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No Sword to Bury
ODO, Franklin S. No Sword To Bury: Japanese Americans In Hawai'i during World War II. Philadelphia: Temple University Press (Distributor: 11030 S, Langley Ave., Chicago, IL 60628), 2004. vii, 328 pp. ISBN 1-59213-207-3 (hc) $39.50; ISBN 1-59213-270-7 (pa) $19.95. Index. Bib. Illus (b&w). Acid-Free.
Franklin S. Odo’s No Sword To Bury: Japanese Americans In Hawai'i during World War II is an important book in the category of good readable postmodern works that unravel history and challenge assumptions that make up how we teach history. Odo’s book is the first monograph on the Varsity Victory Volunteers. The VVV or Triple V was a group of Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans) in Hawaii who helped overcome the military’s suspicion of them during World War II. Most VVV members were students or alumni of the University of Hawaii in the ROTC or Hawaiian Territorial Guard. After Pearl Harbor they guarded strategic sites, but were collectively dismissed in January 1942 because of discrimination. Basically, some in Hawaii and the War Department were uncomfortable to see armed Japanese Americans. Despite the humiliating rejection, 169 Nisei volunteered to do whatever the Army wanted them to do -- partly in order to prove their loyalty. Their public service, like the bravery of the soldiers of the 100th Division led to the creation of the decorated 442nd RCT, which is credit with changing popular attitudes of Japanese Americans.
Several years ago when Odo taught Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaii, he conducted a series of oral history interviews with surviving VVV members. Their words and personal stories make up the core of the book. Professor Odo deftly intertwines these probing in-depth interviews with archival evidence and his keen awareness of the context of race and class issues in Territorial and modern Hawaii. By doing this he gives voices to the VVV themselves, and questions many sweeping generalizations in order to get to deeper layered understandings of history.
Odo’s book belongs in every local and ethnic history collection here. The book’s value, though, goes far beyond the local story, as he uses his microanalysis to challenge another key American historical metanarrative, the 1960s model minority myth, which posits Jews and Japanese Americans as models for other ethnic groups to emulate (i.e., by emphasizing education and sacrifice, any minority group can overcome racism on its own and become successful in America). This parable remains loved by neoconservatives, who used it to argue against affirmative action or public welfare. The VVV might not have agreed with Odo, but he uses their words to break down the falsehoods Odo, a Sansei, left Hawaii to direct the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, but retains his keen understanding of the Japanese experience here. That same insight was foreshadowed in A Pictorial History of the Japanese in Hawaii, 1885-1924, a classic which he edited with Kazuko Sinoto. More recently, Odo edited the Columbia Documentary History of the Asian American Experience.
This reviewer highly recommends this book for public adult nonfiction and ethnic or local history collections, as well as academic libraries. High school librarians should also consider this because Odo’s readable prose makes it easy to understand his fascinating challenge to the retelling of the Japanese experience in Hawaii. This is a key history in understanding American ethnic history, especially in light Odo’s deconstruction of the Model Minority Myth. It makes a nice companion to one of my favorite Japanese American histories, Lon Kurashige’s Japanese American Celebration and Conflict: A History of Ethnic Identity and Festival, 1934–1990.
As a historian, my main critique is that Odo often appears too familiar with his subject. He is more interested in developing his theoretical critique that he sometimes neglects to explain points fully or to document information that he knows, but does not try to explicitly prove or cite. This seems unfortunately typical of Temple University Press’s Asian American History and Culture Series (edited by Asian American theorists Sucheng Chan, David Palumbo-Liu, and Michael Omi). This is frustrating for beginning readers or historians wishing to locate sources to replicate findings, but should not stop librarians from acquiring or promoting this important work of Hawaii history.
Franklin S. Odo’s No Sword To Bury: Japanese Americans In Hawai'i during World War II is an important book in the category of good readable postmodern works that unravel history and challenge assumptions that make up how we teach history. Odo’s book is the first monograph on the Varsity Victory Volunteers. The VVV or Triple V was a group of Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans) in Hawaii who helped overcome the military’s suspicion of them during World War II. Most VVV members were students or alumni of the University of Hawaii in the ROTC or Hawaiian Territorial Guard. After Pearl Harbor they guarded strategic sites, but were collectively dismissed in January 1942 because of discrimination. Basically, some in Hawaii and the War Department were uncomfortable to see armed Japanese Americans. Despite the humiliating rejection, 169 Nisei volunteered to do whatever the Army wanted them to do -- partly in order to prove their loyalty. Their public service, like the bravery of the soldiers of the 100th Division led to the creation of the decorated 442nd RCT, which is credit with changing popular attitudes of Japanese Americans.
Several years ago when Odo taught Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaii, he conducted a series of oral history interviews with surviving VVV members. Their words and personal stories make up the core of the book. Professor Odo deftly intertwines these probing in-depth interviews with archival evidence and his keen awareness of the context of race and class issues in Territorial and modern Hawaii. By doing this he gives voices to the VVV themselves, and questions many sweeping generalizations in order to get to deeper layered understandings of history.
Odo’s book belongs in every local and ethnic history collection here. The book’s value, though, goes far beyond the local story, as he uses his microanalysis to challenge another key American historical metanarrative, the 1960s model minority myth, which posits Jews and Japanese Americans as models for other ethnic groups to emulate (i.e., by emphasizing education and sacrifice, any minority group can overcome racism on its own and become successful in America). This parable remains loved by neoconservatives, who used it to argue against affirmative action or public welfare. The VVV might not have agreed with Odo, but he uses their words to break down the falsehoods Odo, a Sansei, left Hawaii to direct the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, but retains his keen understanding of the Japanese experience here. That same insight was foreshadowed in A Pictorial History of the Japanese in Hawaii, 1885-1924, a classic which he edited with Kazuko Sinoto. More recently, Odo edited the Columbia Documentary History of the Asian American Experience.
This reviewer highly recommends this book for public adult nonfiction and ethnic or local history collections, as well as academic libraries. High school librarians should also consider this because Odo’s readable prose makes it easy to understand his fascinating challenge to the retelling of the Japanese experience in Hawaii. This is a key history in understanding American ethnic history, especially in light Odo’s deconstruction of the Model Minority Myth. It makes a nice companion to one of my favorite Japanese American histories, Lon Kurashige’s Japanese American Celebration and Conflict: A History of Ethnic Identity and Festival, 1934–1990.
As a historian, my main critique is that Odo often appears too familiar with his subject. He is more interested in developing his theoretical critique that he sometimes neglects to explain points fully or to document information that he knows, but does not try to explicitly prove or cite. This seems unfortunately typical of Temple University Press’s Asian American History and Culture Series (edited by Asian American theorists Sucheng Chan, David Palumbo-Liu, and Michael Omi). This is frustrating for beginning readers or historians wishing to locate sources to replicate findings, but should not stop librarians from acquiring or promoting this important work of Hawaii history.
Reviewed by Andrew B. WERTHEIMER, Assistant Professor, Library & Information Science, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Review submitted in Feb. 2005.
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