Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II

The 522nd was the artillery support unit for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II. The 522nd liberated parts of the Dachau concentration camp.

The 92nd was a segregated unit featuring Black Americans during World War II. 

The Alien Enemies Act of 1788 was part of a series of laws passed to restrict the rights of non-citizen residents. During World War II, the act was used to extract property and to imprison so-called “enemy aliens“—Americans of Japanese, German, and Italian extraction.

The Alien Land Act of 1913 prohibited “all aliens ineligible for citizenship” from owning land (86).

Axis Sally, a generic name given to German female radio announcers, was the nickname for Nazi propaganda disseminated over the radio in English.

The Battle of Monte Cassino (January–May 1944) took place in Italy between Allied forces and Nazi Germany. The Allied goal was to break through the German Winter Line of fortifications and forge a path toward Rome.

“Buddhaheads” is the term mainland Japanese Americans used to describe their Hawaiian counterparts.

The Chinese Exclusion Act banned immigration from China for a decade.

With this Act, the Reagan administration issued an official apology for the relocation and imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WWII. The Act also compensated the remaining victims $20,000 each for their loss of income and property.

As the German army was collapsing in the last days of World War II in Europe, Nazi Germany sent approximately 7,000 inmates from the Dachau death camp on April 26, 1945—a last-ditch attempt to hide the extent of their genocide and war crimes. Guards shot those who could no longer walk. Others died from exhaustion or exposure to the elements. US forces liberated Dachau on April 29, and the 522nd encountered some of the survivors on May 2.

Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in February 1942, authorized the forced removal and relocation of people of Japanese ancestry from the so-called exclusion zones near the US coast and their placement into concentration camps. Many of those forced into camps were American citizens.

In March 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9102 to establish the War Relocation Authority (WRA), tasked with the forced removal and relocation of those of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

The Gothic Line was a line of defense and strong fortifications formed by Germans in northern Italy during World War II.

“Haole” is the term that Hawaiians use to describe non-natives, especially white individuals.

The Hawaii Territorial Guard was created to replace the National Guard of Hawaii, which was used by the federal government during World War II.

In 1943, the United States Supreme Court heard this case and upheld the earlier decision of the lower court. They ruled against Gordon Hirabayashi’s argument, declaring that race-based curfews for Japanese Americans were legal in wartime conditions.

This Act (also called the Literacy Act or the Asiatic Barred Zone) banned immigration from Asia and included other restrictions based on English-language literacy.

This Act (also called the Johnson-Reed Act) banned all immigration from Asia, excluding the Philippines, an American colony at that time. Other immigrants faced a quota system.

Issei are first-generation Japanese living in the US. During WWII, they were non-citizens because they were barred from being naturalized.

Kibei were second-generation Japanese Americans (Nisei) who were, in part, educated in Japan.

“Kotonks” is the term Japanese Americans from Hawaii called their mainland counterparts “for the hollow sound a coconut makes when you hit it” (167).

When the 1st Battalion of the 141st Infantry of the US Army (originally, the Texas National Guard) was trapped by the German troops in the Vosges Mountains of France, they earned the nickname The Lost Battalion. The 442nd rescued the Texans in a dramatic and incredibly costly operation, losing many of their own men in the process.

The McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 allowed Japanese immigrants to apply for citizenship.

Nikkei are members of the Japanese diaspora living outside Japan.

Nisei are second-generation Japanese Americans, whose birth in the US ensures their citizenship.

In 1922, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Takao Ozawa, a Japanese immigrant who had lived in America for two decades, was not eligible for citizenship.

The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 requires American men over the age of 18 to register for the World War II draft.

The Siegfried Line was a Nazi German defensive position built on the western border of Germany. It was targeted by an Allied offensive in the final year of World War II.

V-Mail, or victory mail, was the American system for sending correspondence to and from the front.

WRA was the agency that controlled the relocation of Japanese Americans to concentration camps during World War II.