This is by Daniel James Brown, who is the author of The Boys in the Boat , which was what initially attracted me. It’s read by Louis Ozawa, who is a Japanese American actor and has a cultural connection to this story. It follows four young Japanese American men, starting at Pearl Harbor in 1941. It traces not just the lives of these four young men but goes back into the history of their families and what happens to them through this whole period. First, the men were interned, and they were not allowed to be part of the American army. Then they were allowed to enlist. Three went to Europe where they had brilliant careers as part of an infantry regiment that was very instrumental in the European theater in the war. They were highly decorated. One of them was a conscientious objector. The origin of this book is something called the Densho project, which is an oral history of Japanese Americans. Dan Brown got interested in that and then started doing research on these specific young men. It is a fascinating biography but also a history of the time. Dan Brown writes very approachably and Louis Ozawa is just spectacular. It’s 17 hours so it is long, but because it’s also a biography, you want to know the whole arc of these men’s lives.
"This is by Daniel James Brown, who is the author of The Boys in the Boat , which was what initially attracted me. It’s read by Louis Ozawa, who is a Japanese American actor and has a cultural connection to this story. It follows four young Japanese American men, starting at Pearl Harbor in 1941. It traces not just the lives of these four young men but goes back into the history of their families and what happens to them through this whole period. First, the men were interned, and they were not allowed to be part of the American army. Then they were allowed to enlist. Three went to Europe where they had brilliant careers as part of an infantry regiment that was very instrumental in the European theater in the war. They were highly decorated. One of them was a conscientious objector. The origin of this book is something called the Densho project, which is an oral history of Japanese Americans. Dan Brown got interested in that and then started doing research on these specific young men. It is a fascinating biography but also a history of the time. Dan Brown writes very approachably and Louis Ozawa is just spectacular. It’s 17 hours so it is long, but because it’s also a biography, you want to know the whole arc of these men’s lives."
"Daniel James Brown’s absorbing book tells the story of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the U.S. Army, which was composed of Nisei, second-generation Japanese American soldiers in World War II. He chronicles the valor of the young American men who fought in Europe, but whose families were imprisoned in internment camps, the victims of the vile racism that choked the country at the time. It’s a fascinating, expertly written look at selfless heroes who emerged from one of the darkest periods of American history."
