Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II

by Daniel James Brown

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat comes the gripping untold story of one of the most heroic units that fought in World War II.

On December 7th 1941, the Japanese Navy bombed Pearl Harbor. For many Americans, the surprise attack was a call to arms - but for the soldier sons of Japanese-American immigrant parents, it brought prejudice and scrutiny over where their loyalties lay.

In Facing the Mountain, Daniel James Brown tells the unforgettable story of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the Japanese-American heroes who displayed incredible courage on the brutal battlefields of Europe. Achieving the impossible in often near-suicidal missions, including rescuing a 'lost battalion' surrounded by Nazis in the French mountains, the 442nd went on to become one of the most decorated units in history. Yet at the same time, their parents were put in camps and stripped of their livelihoods, and an equally brave battle was being fought in the courtroom back home.

A cinematic tour de force, Facing the Mountain puts a real-life band of brothers in the history books where they belong and reminds us that victory is rarely as simple as we think.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Audiobook, Book Club, Historical

560 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 11, 2021

About the author

Daniel James Brown lives in the country east of Redmond, Washington, where he writes nonfiction books about compelling historical events.

Brown's newest book--Facing the Mountain--follows the lives of four young Japanese American men as they and their families bravely confront harsh new realities brought about by the onset of World War II. Facing the Mountain comes on the heels of Brown's New York Times bestseller--The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. That book chronicles the extraordinary saga of nine working class boys who stormed the rowing world, transformed the sport, and galvanized the attention of millions of Americans in the midst of the Great Depression. MGM has acquired the rights to adapt the book for a feature film to be directed by George Clooney.

His second book--The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride--was chosen as an INDIE NEXT NOTABLE SELECTION by the American Bookseller's Association, it recounts the extraordinary journey of a young woman whose fate became entangled with that of the infamous Donner Party in 1846. His first book--Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894--takes the reader back to the events of September 1, 1894, when his great-grandfather and more than 300 other people died in one of America's greatest forest-fire disasters. That book was selected as a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers pick, was named one of the Best Books of 2006 by Booklist magazine, and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award.

Reviews

[MarilynW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II
by Daniel James Brown, narrated by Louis Ozawa

At a time when Americans were grappling with all that came with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans and their parents, who had been living in America since before their children's birth, were made to leave their homes, livelihoods, everything, to be shipped for incarceration in remote and primitive camps. Even so, many of their sons volunteered to fight for the Allies and the United States despite what was happening to their families. Those that resisted going to war while their families were unjustly incarcerated were charged with crimes and imprisoned elsewhere.

We follow Rudy Tokiwa, Fred Shiosaki, and Kats Miho who volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team but while following those men we get to know so many others who fought and often gave their lives, all the while having to worry about how their family was faring back home. Those that did get to return home after the war, more often than not, didn't have "home" to go back to since their homes, businesses, communities would have been taken over or destroyed while they were incarcerated. We also follow Gordon Hirabayashi, a peaceful resistor who spent much of his time incarcerated for standing up to the government due to the unfair and unequal treatment of Japanese American citizens.

The bravery and sacrifices of these men and the very mixed emotions about what they felt they should do for their country while they and their families were designated enemy aliens is laid out here, with documentation. Although I read a lot of historical fiction I am finding that I greatly enjoy reading true stories that don't rely on fictional embellishment to tell about the past. I listened to the audiobook, which is great, but then I also relied on a digital copy of the book so that I could see the many pictures and read the documentation that makes up this book. As with Daniel James Brown's book The Boys in the Boat, he writes in such a way that I could really picture being there with these men, some barely more than boys. I could also picture their families, many of them older and looking forward to a comfortable retirement from decades of hard work, only now to find they had nothing once it was all taken away.

Pub May 11th 2021 by Penguin Audio

[Kerrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Facing The Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II is an engrossing non-fiction account of the military bravery of Japanese Americans, along with the shameful racism that these soldiers and their families suffered. Their patriotism and resilience are inspiring.

The first-generation Japanese men who immigrated to Hawaii and the mainland United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s were known as Issei. They were barred from becoming American citizens. Their American-born children were called Nisei. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, an exclusion zone was set up on the entire western coast of the United States. Families of Japanese descent that lived in these areas and many Issei from Hawaii were forced to live in relocation camps. While these families were imprisoned, their sons were conscripted for military service. Many of the Nisei volunteered, but a few objected. These soldiers were placed in a segregated unit, the 442nd RCT, and sent to fight in the mountains of Italy and France. Facing The Mountain follows the stories of several Nisei soldiers as well as one conscientious objector.

There is a lot of detail given to the military excursions these brave men fought. The 442nd RCT was the most decorated military unit of its size and length of service in American history. In all, there were approximately 18,000 men who served. Many of them gave their lives at the same time their families were being imprisoned for no other reason than being of Japanese descent. Several of them helped liberate the Jewish people being held at Dachau, but could not free their own families in the United States.

Once the war was over, the families and soldiers faced horrible discrimination upon their return to their homes. Much of the property had been stolen or looted, their businesses sold, and their homes occupied by squatters who refused to leave. A group of people who burned down a Japanese- American owned farm were found not guilty after the defense attorney implored the jury to keep this part of California “a white man’s country”.

In the epilogue on page 465, the author poignantly states:

"In the end, they helped win for us a far better world than the one in which they found themselves when Japanese bombers first appeared over Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. Now, more than a generation later, it is up to us to cherish and protect what they won, to devote ourselves yet again to the principles they defended, to surmount our own mountains of trouble, to keep moving upward together on the long slope of our shared destiny."

5-Stars. This is my book club’s September 2021 selection. I felt like I was facing a mountain when I saw how thick this book is. It is 482 pages long, plus 58 pages of notes. The author does an excellent job of keeping the story moving and interesting.

