Comic Book Review: Journey of Heroes

Journey of Heroes: The Story of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team by Stacey T. Hayashi.  Illustrated by Damon Wong. 

Comics are a clear way to tell Japanese-American history.   Stan Sakai wrote, “Loved Journey of Heroes, and artwork fit perfectly.”  The art is “chibi,” where people are drawn with big round heads on miniature bodies.  It makes people look cute.  In this historically correct telling of solders in the 100th and 442nd US Army Regimental Combat Team, chibi illustrations  creates a nice contrast to the seriousness of American history of racism, sacrifice, bravery, death, loss, and resiliency. 

This comic is only 33 pages long.  But packs in life in Hawaii before the Pearl Harbor attack, racism, the conflict between the Japanese-Americans solders from Hawaii and the Japanese-American solders from the mainland.  That conflict goes away after the solders from Hawaii visited the American internment camps.  They saw guns pointed at Japanese-Americans.  They couldn’t believe these mainlanders volunteered to fight for a country that had treated them like the enemy.   The story continues with the solders arriving in Italy and shows the battle to save the “Loss Battalion.”  

These young men joined the army to show their country that they were Americans.  Through their lives, deaths, and sacrifices they made life better for Japanese-Americans and all of America.  This comic is one way we can teach our American history to future generations.  

 

The 442 Regimental Combat Team became the most highly decorated unit of its size and time in combat in the history of the U.S. Army:

 

8 Major Campaigns in Europe

8 Presidential Unit Citations

 

18,143 Individual decorations including:

21 Congressional Medals of Honor

52 Distinguished Service Crosses

1 Distinguished Service Medal

9,486 Casualties (Purple Hearts)

560 Silver Stars, with 28 Oak Leaf Clusters in lieu of second Silver Star

22 Legion of Merit Medals

4,000 Bronze Stars

1,200 Oak Leaf Clusters representing second Bronze Star

15 Solder’s Medals

12 French Croix de Guerre with Palms representing second awards

2 Italian Crosses for Military Merit

2 Italian Medals for Military Valor

 

I highly recommended this comic.  You can read mine or get your own copy at the Japanese American National Museum Store.