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xv INTRODUCTION D uring the last years of World War II, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was well publicized in newsreels and newspapers . Knowledge of their service has continued through the years, with books, a movie, and a documentary celebrating their contribution . What has been lacking is a personal account written by a soldier during the war. This lack is addressed by this collection of letters Minoru Masuda wrote to his wife from 1943–1945. Minoru Masuda was born in Seattle in 1915. He lived in Seattle’s Japantown, where his family ran a small hotel. Encouraged to become well educated, he earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and a master’s in pharmacology at the University of Washington. He and Hana Koriyama were married on May 28, 1939. They were interned in May 1942, first at Camp Harmony at the Western Washington Fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington, then at Camp Minidoka, in a sagebrush desert near Hunt, Idaho. In 1943 Masuda volunteered to serve in the segregated unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The 442nd, activated in February 1943, consisted of an infantry regiment, an artillery battalion, a company of combat engineers, a medical detachment, and a band. One thousand men volunteered from internment camps. They were joined by twenty-seven hundred Japanese American volunteers from Hawaii. They trained at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. Masuda was trained as a combat medic in the 2nd Battalion. In April 1944 the unit was shipped overseas. Arriving in Italy, they were joined by the 100th Battalion, a former National Guard unit from Hawaii. The unit spent four months— June through September 1944—in Italy. There were two phases in this campaign. The first involved intense combat as the unit successfully advanced; the second was predominantly an exchange of artillery fire. The 442nd spent October and November 1944 in the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France. There they continued the fierce fighting for which they were becoming well known. They liberated Bruyeres and rescued a “lost battalion” that had been cut off by the Germans. December 1944 through March 1945 were spent on the French Riviera near Nice. The fighting there consisted only of sporadic artillery fire. The men enjoyed frequent passes to Nice. They called these months the “Champagne Campaign.” In April 1945 the unit was back in Italy. Combat was made especially difficult by mountainous terrain. As the Germans retreated, the 442nd pursued them northward through Italy. After the German surrender on May 3, 1945, the 442nd processed eighty thousand German POWs at an airfield near Ghedi, Italy. Subsequently, they guarded POWs and supplies as the original soldiers returned to America to be replaced by new trainees. Masuda was among the last of the original volunteers to leave Europe. He arrived home December 31, 1945. Although reluctant to return to Seattle, Masuda was persuaded by a former professor to return to study for a PhD at the University of Washington. He earned his PhD in 1956 and subsequently served on the faculty of the University of Washington School of Medicine as a professor of psychiatry. He and Hana became the parents of two children, Tina and Kiyoshi, born in the 1950s. During the 1970s, he became known as an advocate of minority rights. Masuda died of lung cancer in June 1980 at age sixty-five. Hana died in 2000. xvi introduction introduction xvii This collection of Masuda’s letters is a comprehensive account of his World War II experience: training, combat, postwar duties, and demobilization. The letters are vivid and lively. They emphasize Masuda’s surroundings, his daily activities, and the people he encountered. For example, he describes Italian farmhouses, olive groves, and avenues of cypress trees. He writes of learning to play the ukulele with his “big, clumsy” fingers, and the nightly singing and bull sessions that continued throughout the war. The letters include descriptions of the plight of Italians who scavenged the 442nd garbage for food, and the mischief of French children who pelted the medics with snowballs. The letters also include remarks describing the Masudas’ rich personal life. Masuda had a tender regard for Hana. In addition to expressing his love, he encouraged her efforts in business school and teaching Japanese to soldiers preparing to serve in intelligence. The Masudas had a wide network of family and friends, so the letters are filled with comments about others’ lives. For example, the birth of a niece prompts a dialogue regarding her name and behavior. With the exception of references to food...

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