A review by bobbo49
Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II, by Daniel James Brown

dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

 
Like most students - ad teachers - of American history, and most West Coast residents, I have known the outlines of the story of the WWII Japanese-American internment camps, and the heroism of the Nisei troops in European combat, for most of my adult life. This intimate retelling, however, provides a level of personal perspective, detail and reflection that is hard for any American who cares about our Constitution and democracy to absorb; for example, I never before realized that in March 1942, 93% of Americans favored the removal of all Issei (Japanese-born, no matter how long they had legally lived in the U.S.) from the West Coast, and only 25% of Americans objected to the incarceration of Nesei (American born U.S. citizens) for the "crime" of their parents' birth in Japan. Equal protection of the law, and due process of the law, were simply eviscerated.

Told through the stories of several individuals who left their families in the camps in order to serve in the military (and of George Hirabayashi, who refused service, was convicted in the courts, and later exonerated after the war), the truth is hard to read, even eighty years later, in part because we seem to learn so little from the lessons of history.