[Blaine DeSantis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely spectacular book to which I give an enthusiastic 5***** rating. Daniel James Brown, who previously wrote "The Boys in the Boat" has a follow up book that in my opinion dwarfs any of his other works. He has done a magnificent job in telling the stories of Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJA) who suffered and sacrificed during WW2. He has used extensive sourcing for this story, including personal interviews when possible as well as oral history archives.
Life was never easy for many people who arrived in both the US or Hawaii (at the time of WW2 Hawaii was not a state). These were hard working people, people who came to the US and could not attain US Citizenship, but their US born children were full American citizens. They rose from menial jobs to having their own small businesses, owning homes, being productive farmers, etc. And then came the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Americans don't want to talk about War Relocation Camps, Exclusion Zones, prejudice, racism and loss of American liberties, but fortunately for all of us the author does a fantastic job of detailing this and so much more. He makes the reader feel the pain and humiliation that those AJA experienced and felt directly, as the US succumbed to fear and the feeling that anyone who had Japanese ancestry had to be a spy for or loyal to Japan. People were unceremoniously rounded up and sent to holding areas before being shipped off to their horrific Relocation Centers. And to assist in telling the story the author follows about 15-20 different people as we see how this shameful part of our History affected these people or their families.
Eventually the young men in the camp were given the option of enlisting in the US Army, as we were going to form an All-Japanese division to fight in Europe. We follow them through Basic Training, and get a glimpse at the harsh reception they got in Hattiesburg, MS, even when they went into town in their US Military uniforms. They all became part of the 442 Infantry Regiment that made its way over to Italy where they were given assignments and missions that none of the other units were able to complete. They served heroically, bravely and did what nobody else could do. They broke the back of the German army in Italy and their reward was a trip to France and Germany where they once again were given the tasks that no other unit could accomplish, all of which culminated in their rescue of the Lost Battalion. The Lost Battalion was a group of Texans that got themselves surrounded by the German Army and were in fear of being totally annihilated. The 442 was sent in to rescue that group. The weather was horrid, the terrain unforgiving, the Germans pouring massive firepower at them, but eventually these young men (men who were denied their liberties here in the US) broke through. The 442 lost 800 men in order to rescue 200. These were warriors, these were heroes, these were ordinary kids most of whom had their parents still living in the War Relocation Centers.
But the story continues after the war, as they and their parents many times felt continuing prejudice and lived in fear for their lives and property. And as a bonus we also get to follow a conscientious objector who challenged the system, who was respected by all he met be they prosecutors, FBI agents, cellmates, etc. He even was allowed to make his own way to the prison in Arizona when there were no funds or agents to take him there, and so he hitchhiked to his own prison term and when he arrived he was treated as a hero by the inmates.
There are stories galore in this book and page after page we meet wonderful characters, shake our heads in both despair and amazement, and by the end I must give a huge THANK YOU to Daniel James Brown for writing this book, as well as for all those AJA who suffered and who served in WW2. The book is both inspirational and cautionary, it makes us think of service, valor, sacrifice, humiliation, shame and it teaches us many lessons - never take our lives and liberties for granted because if we do some politician or foreign power is always waiting in the wings to try and deny us those very things we hold near and dear.
A final note, it is refreshing to read a book that focuses on Japanese Americans. Most history books and movies ignore these individuals, as they concentrate on the War in Europe and the Pacific theater us ignored. We still have voluminous books on the treatment of the Jews in WW2, but nobody wants to remember what we did to our own citizens. Thanks Daniel James Brown what a wonderful book, what an amazing topic, and what a history lesson you teach in a book I could never put down!

[Elizabeth George · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I've read all of the author's books and, for me, this one stands with The Boys in the Boat. It's compellingly written and it tells a story that desperately needs to be told. So often in the US, unpleasant facts and horrifying facts are swept under the carpet in an effort to portray the country as "The Greatest Country in the World." This book does not do that. The author draws back the curtain on what happened to Japanese immigrants and native Japanese-Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor. At the same time, he gives a detailed account of one battalion--the 442, all of which comprised young Japanese-American men serving under white officers--and their journey to become one of the most decorated battalions in history. As before, the author highlights specific individuals and their families, making the story a gripping account of what these people suffered in order to prove they were loyal Americans. It's just excellent, and I couldn't recommend it more highly.

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books just feel more important than others. Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown is one of those books.

Chronicling the lives of multiple groups of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor in World War II, it can be an absolutely brutal read in the way history often can be. The rampant racism will make anyone cringe and the insults pile up against the subjects of the book. They all persevere, and many do so right to their deaths in Europe.

This type of story can easily become a diatribe against the shameful actions of the U.S. towards Japanese Americans, but Daniel James Brown is an extremely skilled writer. He focuses on the triumphs and tragedies of his characters without proselytizing endlessly. His prose flows so easily that the book feels like 100 pages when it is nearly 500. It is one of the best books I have read on World War II.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 5 out of 5]

Facing the Mountain follows the lives of four young Japanese-American men as they and their families bravely confront harsh new realities brought about by the onset of World War II. It deeply explores the pain and suffering of the men of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, one of the most decorated in American military history, and you cannot fail to be moved by what you read. For the most part the men had grown up just like other American boys: they played baseball and football and made plans to go to college, or work in the family business or run the farm someday; it seemed as if the whole world lay before them but within hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, all of that changed. Within days the FBI was banging on their doors. Within weeks many of them would watch as their immigrant parents were forced to sell their homes. Within months 120,000 of them would be living in barracks behind barbed wire for the duration of the war. By 1943, after more than a year of persistent lobbying for the chance to prove their patriotism, draft-age Nisei (those born in the U.S. to Japanese immigrant parents) could volunteer for “a segregated, all-Japanese American fighting unit” in the U.S. Army.

This is the story of those young men resisting, rising up, standing on principle, laying down their lives, enduring and prevailing. In partnership with Densho, Facing the Mountain grew out of conversations Daniel James Brown had with Tom Ikeda, Executive Director of Densho in 2015. Densho is a Seattle-based nonprofit organization originally dedicated to collecting and preserving the oral histories of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II to promote equity and justice today. The book starts with the terror of the Pearl Harbor attack, proceeds through the shock and sadness of displacement and crescendos to some of the most brutal fighting you will ever encounter as a reader, as the Japanese-American units battled retreating Nazis in Italy, France and Germany itself. This is a compelling, richly described and exceptionally researched book with a team of historians and archivists involved to identify and develop the real-life storylines of the four protagonists at the heart of tale, as well as to draw a broad and historically accurate history of life in the Japanese-American community before, during, and after the war.

It's brutal, unco, portable but vitally important to tell a story so often hidden from view. It's a definitive and authoritative account capturing a truly regrettable history and an insightful, thought-provoking illustration of immense heroism amid the backdrop of deeply entrenched racist sentiment. The bottom line really should be that if these young men were welcomed with open arms into army units and to fight for the United States, they should at least be recognised as invaluable and every bit a part of society as any other race at that time. Facing the Mountain is an unforgettable chronicle of wartime America and the battlefields of Europe drawing upon the fascinating and inspiring stories and words of Japanese-American elders and ancestors to tell this history in a way that can reach vast audiences. Daniel James Brown has an exceptional ability to tell compulsive, people-centred stories, and he humanises this part of history for a population of readers that may be learning about it for the first time. Highly recommended.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book presents how it was to be Japanese American after the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. We follow a group of selected individuals from 1941 through to the end of the war and, in the epilog, up to current times. Japanese Americans, not only those born in Japan but as well those born in the U.S and having American citizenship, perhaps having even fought for the U.S. in the First World War, were discriminated against. One’s appearance, one’s ancestral heritage was the determining factor! This is a book about blatant racial discrimination.

The book focuses less upon the Japanese Americans’ incarceration camps and more upon their dedication and bravery fighting in regiments together during the war. We follow the soldiers into both Italy and France. Their valor, either fighting in the war or battling in the courts for legal justice, is the central theme of this book.

Personally, I particularly like how the book brought back to me memories of places I have visited with my husband. We often sought out and walked in and around areas of historical significance--Les Vosges, the Battle of the Bulge and Tuscany. The author mentions little details that stand out and characterize the areas still today, decades later. The oppressive heat on a summer night in Italy. The smell of fish fried in olive oil. The characteristic floral fragrance of a given spot rising up from the vegetation growing there.

That there is less focus om life in the incarceration camps didn’t bother me since I’ve read of this before in other books.

Louis Ozawa does a fine job with the narration. The Japanese names of particular figures are returned to again and again, so you soon come to recognize them. The narration is clear and distinct. Sometimes the text abruptly switches to a different person or subject. I wish a pause had then been inserted. I still think the narration is worth four stars.

I think it is good that the author chose to focus on a set of individuals rather than Japanese Americans as a group, as a diffuse, indistinct mass. The book is informative and clear. It is important that the history of Japanese Americans in the U.S. is documented. Time passes--soon not many of these individuals will remain alive.

Every book I have read by this author I have given four stars. He writes very good narrative nonfiction.

********************************

*The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics 4 stars
*Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894 4 stars
*Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II 4 stars
*The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride TBR

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the author of The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics comes a truly fascinating story of Japanese-American men who served in the Army during World War II and their families who were locked behind barbed wire in relocation camps. This an eye opener about a dark period in our history. The story centers around four young men but there were many others just like them.

Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor Japanese-American's faced bigotry and discrimination. Hawaii was not yet a state and plantation owners took advantage of those who emigrated from Japan looking for a new start, a better life. In the continental United States the anti-Asian sentiment was just as strong. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the hatred and fear intensified. Homes and businesses were taken away. People of Japanese ancestry on the west coast of the United States were relocated to camps. Men, women, and children. Hawaii was not included in these relocations for economic reasons. If the government had removed people of Japanese descent in Hawaii there would have been no one left to work the plantations.

By 1943 the United States desperately needed more troops to fight the war on two fronts ... Europe and the Pacific. After intense lobbying draft-age Nisei (those born in the U.S. to Japanese immigrant parents) were allowed to volunteer for a segregated, all-Japanese American fighting unit in the U.S. Army. This was the birth of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, one of the most decorated units in American military history. Their motto was “Go For Broke". Through training, then Italy, France, and eventually Germany itself these men faced bigotry and numerous challenges. They endured, pushed back, rose to every challenge.

One of the men we meet in this story is Gordon Hirabayashi, a Quaker and conscientious objector, who fought his battle in the courtroom. He stood up against the government in defense of his own rights, and the rights of all Japanese-Americans.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was often called upon to do the impossible. And they answered the call. Most of them never made it home. Those who did make it back faced more challenges. There were physical and emotional challenges. Today they call it PTSD. But there was still discrimination. A soldier who had been wounded and returned to the United States went to a barber shop to get a haircut after getting out of the hospital. In uniform, with ribbons earned on the battlefield, and on crutches the barber refused to cut the hair of "a Jap". An American Legion post in Oregon blacked out the names on their honor roll if they were Japanese-American.

Highly recommended.

[Cathrine ☯️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠
This story is about another band of brothers, one whose story has been largely buried in the myriad of events of WWII. We clearly haven’t learned from our history, indeed, seem bound and determined to repeat our past transgressions.
In the United States where we are witnessing hatred and violence towards those of Asian descent 70 years after putting our own citizens in concentration camps, it’s clear that many of the sacrifices made for our republic are being largely forgotten, even denied or rewritten to suit current trends supporting divisiveness and separation.

After the bombing at Pearl Harbor it took more than a year of persistent lobbying by these men who volunteered to fight even as they and their families were imprisoned. It would take Congress 65 years to officially recognize these soldiers who were placed in a segregated unit, the 442nd RCT3, the most decorated military unit of its size and length of service in American history.
The chapters of their heroism in Italy, France, and the Nazi death camps had me in tears. Daniel James Brown knows how to tell the story well and it’s one that we should all know. The narration of the audio book was excellent.

"In the end, they helped win for us a far better world than the one in which they found themselves when Japanese bombers first appeared over Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. Now, more than a generation later, it is up to us to cherish and protect what they won, to devote ourselves yet again to the principles they defended, to surmount our own mountains of trouble, to keep moving upward together on the long slope of our shared destiny.”

[Carol]

Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II has already made my best list of 2022. It is certain to also be on my all time favorite list. The title clearly tells you what the book is about but the depth of these war heroes can only be appreciated in reading the book. I started this on audio, but knew quite quickly that the hard copy would be necessary for its acknowledgments, notes, resources, indexing, and of course the photos. Just to see the names of these men in print was worth the price of the book. I always wonder what more can be written about World War II and then am amazed when an author writes one that gives such insight to this tragic event in our history.

Two excellent websites Daniel Brown's Beyond The Book and The Testamonies of Japanese Americans Unjustly Incarcerated During World War II will give you a better than I could write in my review and hopefully draw you into its pages.

Daniel James Brown makes non-fiction jump alive and is easily understandable in its narrative style.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely unsettling book about racial bigotry in all its ugliness. During WWII, Japanese and Japanese Americans were interned in camps, euphemistically called “relocation centers.” The camps were surrounded by barbed wire watchtowers, similar to what one would find in a prison. These people were stripped of their civil rights, and lost their homes, businesses, and possessions. The author focuses on individuals and families whose lives were disrupted.

Eventually, the need for more combat troops resulted in the formation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a racially segregated unit of Japanese Americans. This account highlights the experiences of four men, three of whom served in the unit. The unit’s experiences and achievements are impressive.

The author based his account on interviews, archives, and recorded voices. He relates history through telling the stories of the people who lived through it. It is an impressive work and particularly pertinent as a warning to safeguard against erosion of civil liberties.

[David Canford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found it hard to put this book down. Daniel Brown has written a compelling account of the experience of Japanese Americans in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, recounting the stories of several of the individuals effected. From the American citizen in Spokane who refused to obey the curfew on Japanese Americans and sought to assert his constitutional rights as an American, to those put in internment camps and those who signed up to fight once the government abandoned its prohibition on Japanese Americans joining the armed forces.
Understandably, the outbreak of war aroused strong feelings in white America but the level of racism and hatred shown to those of Japanese descent was quite awful. However, if we remember it was also the time of Jim Crow laws and the regular lynching of black people, it is a reminder that at the time, racism and a lack of justice for those who weren’t white ( and in the eras before it ) was widespread both in America and elsewhere. One of my favourite moments in the book is when some young Japanese American men training at Fort Shelby in Mississippi befriend a black soldier in a bar and afterwards insist that he enters the bus at the front with them. When the white bus driver says he must use the door at the rear or the bus is going nowhere, they drag the driver off the bus and drive the bus themselves.
I didn’t know that at the time half the population of Hawaii were of Japanese origin so internment camps weren’t used there because the islands’ economy would have collapsed.
There are many ironies, such as Italian and German POWs in the US, who had only recently been trying to kill Americans in the fighting in Europe, being invited into American’s homes and being treated better than Japanese Americans loyal to the USA.
The accounts of the Japanese American regiment fighting in Europe are intense and bring home the absolute horror and loss of life war brings. The regiment fought fearlessly despite the way they and their families were treated back home, and their heroism was second to none as demonstrated by their medal tally for bravery.
It took another fifty years until modest compensation was paid to those who lost their livelihoods as a result of internment.
While the things that happened seem wrong to us and this book may shock you, it’s also worth bearing in mind that what was happening to people in Japanese occupied territory was much worse. America has at least recognised the wrong, whereas I’m not sure that Japan has ever fully taken responsibility for the terrible things it did and certainly not to the extent that Germany has.
The book helps remind us how easy it can be for a society to scapegoat a particular race or groups of people and that trait is, sadly, something not confined to history.

[Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this ARC as a giveaway so first need to give thanks to Viking and Goodreads. Daniel James Brown provides readers with an extremely detailed and comprehensive account of certain members of the 442nd RCT and 522nd Field Artillery Battalion who fought so bravely during WW2. However, this is not just a war story because it also chronicles life in internment camps for many of the parents of these soldiers. Imagine the emotional effort it must have taken someone who is born in the U.S. and therefore a citizen, but told because of their Japanese ancestry they need to be relocated from their homes, lose their businesses, and uprooted from their law-abiding lives to be placed on buses and put in prison settings. Then, the government turns around and says we need your body to help with the war effort, and if you don't sign up you're going to deemed a disloyal traitor. And then to top it off, when they get to the Camp Shelby, despite all the recruits being of the same heritage, there is rampant discord between those who grew up on the mainland and those from Hawai'i.

The book primarily focuses on 3 specific soldiers (Kats Miho, Fred Shiosaki, and Rudy Tokiwa) and one conscientious objector (Gordon Hirabayashi) detailing their lives leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, their lives in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, and their roles played during the war. The book started off slow introducing these men and their families, but once Kats, Fred, and Rudy got to Europe and the reader was able to see the war through their eyes things really picked up. This book details the missions these men went on, the extreme number of casualties suffered, and incredible acts of heroism when looking up at nests of machine guns strafing them with bullets, crossing mine laden fields in the dark, and dodging bullets from tanks. From an historical perspective, it is important to understand the hardships these soldiers and their families endured, how their achievements were overlooked for years, and the integral part they played in helping win the war.

[Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for all Americans. It contains a story I had not heard of until reading "About Face" by Col. David Hackworth this past year. I conveniently stumbled across this book shortly after.

Like many WWII books it contains individual feats of heroism under fire, however this book is full of more than that.

This book addresses a failure of Americans to live up to our values. It speaks to the racial bigotry of the America in the 30s-40s. It tells the story of Japanese American's and their fight to prove to their fellow Americans that they not only belonged here but were willing to fight and die for a country that imprisoned their families on the grounds of race and ancestry alone. Their parents barred from citizenship gave their sons to fight for others freedom.

Many of us know the stories of the Tuskegee Airman and the Navajo code talkers. This story deserves to be just as well known as those.

In an era of renewed racial hostility and bigotry, Americans would do well to be reminded of the values our country strives for. While we have failed at attaining those values historically and in the present. We need all be reminded what can be accomplished, when we as Americans come together and fight for the greater good.

[Sonny · Rating 5 out of 5]

― They couldn't know that they were about to see things and do things that would change them utterly, things they would regret, things that would sear their souls, and things they would cherish beyond all reckoning. They couldn't yet understand that they were about to step off the edge of the world.
― Daniel James Brown, Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II

Daniel James Brown is best known for his 2014 book The Boys in the Boat that told the story of how the University of Washington’s rowing team won Olympic gold at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. In Facing the Mountain, Brown tells the story of the all-Japanese 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team of the American Fifth Army that fought in Europe during World War II.

Brown's book focuses primarily on four young Nisei men (Nisei are second-generation Japanese Americans whose parents were immigrants from Japan; first-generation immigrants are known as Issei): Katsugo “Kats” Miho of Kahului, Hawaii; Fred Shiosaki of Spokane, Washington, and Rudy Tokiwa of Salinas, CA, who would all enlist in the Army after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and conscientious objector Gordon Hirabayashi, who would spend the war fighting for his civil rights, a decision that would land him in prison.

The author opens the book by giving the reader a taste of the culture and life of pre-war Japanese Americans. But on December 7, 1941, the world of Japanese Americans was turned upside down. In the outrage that followed, most Americans and politicians assumed that Japanese Americans were potential spies or saboteurs (oddly enough, the same did not seem true of German or Italian Americans). Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt succumbed to military pressure. All Japanese-born men in Hawaii were summarily arrested. A large area of the Pacific coast was declared a Japanese “exclusion zone” encompassing all of California and parts of Washington, Oregon, and Arizona. The United States forcibly relocated and incarcerated about 120,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps in the interior of the country. They were forced to leave behind homes, farms, businesses, possessions and their dreams. Brown calls them concentration camps “by any reasonable definition of the term.” The camps consisted of barbed wire, armed guards in towers, and little else. The location of some of the camps created additional misery for its inhabitants. The Poston Internment Camp was located in the hot, dusty desert of Yuma County, Arizona. The internees had to check their shoes before they put them on to make sure there were no scorpions inside. The Jerome Relocation Center was located in the hot, humid southeastern corner of Arkansas.

― The camp had been built on five hundred acres of low, swampy ground adjoining Boggie Bayou. …The bayou was aptly named. When it rained, the land steamed. Mud was everywhere. So were snakes, chiggers, mosquitoes and disease.
― Daniel James Brown, Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II

The conditions in these camps were much worse than similar camps in the United States for German POWs. Brown writes, “The presence of nearly 400,000 German POWs in America, in fact, led to some staggering ironies across the country. The camps in which they were held sometimes offered more comforts and amenities that far exceeded those in the WRA camps for Japanese Americans.”

Surprisingly, Japanese Americans in Hawaii were not interned. It seems that their labor was critical to the pineapple, sugar, and macadamia nut industries there. Many of the Japanese Americans on the west coast were American citizens who posed little to no risk. Deeply entrenched racism against Asian Americans clearly seems to have played a significant role in the incarcerations. Widespread ignorance of Japanese Americans contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger. Clearly, the atmosphere was poisonous toward Japanese Americans. Restaurant owners put signs in their front windows declaring that Japanese Americans were not welcome. Brown writes, “Cartoons appeared in newspapers, depicting Japanese people as rats, insects, skunks, monkeys, lice, or rabid dogs.”

Many Japanese American men, especially those in Hawaii, wanted to serve their country in the war. “Kats” Miho and Fred Shiosaki were itching to join the service after Pearl Harbor, but at the time, the Army wasn't accepting Japanese American recruits, considering them “enemy aliens.” The war changed that. In desperate need of young fighting men, the military asked President Roosevelt to lift the ban on Nisei serving in the military.

― Beginning in early January 1943, secret memos began circulating among the War Department, the Selective Service, Army Intelligence, and the FBI about the possibility of allowing Nisei men to volunteer for a segregated, all-Japanese American combat team in the U.S. Army.
― Daniel James Brown, Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II

In his announcement allowing Nisei to join the war effort, the President paradoxically proclaimed that “Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.” When the President lifted the ban, Rudy Tokiwa had been imprisoned with his family in an internment camp, forced to endure its dehumanizing conditions. Surprisingly, Rudy and many other Nisei enlisted despite their families’ continued internment and shameful treatment. The army called for fifteen hundred Nisei volunteers; surprisingly nearly ten thousand responded to the call to serve their nation. While some Nisei chose to serve, other young men like Gordon Hirabayashi, a Nisei Quaker, refused to sign an oath of allegiance to the country that treated them like the enemy rather than like citizens (an oath, by the way, that no other Americans were required to sign.) Hirabayashi was imprisoned.

Brown follows the recruits through their training in Mississippi, as they became members of the all-Japanese 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team of the Fifth Army. The unit’s motto was “Go for Broke.” After first serving admirably in Italy, the unit was sent to southern France, where the men were loaded into box cars and taken to the front in the Vosges mountains near France’s border with Germany. The regiment was ordered to make a frontal assault up a well-defended mountain to rescue the so-called Lost Battalion, the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry, stranded and surrounded by Nazi soldiers on October 24, 1944. The order came from the very same officer, General John E. Dahlquist, who had foolishly allowed the 1st Battalion to become surrounded in the first place. The 442nd’s assault up the mountain was successful, but the casualties were staggering.

― Of the hundreds of men who had started up into the Vosges with the two companies three days before, fewer than two dozen in K Company were still alive and able to walk out of the woods; in I Company, there were even fewer.
― Daniel James Brown, Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II

After some rest and recuperation, the men of the 442nd were to be called upon again despite the number of casualties they had suffered. Returned to Italy, the 442nd was ordered to assault the seemingly impenetrable Gothic Line—German fortifications built into the granite of the 3,000-foot high Apennine Mountains. In what was intended as a “diversionary attack,” the 442nd broke through the Gothic Line in northern Italy. They pressed the attack aggressively, chasing the Germans out of the mountains and into the Po Valley beyond in a total rout.

― But in little less than two days the 442nd had again done what no other unit had done, and what nobody had thought possible. They had opened a gaping hole in the western end of the Gothic line, effectively flanking the last major German defensive positions in western Italy…. The German army in Italy was now all but doomed.
― Daniel James Brown, Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II

The Germans had taken note of the courage and fortitude of these Nisei soldiers and given them a nickname of their own—“the little iron men.” By war’s end, the 442nd had become the most decorated fighting unit for its size and length of service in the history of the U.S. military.

Despite their remarkable accomplishments, returning soldiers of the 442nd Infantry Regiment and their families faced the same boycotts, threats, and violence they suffered after Pearl Harbor. While they may rightfully have expected rousing ovations and gratitude at home, they arrived to something far different. Nothing had changed. American citizens on the west coast made it clear that they didn’t want any of the Japanese Americans to return to the exclusion zone. Even in their dress uniforms with medals, the returning Nisei met with a hostile reception, were denied services, denied housing and more.

Facing the Mountain is a riveting account of some amazingly brave Americans, and a sobering reminder of a part of American history that many would prefer to forget—an America filled with sufficient hatred to imprison its own citizens solely because of their race. Brown proves to be a skillful teller of their tale. It's a fascinating, expertly written look at these selfless heroes who served their country with honor and heroism despite the horrific treatment they received. This is a book that provokes outrage, and justly so. Yet…

― But in the end, it’s not a story of victims. Rather, it’s a story of victors, of people striving, resisting, rising up, standing on principle, laying down their lives, enduring, and prevailing. It celebrates some young Americans who decided they had no choice but to do what their sense of honor and loyalty told them was right.
― Daniel James Brown, Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II

After the war, Gordon Hirabayashi went on to earn a Ph.D. in sociology and enjoyed a successful academic life. Soon after retiring, Hirabayashi received a call from a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego. He uncovered documents that clearly showed evidence of government misconduct in 1942—evidence that the government knew there was no military reason for the exclusion order. With this new information, Hirabayashi's case was reheard by the federal courts, and in 1987 a Court of Appeals overturned his criminal conviction. Hirabayashi passed away in January 2012; four months later, Barack Obama posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this country’s highest civilian honor.

[Anna (Bobs Her Hair) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4-4.5 stars

After reading Daniel James Brown's The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics I was excited to see he had another book in the works. This author has a compelling way of telling historical events that have the evocative feel of a Ken Burns' documentary. The imagery is vivid. "Boys in the Boys" had a heart and my fingers could feel its steady pulse. So, I placed "Facing the Mountain" on to my to-read shelf and waited. About a year or two flew past and when it finally became available I asked myself what book is this? Am I in the mood for nonfiction? I reread the book blurb. A memory floated to the surface.

My grandmother was a field worker. Sometimes my nana cleaned houses or did laundry for others. She told my mom the story of a family in a nearby Arizona town that she did odd jobs. This family was placed in the Japanese concentration camps (now called internment camps). They passed their ranch to the care of their foreman. After they were released the foreman kept their house and land. My mom would sometimes point out a yellow house close to Van Buren Road and tell me this family's sad story. I wondered what had happened to them. I haven't found out.

When "Facing the Mountain" released and I read the blurb I knew I had to read this story. Like, "Boys in the Boat" this book held of hearts of several men and their families. Their heartbreak, disillusionment, the injustice of their situation, their pride and honor demand attention. I had never heard of an all Japanese-American regiment (the Nisei) that served during WW2. There's nothing in any history book or class I've taken that mention this, only a paragraph or two about the interment camps. Please read their stories in "Facing the Mountain."

https://www.100thbattalion.org/histor...
https://www.goforbroke.org/learn/hist...
https://442sd.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adjnO...


[Trigger Warning: graphic violence/scenes of war and casualties]

library eloan

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Facing The Mountain is the true story of Japanese Americans in World War II. These men served in the 442nd Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army and their motto “Go For Broke" tells all about how they performed their duties. These young men served their country despite intense anti Asian racism with tremendous bravery and loyalty.
I especially appreciated the author telling the story of four individuals, Katsugo "Kats" Miho, Fred Shiosaki, and Rudy Tokiwa, all who enlisted in the Army and Gordon Hirabayashi, a Quaker and conscientious objector. We follow their stories from shortly before the bombing of Pearl Harbor through the end of their lives. The discrimination they and their families suffered even after the war comes to life through their eyes. As a side note, it is sad and frightening to me that the book came out at a time that Asian Americans are again facing violence and prejudice in our country.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, so much to unpack here. The stories told about Japanese Americans during WWII are heartbreaking and important to understand. I learned a lot of things I didn't know much about. This was just really hard to pick up. I LOVED The Boys In the Boat by this same author, and while I couldn't put that one down, this one felt intimidating and heavy. There's lots of hard, detailed war stories. I also felt like there were too many people to keep track of & couldn't always remember who was who (that was probably because I listened to this one.)

Content: war violence & other hard topics

[Alisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subtitle of this book should include The True Story of Japanese American Heroes in WWII In The Face of Internment, Racism, and Other Injustices. What a book! It starts with life in Hawaii on the eve of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The day the bombs rained brought fear, confusion, and outrage, and anger particularly directed to those of Japanese descent. Almost immediately, Japanese were rounded up and hauled away by the US government, particularly middle aged and older men who were 'suspected' of being loyal to the Japanese empire. Young Japanese American men who were already enlisted in the US military were quickly segregated into camps as well. Pretty quickly President Roosevelt issues the order to send Japanese Americans to concentration camps in the desserts and remote areas of the west, far from their homes, jobs, businesses, and communities.

This book starts with that time, and focuses on the journey of four Japanese American men who ended up in the same battalion. It follows them through their experience in segregated training camps in Mississippi (of all places), and into the battle fields of Europe. By the time they saw action, they were tasked with breaking the German stronghold in Italy, working their way up from the south to the northern battlefields in Tuscany, and pushing through German enemy lines along the Arno river. They were badly outnumbered, given some of the toughest assignments, and suffered significant casualties, but their assignment did not end there. They then went into southern France, pushing through the Dordogne, and eventually were ordered to push into onto the front in Germany in the Spring of 1945. They were among the regiments that liberated Jews in concentration camps. It would be another 18 months before they were able to return to the US. The action they saw in Europe and their battlefield heroism was brutal, and they contributed to significant victories in pushing the Germans into retreat.

In the meantime, their families left behind in the US were held in internment camps. Life was brutal in its own way. The conditions were horrible, the pain of not knowing what was happening in Europe was agonizing, and the divided opinions among the Japanese toward America and wondering what would happen to them was devastating. Another layer to this is the fact that the US needed soldiers to fight the war, and recruited and drafted Japanese American men who were in the internment camps. (I did not know this. It takes some kind of sick hutzpah for the government to do this, doesn't it? ugh!). Not everyone went easily. One young man, Gordon Hirabayashi, refused. He would battle his case to the US Supreme Court. His journey is also woven into the fabric of this story.

Eventually the war ended. The battalion came home, the camps were disbanded, and Japanese Americans were sent back out to reestablish their lives all over again. Throughout this, they are confronted with the persistent nastiness and injustice of racism, at some points even the war heroes were subjected to racial hatred despite their sacrifices. Still, they built lives, some of them going onto distinguished careers, getting married and having families of their own, fighting their post-war demons, and maintaining the relationships and bond they built with each other during their wartime service.

This was an amazing book. The author did some detailed homework, obtained photos and maps, interviewed a lot of people, had access to personal papers of the soldiers and their families, and with it assembled a narrative that is very compelling. I could not put it down. Highly recommend.

[Jyotsna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for the Booktube Prize Finals. Ranked 1 out of 6 in the list (the winner for me out of the 6 books)

“Renouncing loyalty to Japan would terminate their Japanese citizenship at a time when they were not allowed to become American citizens. That would leave them entirely stateless, with no citizenship at all.”

This is my best international nonfiction read so far this year!

The book is about how the US government incarcerated Japanese-Americans and later on, asked the younger generation (Nissei) to join the military to fight during WW2. This is the story of these heroes and their contribution to a country that shunned and disgraced them, and how they fought with valour and pride.

A well-paced book that reads like a thriller.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Boys in the Boat” was a captivating story, but this book tells a more important one.

Having grown up on Bainbridge Island where the first of the Japanese Americans were removed in WWII, I thought I knew their story. I was wrong. I knew the basic outline, but I didn't know the overall story of the AJAs (Americans of Japanese Ancestry) throughout the war.

The book primarily follows four young men, three who fought in the celebrated 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and one who cited the Constitution to refuse to sign the loyalty documents required of all AJAs (but not any other Americans). The 442nd is well known to anyone with a cursory knowledge of the fighting in the European theater, but what isn't so well known was that the men from Hawaii (whose families were not incarcerated) clashed with the mainlanders whose families were in camps, and who couldn't even understand the pidgen language used by the Islanders. How these men melded into one of the most potent fighting forces of the war is fascinating.

Stories of the removal of people to the camps, and what they found there, are harrowing. The government was scrambling to fulfill a massive and sudden evacuation, and it showed how ill-prepared they were, and with what little regard they saw their duty to keep these people safe and healthy. The internees had to build their own services within the camps, with little support from the authorities.

The story of Gordon Hirabayashi who refused to sign the oath and went to prison serves to show how within the AJA community the feelings were split between those who felt their young men should serve in the military when they were allowed, and those who felt it was a travesty to fight for a country that imprisoned their entire community. Those divisions still existed in the 1990s when a young Tom Ikeda was told by his father that he shouldn't bring up these old memories in the Japanese American community because there were still deep feelings about the war. Tom nevertheless proceeded to found the organization Densho to capture the testimony of people who served and/or were incarcerated, and its those archives that greatly led to this book.

