The Secret Role of the Japanese Americans Who Fought in the Pacific in World War II

In his new book Bridge to the Sun coming out on September 27, 2022, Bruce Henderson, master storyteller, historian and New York Times best-selling author, tells a gripping true tale of the courage of the Japanese-American U.S. Army soldiers who fought in the Pacific theater, while many of their families back home in America were incarcerated behind barbed wire in camps by the U.S. government. Their contribution is one of the last, great untold stories of World War II, kept hidden for decades. The story of the larger, all-Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team soldiers who were sent to fight in Europe has been covered in many books and media. After Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military was desperate to find Americans who spoke Japanese to serve in the secret Military Intelligence Service (MIS) in the Pacific war. They soon turned to the Nisei—first-generation U.S. citizens whose parents were immigrants from Japan. Eager to prove their loyalty to America, several thousand Nisei—many volunteering from the camps in which they were incarcerated—were selected by the Army for top-secret training, then were rushed to the Pacific theater. Highly valued as expert translators and interrogators, these Japanese American soldiers operated in elite intelligence teams alongside Army infantrymen and Marines on the front lines of the Pacific war, from Iwo Jima to Burma, from the Solomons to Okinawa. Henderson reveals, in riveting detail, the harrowing untold story of the Nisei and their major contributions in the war of the Pacific, through six Japanese American soldiers. After the war, these soldiers became translators and interrogators for war crime trials, and later helped to rebuild Japan as a modern democracy and a pivotal U.S. ally. SPEAKERS Bruce Henderson Author, Bridge to the Sun In conversation with Garrett Hongo Poet; Writer In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on October 17th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices