{"id":3061,"date":"2021-07-23T07:18:06","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T14:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.piercecountywa.gov\/executive\/?p=3061"},"modified":"2023-06-26T13:33:51","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T20:33:51","slug":"a-very-good-and-important-summer-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.piercecountywa.gov\/executive\/2021\/07\/23\/a-very-good-and-important-summer-read\/","title":{"rendered":"A very good \u2013 and important \u2013 summer read!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

As most of you already know, I love reading.\u00a0 A good story can take me back in time and educate me.\u00a0 A great story can also broaden my understanding and change my perspective.\u00a0 Bestselling author Daniel James Brown is a gifted storyteller who can bring people of the past to life \u2013 sharing their experiences, challenges, and reactions in incredible detail and complexity \u2013 yet keep you riveted throughout.\u00a0 His book about the UW crew team that won the 1936 Olympic Gold Medal<\/a> at the Berlin Games in Nazi Germany \u00a0was masterful.<\/p>\n

So, when Brown released \u201cFacing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II,\u201d<\/a> \u00a0it became my summer vacation book to read!<\/p>\n

And it exceeded my expectations!<\/p>\n

Brown follows several young Japanese American men from their hometowns in Hawai\u2019i, California, Washington and Montana on December 7, 1941, through internment\/incarceration camps, to boot camp in Mississippi, to brutal battlefields in Italy and Germany.\u00a0 Brown also shares about their families and their sacrifices, most of whom were forcibly relocated to \u201ccamps\u201d far from their homes to desolate locations for most of World War II, under President Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s infamous Executive Order 9066.<\/p>\n

These young men became part of the segregated Japanese American 442nd<\/sup> Regimental Combat Team (RCT), who served with tremendous honor and distinction.\u00a0 They became the most highly decorated unit of the war, including 21 Medals of Honor.<\/p>\n

The book is not about strategy or tactics, it is a close and personal story of young soldiers and two chaplains doing their duty in the face of incredible physical and emotional adversity.\u00a0 Their combined actions are legendary, including being named honorary Texans by Governor John Connally in 1963, in recognition of their rescue of the Texas \u201cLost Battalion\u201d in the Vosges Mountains.<\/p>\n

One key character in the story is Gordon Hirabayashi.\u00a0 Gordon stood up to the wrongful and discriminatory relocation\/internment\/incarceration from the beginning. He challenged the legality and insisted on his constitutional rights.\u00a0 He was tried, jailed, released, tried again, imprisoned and released.\u00a0 Throughout it all he was peaceful \u2013 forcing our government and legal system to confront its own racist actions.<\/p>\n

I have thought a lot about the book since I finished reading it.\u00a0 Although I have a lot of background with both the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II (both from my family in Fife and my hometown in Puyallup) and the 442nd<\/sup> RCT, this book\u2019s detailed and deeply personal look at the experiences of\u00a0 the people profiled was very powerful for me.\u00a0 And, it was educational and challenging.<\/p>\n

Here are a few of the key things that I took away:<\/p>\n