In this crisply written, well-researched book, Lesley Blume, a journalist and biographer, tells the fascinating story of the background to John Hersey’s pathbreaking article “Hiroshima,” and of its extraordinary impact upon the world.
In 1945, although only 30 years of age, Hersey was a very prominent war correspondent for
Time magazine a key part of publisher Henry Luce’s magazine empire and living in the fast lane. That year, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel,
A Bell for Adano, which had already been adapted into a movie and a Broadway play. Born the son of missionaries in China, Hersey had been educated at upper class, elite institutions, including the Hotchkiss School, Yale, and Cambridge. During the war, Hersey’s wife, Frances Ann, a former lover of young Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, arranged for the three of them to get together over dinner. Kennedy impressed Hersey with the story of how he saved his surviving crew members after a Japanese destro
The soldiers who fought enemies abroad and prejudice at home
Susan H. Kamei
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Imagine being forced from your home by the government, being imprisoned in a detention camp under armed guards and behind barbed wire – and then being required to join the military to fight for the nation that had locked up you and your family.
That’s what happened in a little-known chapter of U.S. history, in which many of those men went on to become American military heroes, some making the ultimate sacrifice. These soldiers, along with all other Japanese Americans who served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II, are being honored with a new U.S. Postal Service stamp on June 3, 2021.
Young Japanese American men who were incarcerated because they were presumed to be disloyal were considered loyal enough for compulsory military service.
Young Japanese American men who were incarcerated because they were presumed to be disloyal were considered loyal enough for compulsory military service.