While the book was written long before the recent anti-Asian animosity engendered by the coronavirus, it shows how deeply entrenched the racial hatred went both during the war and for long afterwards. For this reason, and for the memory of those valiant men who fought and gave their lives in Italy, France and Germany, this book is a must-read.

[Shirley Freeman]

Daniel James Brown, author of The Boys in the Boat, has written another amazing WWII era book. In this case, Brown learned the stories of several Japanese American families from Hawaii and the west coast whose lives were altered so dramatically by the events initiated on December 7th, 1941. Most of the families ended up incarcerated in internment camps losing most of their possessions and life-long businesses in the process. Many of their young men chose to join the military once they were allowed to. The segregated fighting unit of Japanese American soldiers were some of the toughest, most heroic soldiers in the war. They truly made a difference in the outcome of the war. One of the young men he followed chose to fight the racist system (incarcerate the parents, send the sons to war in segregated units) by refusing to sign certain paperwork and therefore going to jail. Through the words and actions of specific people, Brown tells the stories of Pearl Harbor, incarceration, army induction, war (some of that was really hard to read... much less experience), concentration camp, witnessing the atomic bomb, and reintegrating into society. History comes alive, for better and worse, with Brown's well-researched, enthralling tale.

[Gina Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so excited to see a book about the Japanese Americans who served in WWII by the author of Boys in the Boat (if you haven’t read it go read it!). This did not disappoint. It was hard to read emotionally. It will infuriated you over the horrible treatment of so many Americans with Japanese ancestry, it will make you cry both in joy and pain, it will make you sick over the atrocities of war...but most of all it will make it impossible for you to ever forget. My son asked earlier today why we read so much history and I reminded him that we learn about it so that we don’t repeat it.

I have another year to decide for sure but I think I’ll have my kids read this during their junior year (because that’s when they’ll be studying this time period). I’m currently thinking I might actually use it for a geography read and have them map the travels as they read this book.

[Shahin Keusch · Rating 5 out of 5]

What got me interested in this book was the movie "the Karate kid" and the great scene between Mr Myagi and Daniel, where we find out some of the backstory to Mr Myagi. How he had joined the US army and had fought the Nazis during WW2 while his wife was interred in the relocation camps in the US.  

And this is what this book is all about. It describes the lives of various Japanese Americans after the events of pearl harbour. Their forced relocation to the camps, their struggle to regain their rights, some of them joining the US Army despite it all and their heroic experiences in the army. 

This book was well researched and really well written. I was really hard to put down and I learned so much. I'd recommend it to everyone.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite reads of 2021 so far. Many Japanese-Americans displayed uncommon valor during WWII. Some fought bravely abroad, helping to free Western Europe from the ravages of Nazi Germany. Others fought a battle against racist collectivism and baseless fearmongering at home. Due to his principled resistance to the internment of Japanese-Americans, Gordon Hirabayashi is a personal hero and role-model to me. I greatly enjoyed reading his inspirational story here.

I also relished the opportunity to read stories of the many nisei who volunteered to fight and prove their loyalty to the only home they had ever known - even knowing their sacrifice would likely never be fully appreciated by their countrymen. Facing the Mountain is a truly excellent read.

[Jultri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible book, written about the heroic feats of the Japanese American men from the 442nd infantry regiment (aka The Purple Heart Batallion), the most decorated regiment in US military history. It is also about one of the most shameful chapters of US history, the unconstitutional internment of US residents and US-born citizens following the Pearl Harbor attack. This book is as good as a non-fiction can be, filled with humanity, heart and astonishing valour. I was moved to tears time and time again while listening to the audio, narrated with warmth and confidence by Louis Osawa.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

"He had been angry then - angry at the county that had incarcerated his family, that had humiliated his parents, that had cost them their farm and their livelihoods, that had treated him as a second class citizen. In many ways, he was still angry and would remain so for a long time. But standing there with the medal on his chest and a brass band playing behind him, with the 442nd colors and American flags fluttering in the breeze, he had a moment of peace and pride that surprised him and that he would long remember. "You know," he thought, "it's coming out to be, it doesn't make no difference what you look like, it's what you're doing and what you've done for the country that counts. (461)

What Daniel James Brown has done with Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II is taken a little-known slice of history during WWII and presented it in a way that enlightens, heightens, and celebrities the American spirit of adversity whilst acknowledging the difficulties surrounding events of the country's history. When it comes to Japanese Americans during the 1940's, the horrors of prejudice and concentration camps quickly come to mind, but relatively little is mentioned of an entire unit of young Japanese-American men who fought and died in the European theatre of war.

Brown follows the stories of a few select Japanese-American young men and their families as the racial tension is greatly escalated by the events of Pearl Harbor. Kats Miho of Honolulu, Rudy Tokiwa of Salinas, Fred Shiosaki of Spokane, and Gordon Hirabayshi of Seattle story's are all told with fascinating detail into a world little Americans seem to be fully aware of. Having faced persecution because of their race, these young men all decided to aid the country who wouldn't fully accept them and all but Gordon signed up to fight in the Army's 442 Division made up of strictly Japanese American soldiers. Gordon would face incarceration but became a champion of civil rights; constantly helping others along the way. Kats, Rudy, Fred, and many other young Nisei men would bleed and die on the battlefields of Italy, France, and Germany whilst their families were in concentration camps back home. Their victories would be instrumental in turning the tides for the Allied forces. It was heartwarming to see them overcoming such adversities and fighting the good fight whilst showing an unmeasurable amount of humanity to people who wouldn't show them the same or to others in need. There are a few instances towards the end of the book where their interactions with Jewish concentration camp survivors that highlight the later.

Facing the Mountain is such an important book in the history of both WWII and American history in general. Young All-American men of integrity fighting against the odds of both a foreign enemy and neighbours who wouldn't accept them just because they happened to be of Japanese decent. It's books like these that show the true fighting spirit of the American ideal that so many cherish or take for granted, and unveils yet another fascinating chapter in World War II history.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning work. I don't think I have ever felt compelled to write to an author to praise his work. This may be a first for me.

In 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese, racial tension within the country exploded. It did not matter that most of the ethnic group was American born. Areas were cordoned off, this ethnic group denied livable space. Most of them were locked away, in camps that could only be deemed, IMO, as concentration camps. Then an extraordinary occurrence happened. Young Japanese/American boys, willing to go out and prove their loyalty began to volunteer for the Armed Forces. At the beginning they were denied entry, based solely on their race. As the war raged on it became apparent these boys were needed. Some refused, due to the treatment of their families. However, the large majority felt they had a point to prove. They signed up in droves, and formed some of the best soldiers/troops the world has ever seen. This is their story, and the story of the families left behind in the concentration camps. It is a tremendous story that should be read by everyone.

