M
ore than 21,000 Japanese-American men and women volunteered for service in the U.S. armed forces in World War II, with more than 9,000 receiving Purple Hearts and 21 holding the Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. decoration for bravery. Yenne (Superfortress
, etc.) shows that many were patriots, who put duty above grievance while wondering if the country whose uniform they wore would ever accept them again. In Hawaii, Japanese-American reaction to Pearl Harbor was near-effervescent loyalty to the U.S., leading to the organization of the famous 100th Infantry Battalion, half of whose original officers were nisei. Their mainland counterparts volunteered from detention centers in numbers sufficient to form the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Without overlooking persistent racism in both Hawaiian and mainland versions, Yenne highlights the good sense and good will that emerged once the shock of Pearl Harbor wore off. Chief of Staff George C. Marshall spoke for American society as a whole when in May 1942 he declared, “I don't think you can permanently proscribe a lot of American citizens because of their racial origins.” (July)
