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

Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II by Daniel James Brown is a work of social history focused on the lives of Japanese Americans at home and on the front lines of the Second World War.

Daniel James Brown's methodology is social history, which means that the lives of ordinary people take precedence over those of political leaders. For example, the author examines significant events, such as the Pearl Harbor attack, through the eyes of Hawaiian witnesses. After describing larger historical events in passing to provide a broader context, Brown relies on a variety of sources—ranging from legal documents and army records to newspapers, wartime propaganda, personal diaries, correspondences, photographs, travel to some of the locations in question, and interviews with his subjects (recorded and in-person)—to detail this narrative. The preservation of memory by using oral history is one of his key objectives.

The book examines the lived experience of first- and second-generation Japanese Americans who were branded “enemy aliens” after Japan’s 1941 Pearl Harbor attack and forced to move from their homes into US concentration camps—a policy justified by wartime necessity. The book also follows the many second-generation Japanese Americans who volunteered to fight in Europe, hoping to prove their loyalty to the United States with their service and, sometimes, their lives.