Japanese American World War II Service in Wear It Proudly, 1947

William Shinji Tsuchida

First Edition

Tsuchida, William Shinji. Wear It Proudly, 1947, documents Japanese American military service in Europe through wartime letters written by a Nisei Army medic whose family and community faced wartime suspicion and incarceration at home. The book supports research into World War II combat medicine, Japanese American citizenship, racial loyalty, military service, and the emotional record of soldiers writing from the front. Tsuchida served as a combat medic with Company I, 71st Infantry, and his letters give direct testimony to the contradictions of serving the United States while Japanese Americans were subjected to exclusion and confinement.

Tsuchida, William Shinji. Wear It Proudly. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1947. First edition. Original blue cloth binding with gilt spine lettering, in publisher’s red dust jacket printed with the image of a handwritten letter. The letters record Tsuchida’s wartime service in France and the Austrian Alps, with reflections on combat, homesickness, military routine, danger, and ethnic identity. The title refers to his unit’s recognition of his service with the Combat Infantryman Badge, despite his role as a medic, and the text preserves his account of being told to “wear it proudly.” David R. Brower’s foreword frames the letters as a rebuke to anti-Japanese prejudice, warning readers not to bring their prejudices to Tsuchida’s mail.

The volume provides a firsthand documentary record of Japanese American wartime belonging, placing battlefield service beside the racial exclusions of the home front. Dust jacket with moderate chipping to edges and spine ends and surface scuffing; binding tight and boards clean; interior text crisp; overall very good condition. An early published account by a Japanese American GI, valuable for its direct treatment of combat, loyalty, race, and citizenship during World War II.

Item #22795

Price: $450.00