down. Although it is a work of fiction the author set it in a historical setting. I love the description of life in Hawaii by Japanese Americans, the suffering that they had to endure through internment, the racism, dispossession of their property and separation from families. I also loved the history of the Japanese troops who fought for honor and recognition from a nation who despised them. In the end they proved that they were as committed to the U.S.A. as the white soldiers were. Easy to read, fun and very informative.
I truly enjoyed this book. I started to read it just to get acquainted but could not put it down. Although it is a work of fiction the author set it in a historical setting. I love the description of life in Hawaii by Japanese Americans, the suffering that they had to endure through internment, the racism, dispossession of their property and separation from families. I also loved the history of the Japanese troops who fought for honor and recognition from a nation who despised them. In the end they proved that they were as committed to the U.S.A. as the white soldiers were. Easy to read, fun and very informative.
October 3, 2016
I really enjoyed this book. Even though it is a novel, it has immense historical significance. The book is a look through the eyes of a Japanese-American at the beginning and through WWII. I have read other books regarding this time in history and Japanese-Americans but none with the men going to war with us. For anyone interested in WWII history this is a must read.
I did win this book through Goodreads.
I did win this book through Goodreads.
January 5, 2021
go for broke. what a great slogan. now know what was behind it.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews