In Love and War: The World War II Courtship Letters of a Nisei Couple
- ISBN-10
- 0806152974
- ISBN-13
- 9780806152974
- Series
- In Love and War
- Category
- Family & Relationships
- Pages
- 297
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-09-09
- Publisher
- University of Oklahoma Press
- Author
- Melody M. Miyamoto Walters
Description
The events of December 7, 1941, rocked the lives of people around the world. The bombing of Pearl Harbor had intimate repercussions, too, especially in the territory of Hawaii. In Love and War recounts the wartime experiences of author Melody M. Miyamoto Walters’s grandparents, two second-generation Japanese Americans, or Nisei, living in Hawaii. Their love story, narrated in letters they wrote each other from July 1941 to June 1943, offers a unique view of Hawaiian Nisei and the social and cultural history of territorial Hawaii during World War II. Drawing on her grandparents’ letters, Miyamoto Walters fleshes out what it meant to live and work on the islands of Kauai, Oahu, and Hawaii during the war years. Although to outsiders, twenty-somethings Yoshiharu Ogata and Naoko Tsukiyama were both “Japs,” the couple came from different socioeconomic classes and cultures. Naoko, the author’s grandmother, hailed from a prosperous Honolulu merchant family, whereas Yoshiharu grew up poor, part of the laboring class on a sugar plantation on Kauai. Their courtship was riddled with challenges. He stayed on Oahu, then moved to Kauai; she moved to the Big Island. Yoshiharu faced the possibility of being drafted into the military. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, they both lived under martial law. Some Americans, operating under nativist and xenophobic beliefs, questioned Japanese Americans’ loyalty to the United States. But, as the letters collected here show, the Nisei were patriots. Naoko and Yoshiharu spoke English, participated in the YMCA and the USO, and taught in public schools. They embraced American popular culture—quoting lines of pop songs in their correspondence—and celebrated both Japanese and American traditions. Through their experiences, Miyamoto Walters shows how Japanese Americans’ negotiation of race, ethnicity, and cultural space in wartime indelibly shaped Hawaii’s postwar economic, political, and social landscape.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Of Love & War
By Lynsey Addario. There is no disputing the impact of this revelatory collection.” —BookPage From the Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and New York Times bestselling author, a stunning and personally curated selection of her work across the ...
-
Love and War: Finding the Marriage You've Dreamed Of
By John Eldredge, Stasi EldredgeDesigned for use with the Love & War eight-session DVD group video study will help participants take their marriage to new levels through deeper intimacy by stepping into the great adventure God has waiting for couples. (Relationships) With ...
-
In Love and War: The Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam Years
By Jim Stockdale, James B. Stockdale, Sybil Stockdalemorning to drive out to Whiting Field with a lunch I'd packed . As soon as he left , I'd flop onto the sofa and doze and groan my way through the day . I felt somewhat better by June , when we left for another phase of flight training ...
-
Days and Nights of Love and War
By Eduardo Galeano'[A] masterpiece of reportorial thoroughness, painstaking research, and serious reflection.' Edward Said
-
Love & War
By Melissa de la CruzTorn apart by new trials and temptations, can Alex and Eliza's epic love survive life in the big city? The battles are just beginning in the sumptuous sequel to Melissa de la Cruz's New York Times bestselling Alex & Eliza: A Love Story.
-
Love and War: How Militarism Shapes Sexuality and Romance
By Tom DigbyThese are among Tom Digby's fascinating insights shared in Love and War, which describes the making and manipulation of gender in militaristic societies and the sweeping consequences for men and women in their personal, romantic, sexual, ...
-
Love and War
By John JakesThis ebook features an illustrated biography of John Jakes including rare images from the author’s personal collection.
-
Hemingway in Love and War: The Lost Diary of Agnes Von Kurowsky
By James Nagel, Ernest Hemingway, Agnes Von KurowskyIncluding rare documentary photographs, this epic, real-life love story offers a unique account of an event that shaped the life and work of one of the century's most charismatic and important authors and serves as an invaluable companion ...
-
Alice in Love and War
By Ann TurnbullYA. Love stories.
-
Grendel's Guide to Love and War
By A. E. Kaplan"A tale of rivalry, romance, and existential angst"--Jacket.