Book Highlight: Letters from the 442nd

by Micah Hetherington, Program and Research Coordinator

In 1989, Hana Masuda endeavored to publish her husband Minoru’s letters to her during his military service in the 442nd from 1943 to 1945. With help from the historian Dianne Bridgman, they selected 120 of his 220 letters, omitting only small portions (such as personal notes to Hana and perfunctory messages). Their work amounted to the book Letters from the 442nd: The World War II Correspondence of a Japanese American Medic; a rich telling of a combat medic’s experience in a segregated unit of the army and his wife’s experience as a concerned loved one who had to continue to live her own life during his service.

The book features historical context provided by Bridgman, Masuda’s medical detachment log (which include short snippets of events), and his letters to Hana. Masuda’s letters to his wife are striking in their care and love for her. He regularly notes his loneliness and how he misses her, but also how he hopes that she doesn’t dwell on his safety. As his service sends him into Italy, he reminds her that his position as a medic is not as precarious. Masuda regularly comments on the beauty of the Italian and French countryside, almost to deter her from thinking about the harsh aspects of his service. In a letter from October 29, 1943, he writes to Hana, “No use reaching for the moon, so I’ll just content myself with dreaming of you.” 

“It was a soul-searching decision, for the possibility of death in the battlefield was real, and, in the Nikkei context, almost expected. I admit, too, despite all the trauma, that an inexplicable tinge of patriotism entered into the decision to volunteer.”

— Minoru Masuda, Letters from the 442nd: The World War II Correspondence of a Japanese American Medic, page 8.

Masuda’s Japanese American identity plays a significant part in his wartime experience. His writing echoes gaman, or to bear the unbearable; he applauds Hana for not crying when they part, and, when his tent had a tear right by his head, he comments how it allowed him ventilation and to see the stars. While in Italy, Masuda notes how Italian passengers on a train seem confused by the 442nd soldiers speaking English. Japanese food is beloved and sought after in his troop. In the Italian countryside, Masuda acquires an eggplant from a nearby garden, which he turns into tsukemono (pickled vegetable). His unit only sporadically could source rice for meals, and it was a welcome treat in their diet. In 1944, the only Christmas gift he requested from Hana was to send him and his fellow troops “nihon mono” (Japanese food), which soldiers would share with the rest of the troop. Minoru called any gifted food “community property.”

Early in 1945, Minoru mentions the West Coast ban lifting and how, while he has no interest in returning back to the West Coast, he couldn’t think of anywhere else to go. He returned home to Hana on December 31, 1945, in Seattle. As a largely primary source-based book, Letters from the 442nd gives an individual insight into life as a combat medic during World War II. Were it not for Hana, these stories would not be as easily accessible to the public. I respect the service Minoru contributed during the war, and the work Hana put in to make sure her family’s story was told.

You can purchase a copy of Letters from the 442nd: The World War II Correspondence of a Japanese American Medic from our online store here.