top of page
Search
  • James Houser

Episode #55, "Go for Broke!" sources

If you're interested in learning more about this topic (I'm presuming you listened to the episode first, otherwise this will be gibberish):

  • The stories of Rudy Tokiwa and Kats Miho are told in full detail, along with that of Fred Shiosaki, in Daniel James Brown's book cited below.

  • Carl Morita is the exemplar figure of James McCaffrey's book, also below.

  • Lyn Crost's book "Honor by Fire" has much, much more on the Nisei of the MIS; I gave them relatively little time in the episode since I was focused on the 100th and 442nd.

  • The Steidl book is a full, detailed account of the battle for the Vosges in 1944, including the rescue of the Lost Battalion.


SECONDARY SOURCES


Brown, Daniel James. Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II. New York: Penguin, 2021.


Crost, Lyn. Honor by Fire: Japanese Americans at War in Europe and the Pacific. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1994.


Duus, Masayo Umezawa. Unlikely Liberators: The Men of the 100th and 442nd. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006.


McCaffrey, James M. Going for Broke: Japanese American Soldiers in the War Against Nazi Germany. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.


Steidl, Franz. Lost Battalions: Going for Broke in the Vosges, Autumn 1944. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1997.


OTHER SOURCES


Densho, an online resource about Japanese Americans during internment and World War II, with loads of oral histories and a searchable encyclopedia: https://densho.org/


The Go for Broke National Education Center, a 501(c) nonprofit that funds monuments and education services related to the history of the 442nd. Again, a ton of oral histories: https://goforbroke.org/


Chaplain Hiro Higuchi's letters to his wife, and her letters to him, preserved in the archives of the University of Hawaii: https://manoa.hawaii.edu/library/research/collections/archives/manuscript-collections/japanese-american-veterans-collection/digital-resources-higuchi-wartime-correspondence/


Go for Broke! (1951), "During World War II, Lt. Michael Grayson (Van Johnson) is a newly commissioned American Army officer who looks forward to being assigned to the 36th Texas Division. Instead, he is put in charge of Japanese-American soldiers, who form the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Grayson is bigoted and uneasy about the assignment, but when the unit goes into combat in Italy, he admires their courage and determination. The 442nd eventually becomes the most decorated unit in the U.S. Army."

6 views0 comments

Comments


bottom of page