Facing the MountainFacing the Mountain

"... The story of the special Japanese American army unit that overcame brutal odds in Europe while their families were incarcerated back home, and of a young man who refused to surrender his constitutional rights, even if it meant imprisonment. Some came from the mainland of the United States, and others came from 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 the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI was ransacking their houses and locking up their fathers. And within months, many of these young men and their families would themselves be living behind barbed wire. Based on interviews with the families of the protagonists as well as archival research, Facing the Mountain portrays the journey of four Japanese American families and their second-generation young men--the Nisei--who volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and were deployed to France, Germany, and Italy, where they were asked to do the near impossible in often suicidal missions. But this is more than a war story. Brown also tells the story of these soldiers' parents, immigrants forced to shutter the businesses they had spent decades building, surrender their homes, and submit to life in concentration camps on U.S. soil. Woven throughout is the chronicle of a brave young man, Gordon Hirabayashi, one of a cadre of patriotic resisters who stood up against their government in defense of their own rights."--