One of the best history books I have read this year. Brown has a cinematic style of writing that is highly engaging. There is a rich cast of real-life heroes including soldiers Rudy Tokiwa, Fred Shiosaki and Kats Miho, and conscientious objector Gordon Hirabayashi. Brown’s has a knack for making you very fond of Nisei we meet meaning that every indignity that is placed upon them by a deeply racist American nation is also felt by anyone reading their accounts.

I got a real feel for the complex emotions and motivations that caused these men to serve a country that had treated them and their families so abominably. Even Hirabayashi who refused to enlist did so out of a sense of duty to America. In fact, Hirabayashi’s story might be my favourite, the bravery he needed was just as great as any of those serving in the 442nd.

It is wonderful that this book shines a light on the overlooked contributions Japanese Americans made in WW2. Despite all the awful things they endured I found the book uplifting. A must-read read for ww2 buffs.

This is a book that deserved to be written and assuredly deserves to be widely read. The treacherous attack on the United States at Pearl Harbour may, perhaps, go some way to explaining the appallingly racist approach to people of Japanese ancestry adopted by large sections of the American public and the armed services. So far, so - possibly - understandable, but it was an incredibly harsh fate that befell hundreds of thousands of ethnic Japanese individuals who had emigrated principally to Hawaii and the western coastal states of the continental United States in the decades before the Second World War.

This book pulls no punches when it comes to the rough justice meted out to these unfortunate people, including American citizens born of Japanese parents whose constitutional rights were trashed by an administration that turned its face against the injustices suffered by so many. Despite the treatment meted out to their fellow ethic Japanese a Regimental Combat Unit comprising solely, in respect of its enlisted men and NCOs, ethnic Japanese soldiers was formed and performed under the most arduous conditions experienced in the European Theatre of Operations at a level that earned them the unstinting praise of their superiors and the respect of their enemies.

If there is a fault, it is uniquely forgivable as this book is written as much to provide a warts and all testimony of what happened as it is to celebrate the astonishing military achievements of the Japanese soldiers who fought under the Stars and Stripes. As such, the author clearly found it difficult to thin out the mass of information that had been collected that collectively catalogued the experiences, injustices and heroism revealed in the narrative. So it’s not a quick read, but it’s rare to find a page where there is not a good reason to read on.
Highly recommended

They came from across the continent and Hawaii. Their parents taught them to embrace both their Japanese heritage and the ways of their American homeland. They faced bigotry, yet they believed in their bright futures as American citizens. But within days of Pearl Harbor, the FBI was ransacking their houses and locking up their fathers. And within months many would themselves be living behind barbed wire.

I had goosebumps while reading this book and while realising how scary the era must have been for those who lived it. This is not an easy or fast-paced read but is a very important one. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Facing the Mountain follows the lives of four young Japanese-American men as they and their families bravely confront harsh new realities brought about by the onset of World War II. It deeply explores the pain and suffering of the men of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, one of the most decorated in American military history, and you cannot fail to be moved by what you read. For the most part the men had grown up just like other American boys: they played baseball and football and made plans to go to college, or work in the family business or run the farm someday; it seemed as if the whole world lay before them but within hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, all of that changed. Within days the FBI was banging on their doors. Within weeks many of them would watch as their immigrant parents were forced to sell their homes. Within months 120,000 of them would be living in barracks behind barbed wire for the duration of the war. By 1943, after more than a year of persistent lobbying for the chance to prove their patriotism, draft-age Nisei (those born in the U.S. to Japanese immigrant parents) could volunteer for “a segregated, all-Japanese American fighting unit” in the U.S. Army.

This is the story of those young men resisting, rising up, standing on principle, laying down their lives, enduring and prevailing. In partnership with Densho, Facing the Mountain grew out of conversations Daniel James Brown had with Tom Ikeda, Executive Director of Densho in 2015. Densho is a Seattle-based nonprofit organization originally dedicated to collecting and preserving the oral histories of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II to promote equity and justice today. The book starts with the terror of the Pearl Harbor attack, proceeds through the shock and sadness of displacement and crescendos to some of the most brutal fighting you will ever encounter as a reader, as the Japanese-American units battled retreating Nazis in Italy, France and Germany itself. This is a compelling, richly described and exceptionally researched book with a team of historians and archivists involved to identify and develop the real-life storylines of the four protagonists at the heart of tale, as well as to draw a broad and historically accurate history of life in the Japanese-American community before, during, and after the war.

It's brutal, unco, portable but vitally important to tell a story so often hidden from view. It's a definitive and authoritative account capturing a truly regrettable history and an insightful, thought-provoking illustration of immense heroism amid the backdrop of deeply entrenched racist sentiment. The bottom line really should be that if these young men were welcomed with open arms into army units and to fight for the United States, they should at least be recognised as invaluable and every bit a part of society as any other race at that time. Facing the Mountain is an unforgettable chronicle of wartime America and the battlefields of Europe drawing upon the fascinating and inspiring stories and words of Japanese-American elders and ancestors to tell this history in a way that can reach vast audiences. Daniel James Brown has an exceptional ability to tell compulsive, people-centred stories, and he humanises this part of history for a population of readers that may be learning about it for the first time. Highly recommended.