Within months after Pearl Harbor, 110,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly “evacuated” from the West Coast, losing their jobs, their property, and their homes. In less than a year, they were “relocated” and incarcerated in desolate camps throughout the West, Southwest, and South. Yet, incredibly, thousands of young men from the camps joined the Army, to defend the country that had denied them their rights. This is the dramatic story of the segregated Japanese American 100th Battalion/442d Regimental Combat Team — and what they did to affirm their full citizenship. As Gen. Jacob L. Devers put it, in World War II the soldiers of the 100th/442d had “more than earned the right to be called just Americans, not Japanese Americans.”
During the fall of 1944, the combat team made headlines when it rescued the “lost battalion” of the 36th “Texas” Division. At the same time, with the 1944 elections looming, the Roosevelt Administration was debating whether to close the camps. And while the soldiers of the 100th/442d were sacrificing their lives in Europe, the Supreme Court was deciding the infamous Korematsu and Endo cases, which challenged the notion that “military necessity” justified the “relocation.”
Through interviews with surviving veterans, archival research, maps, and photos, Robert Asahina has reconstructed these fateful events of October-November 1944. From breathless battle scenes, masterfully handled in all their detail; to the unbreakable bonds of friendship in the field; to heart- wrenching stories of loss and discrimination on the mainland and in Hawaii, Just Americans tells the story of what Gen. George C. Marshall called the “most decorated unit in American military history for its size and length of service.” It is also the story of soldiers in combat who were fighting a greater battle at home — a struggle that continues for minority groups today — over what it means to be an American.
BACKCOVER: “Bob Asahina's wonderful book more than does justice to the history of the 442d and the brave men who wore its patch and called it home. Just Americans will be news to many, and for that reason, if for no other, I hope it becomes required reading in high school and college history courses. I pray that the stories he tells become known far and wide, so that the ‘mistakes’ of our lamentable past may be less likely to be repeated.”
—Lucian K. Truscott IV, author of Dress Gray and Heart of War
“Many a survivor of that bitter 1944-45 winter of WWII will be happy to see the men of the 100th Battalion/442d Regimental Combat Team getting their bravery recognized. They became a legend among in the infantry units fighting in the Vosges Mountains.”
—Tony Hillerman, veteran of C Company, 410th Infantry, and best-selling author of the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mysteries
“Just Americans is a wonderful account of a heroic wonder — people who gave everything for a country that seemed intent on taking everything away from them. If citizenship is earned, here are the Americans who most deserve their pay. If citizenship is bequeathed, here is freedom’s greatest legacy. If citizenship is a blessing, here are the patriot saints.”
—P.J. O’Rourke, author of Peace Kills and Give War a Chance
"It was with American enthusiasm and Japanese tenacity that Japanese Americans overcame both persecution and resentment to fight most bravely on European battlefields in 1944-45, and Robert Asahina too needed both enthusiasm and tenacity to recover for history their doings and undoings. While adding to scholarship, the rich detail here masterfully presented makes for exciting reading."
—Edward N. Luttwak, historian, author of Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace, and Senior Adviser to The Center for Strategic & International Studies
