Go for Broke

[zhai]

I posted on Memorial Day two years ago (I thought it was last year, but I suppose not -- granted that last year was kind of a haze for many reasons) about the 100th/442nd regimental combat team, Japanese Americans who in large part came out of the internment camps to fight in the war. I've continued to chip away and gather what resources I can

Comments

[genmaicha]

Theirs is an amazing story. Thank you for sharing all this.

[zhai]

I'm just glad and kind of surprised if anyone reads it. ;) I can go on for far too long about this stuff. Thanks for commenting.

[brennye]

Glad you came back to post. Because this is all stuff I hadn't known. Well.. I knew about the internment camps, but not the regiment or their history in WWII. Now when I take that class, I can speak up about it. :)

*smishes*

[zhai]

Thanks for the comment! Sorry I took so long to get back to them. What class are you taking specifically about WWII?

[brennye]

Well, the class that came to mind is simply about WWII itself. A whole semester for the bigg'un. ;) That's a bit more down the road. I expect a lot of war fiction out of me afterwards too.

I also get to take a class on Modern China and Japan at some point. Will save my book for you if you like. :)

[zhai]

Cool. Is this in part of fulfillment for your history minor?

And books are good! Though I'd prefer it hand delivered if possible... ;)

[zqfmbg]

I tend not to make much of Memorial Day in general, but your post highlighted an interesting contrast: while you dig up all this stuff in an effort to reconnect with your heritage, I stand here, unable to do much while mine drips out between my fingers

[zhai]

Thanks very much for the comment. I take the last as a high compliment. Thinking is a very good thing.

Thanks also for sharing that bit about your grandparents. I know how that goes, too, actually. My paternal grandparents are practically mythic to me specifically because they both died before I was in a cognitive state (my grandfather before I was born, my grandmother shortly after).

I hope that one day the travel becomes a better option for you. I still have family history places to travel to -- Germany and Japan mostly (funny that, considering the WW2 genesis of this post). It's an important thing, and the time, and people with them, just do slip away so fast.

[zqfmbg]

Well, at this point, it's up to me to pick up the ball, and I haven't gotten around to it. There's a bit of a mess to pick through and I haven't summoned the fortitude to stick my head into it.

So you're a German/Japanese hybrid? Interesting. It would explain why you kind of and sort of but don't otherwise look Asian. :)

(And I have to disagree that thinking is a very good thing. It often is, but if the strangeness of my thoughts is any indication, it can be a shocking and scarring thing to unprepared minds. True liberty of thought requires some degree of thick skin.)

[zhai]

The good thing about genealogy is that although it can be very resonant when you have live predecessors to connect with and talk to, it's not as though it ever goes away. I hope you get to it someday, considering the Chinese side -- Chinese genealogy is craaaazy. I should find out someday what crazy Chinese superheroes I am descended from

[ccfinlay]

Thanks for posting this -- I'd heard of the 442nd, but didn't know this much about them, and the interviews from the documentary (and their role in rescuing the lost battalion) were new to me.

[zhai]

Thanks for stopping by, and I apologize for the delayed comment reply!

It is interesting how we can live in modern society with the effects of things like this, but not know their origin points. The rescue of the 36th was interesting in that it probably had a very large role in influencing modern perceptions of Japanese culture -- even to the point of making the influence of anime, Japanese technology (cars! Sony!), and similar possible and palatable to Americans in ways that even Chinese technology today is not (though the causes there are surely complex). That rescue was a sharp turning point in American perspectives on Japanese Americans, and because of that turning point ironically it's possible that it is one reason why so many Americans don't even believe the camps existed, but the key heroic points are sanded away by time. I'm just glad that these guys had the courage to speak.

Thanks again!

[maggiedr]

Thanks for posting this. I don't have much time to comment atm, but hope to elaborate a bit more. I've been to Monte Cassino and have at least one book on it, so I'll attempt to locate it. My husband is a WW2 buff and attends monthly meetings where lecturers come from all over the world and speak on a variety of subjects. I'll have to ask him if he knows about the 442. Also, my Dad, who served in the Pacific arena, will be in town next week. I'm curious to hear if he knows anything--although he doesn't really talk about the war.

[zhai]

Thanks, Maggie. I am very interested in any other comments you have time for on this stuff.

I am slowly getting sucked into the WWII stuff because of things like this and because of my family's history with it and the Korean War. I know how much fanaticism there can be, so I am leery, but it is epic, and it still just keeps getting to me that soon everyone who lived through it will be gone.

The Pacific theatre is fascinating too, and I keep trying to find time to make a followup post to this one about JA involvement with that as well. There was some amazing stuff that happened with MIS, and it has personal resonance for me because my great uncle went to Monterey to sharpen his Japanese for the same service, which was also the same base where my brother trained, and for very similar purposes.