Thank you Daniel James Brown for bringing the story to the world. I repeat, everyone should read this book. I just may write that letter.

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s one thing to learn about internment and World War II in class, but it’s another to follow real lives through the process. This book was well written and researched and I wish I had read it sooner. I learned quite a bit and it raised many questions for me— what would I have done in the situations were faced? This is a book that will stick with me

[Steven Z. · Rating 4 out of 5]

During World War II the United States government violated its founding principles by incarcerating over 120,000 Japanese-Americans in “internment camps,” a euphemism for “concentration camps.” Families were separated, homes and businesses lost, and possessions sold for little value as people were sent to live in barracks in Wyoming, Colorado, California, Arkansas, and Utah. Of those sent to the camps, two-thirds were American citizens. Despite this treatment Japanese-Americans reacted to the bombing of Pearl Harbor in the same manner as their fellow countrymen with thousands either enlisting or being drafted into the US military. The treatment of these American citizens domestically and the courage and defiance shown by Japanese-American soldiers in Europe is the subject of Daniel James Brown’s latest book FACING THE MOUNTAIN: A TRUE STORY OF JAPANESE HEROES IN WORLD WAR II. Brown the author of the award winning THE BOYS IN THE BOAT: NINE AMERICANS AND THEIR EPIC QUEST FOR GOLD AT THE 1936 BERLIN OLYMPICS has produced another amazing narrative history that focuses on the personal lives of the characters portrayed and provides the reader with intricate details of what they experienced, the emotions involved, and in the case of Brown’s current effort the quest to bring honor to their families and successfully represent their country on the battlefield.

Brown’s work is based on voluminous research that included interviews with many survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor and Japanese-Americans who were incarcerated in the camps and fought for their country in the European theater. Brown’s effort has two major components. First, he focuses on the reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and its implications for Japanese-Americans. The racism and fear on the part of the US government resulted in the round up of over 120,000 American citizens where they wound remain until President Roosevelt, after gaining his fourth term in the White House ended their incarceration in December 1944. The second component of the book zeroes in on Japanese-American citizens, born on American soil who were known as Nisei who enlisted in the US Army. These individuals made up two distinct groups that Brown describes; the Kontonks, Japanese-Americans who lived on the mainland, and Buddaheads, who lived in Hawaii. The two groups were very different culturally despite their common ancestry and did not get along well until they began to train together and deployed overseas.

Brown introduces countless individuals in his presentation, but his main focus is on four men; Rudy Tokiwa and Fred Shiosaki who were members of the Third Battalion K Company, part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and were from the mainland. Katsugo “Kats” Miho, a Hawaiian was part of the 522nd Artillery group, and George Hirabayashi, a mainlander who refused to fight because of the racial discrimination against Japanese-Americans becoming a conscientious objector as he was a Quaker. From the outset Brown describes the increasing racism and virulent rhetoric that the families of the Nisei had to deal with when they were rounded up, forced to give away and/or sell their possessions, and life in the internment camps. Brown’s presentation is very sensitive particularly reflected in the excerpted letters between family members and their sons fighting abroad, including a series of letters between chaplains Hiro Higuchi and Masao Yamada and their wives.

Brown carefully reviews the history of anti-Asianism in America dating back to the mid-19th century. He traces Congressional legislation from the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, Theodore Roosevelt’s Gentleman’s Agreement, and the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act that set quotas for different ethnicities and their ability to immigrate to the United States. Brown describes the conditions in the internment camps that the Tokiwa, Shiosaki, and Miho families were sent to, particularly Poston in Arkansas and Heart’s Mountain in Wyoming. Brown explores their emotional state and how they and thousands of other internes were able to endure their situation and in most cases make the best of it as camps produced schools, theater, farming, among many examples of their flexibility in the face of virulent racism.

The author’s treatment of the Hirabayashi case is important as it reflects the racism in the American legal system and its refusal to conform to constitutional protections of its citizens. Many soldiers were allowed to visit their families in the camps. Their anger and frustration concerning what they witnessed did not take away their quest to honor their families and become the best soldiers they could be.

The 422nd and 522nd fought in North Africa, Italy, and Germany and were enveloped by the Battle of the Bulge and they developed a reputation of being among the best troops that the United States produced, evidenced by General Mark Clark’s constant requests for Japanese-American soldiers for his companies. The bravery of these men is well documented as Brown’s excellent command of details of what the Nisei faced on the battlefield is portrayed, i.e.; German bombardment on the outskirts of Italian cities and towns, their rescue of over 200 Texas soldiers pinned down by German artillery at the cost of hundreds of their own casualties in the Vosges, their constant volunteering for dangerous missions, and their sense of community as they fought as what historian Stephen Ambrose describes in dealing with the Battle of the Bulge, as “a band of brothers.” They gained the respect of the Germans, and they came to fear “the little iron men,” as the Nisei fought through the forests of the Vosges, Anzio, and numerous towns and villages throughout Italy and Germany.

Once Roosevelt ordered the freeing of the interned Japanese-Americans these people wondered where they could go. Their homes and businesses were gone, and FDR’s order did not extinguish the rampant racism that remained despite the reputation the Nisei had garnered from the American media, at the same time their sons were fighting and dying for the American flag. It is interesting that today we are witnessing a spike in anti-Asian racism in the United States because of Covid-19, reflecting the idea that we as a people we have a long way to go in coping with our racist past and present.

In the case of Hirabayashi, he was arrested and imprisoned after a sham trial. His lawyers fought the conviction all the way to the Supreme Court, which upheld the sentence in Hirabayashi v. United States. As David Kindy writes in Smithsonian Magazine, “In 1987, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reopened and reviewed the case, vacating Hirabayashi’s conviction with a writ of coram nobis, which allows a court to overturn a ruling made in error.
All four men are gone now—Shiosaki was the last survivor, dying last month at age 96—but they all lived to witness the U.S. government making amends. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 addressed the “fundamental injustice” of what happened during the war and provided compensation for losses sustained by incarcerated Japanese Americans.

‘The sacrifices of our parents and the sacrifices of the men in the 442nd were our way of earning that freedom,” Shisoki told Spokane’s KXLY 4 News in 2006. “The right to be called an American, not a hyphenated American and I guess that’s my message to everybody; that you don’t—this stuff doesn’t get given to you, you earn it. Every generation earns it in some way or another.’
At a difficult time in the country’s history, each of the four men followed the path that he believed was right. In the end, their faith in their country was rewarded with the acknowledgement that their rights had been violated.”***

***David Kindy, “Meet Four Japanese-American Men Who Fought Against Racism in World War II,” Smithsonian Magazine, May 12, 2021.