FOREWORD In the months following the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, thousands of Japanese-American residents of the Pacific Coast were hastily rounded up and herded into relocation centers. For the most part, these people lost their homes and property in this sudden move. In nearly all cases, they were deprived of their freedom for the duration of the war.
The nine relocation centers where they were interned for varying periods consisted of camps of tar-paper barracks located in the bleaker sections of the West and Midwest. They were cold in winter, hot in summer. The streets varied from muddy, to frozen, to dusty. Food was poor and housing inadequate.
Having made these Americans of Japanese ancestry as uncomfortable as possible, the Army then sent among them a recruiting team with the task of persuading young Niseis to volunteer for extra-hazardous duty.
It is a tribute to the character of the Japanese-American that thousands of Niseis responded. The achievements of the famous 442nd "Go for Broke" Infantry Regiment are well known. Less well known is the fact that another nearly six thousand Niseis served in the Pacific and China-Burma-India theaters of war as interpreters, translators, and intelligence and reconnaissance men with combat units.
During the past two years it has been my privilege to talk with many Niseis who served with the armed forces in World War II, as well as others who spent the war in relocation centers. To their credit it can be said that little bitterness remains over their treatment at the hands of their government in 1942. One of the laudable characteristics of the Japanese is a willingness to forget past unhappiness and live in the present. To know Japanese-Americans is to admire their forthrightness, industry, and resilience. These are qualities we like to think of as typically American---and that is what it seems to have taken an armed conflict to make us aware of: that the Japanese-American is basically no different from any other American.
I should like to express here my thanks to some of the persons who have aided me in the research involved in the writing of this book. Valuable assistance was given by many Niseis and Kibeis, of whom the following is only a partial list:
Sergeant Stanley Uno; Harry K. Andow; Soichi Fukui; Koichi Shibuya; Harry Akune; Sho Nomura; Cappy Harada; Ben Sugeta; Kenny Yasui; George Omatsu; and Sam Kawano.
Special thanks is due Sergeant Uno, an ex-Marauder himself and the first Japanese member of the Los Angeles Police Department to be made a sergeant of detectives, who started a train of thought one day by suggesting that someone should write the story of the Niseis with Merrill's Marauders.
Published material dealing specifically with the Marauders has been difficult to find. The most detailed history of the Marauders, and indeed an outstanding and thoughtful book by any standards, is Charlton Ogburn's, The Marauders. An ex-Marauder also, Mr. Ogburn has achieved what will probably remain the definitive work on that tragic and heroic group. Other works of great value to me were the American Forces in Action Series publication, Merrill's Marauders; Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland's Stilwell's Command Problems; and General Stilwell's own work, The Stilwell Papers.
General works on the CBI and the Burma campaign which were helpful were Marsmen in Burma, by J. H. Randolph; Beyond the Chindwin, by Bernard Fergusson; Retreat with Stilwell, by Jack Belden; Grand Strategy, by the British government printing office; Burma Surgeon, by Gordon S. Seagrave; and Burma Surgeon Returns, by the same author.
Other sources consulted were Citizen 13,660, by Miné Okuba; Americans from Japan, by Bradford Smith; and the Military Intelligence Service Language School Album.
But books can never impart the "I-was-there" sensation as graphically as word-of-mouth recollections of one who actually lived through an experience, and I wish to thank all those who took the time and trouble to provide me with what was invaluable assistance in this effort.
In the writing of this book, for story purposes it was necessary to telescope some of the events of the Second World War into a shorter time span than they actually occupied.
FRANK BONHAM
Rancho Santa Fe, California
1960
CONTENTS Foreword
CHAPTER 1---Pearl Harbor
CHAPTER 2---The Proud Americans
CHAPTER 3---"Run Them Out!"
CHAPTER 4---One Suitcase
CHAPTER 5---Topaz
CHAPTER 6---Savage
CHAPTER 7---The Gopher Emblem
CHAPTER 8---Pride of a Nisei
CHAPTER 9---"Dangerous and Hazardous Duty!"
CHAPTER 10---"Operation Sextant"
CHAPTER 11---Man Overboard!
CHAPTER 12---Odd Man Out
CHAPTER 13---Deserted Village
CHAPTER 14---"To Die for Nippon!"
CHAPTER 15---Blood Bath
CHAPTER 16---"Mission Completed"
CHAPTER 17---The Four Winds Code
CHAPTER 18---F'saya
>CHAPTER 19---The Road
CHAPTER 20---Under Fire
CHAPTER 21---The Line
CHAPTER 22---Task Force!
CHAPTER 23---Battle of Nhpum Ga
CHAPTER 24---State of Siege
CHAPTER 25---Rest and Recreation-Army Style
CHAPTER 26---The Last Mission
CHAPTER 27---The Gorge
CHAPTER 28---The Island
CHAPTER 29---Code of the Warrior
Epiloguework under copyright
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