Four-Four-Two

"Hughes' writing effectively evokes the horrors of war and the internal conflict of young men fighting for a country that has treated them unjustly. The challenges of Yuki’s reentry into the States are also well conveyed: the guilt of survival, the difficulty of communicating the war experience to civilians, and the continued widespread racism.... This is historical fiction at its finest—immersive and inspirational."

"Events, characters, and dialogue create an indelible sense of time and place.... Yuki emerges as a true hero during this dark period of American history."

"Yuki Nakahara is American. He was born in California, wears jeans, and has never even visited another country—but at the start of World War II he becomes aware that other Americans see him as a foreign enemy. His family is one of the thousands of Japanese American citizens arrested and forcibly transferred to internment camps in the rural desert. Although depressed about their situation, Yuki and friend Shig decide to join the army to fight for their country and to prove once and for all that they are loyal to the United States. As the war wages on, however, Yuki realizes that he must…

"The story of two young Japanese-American men who enlist in the 442nd Regiment, a segregated unit of Japanese-American soldiers and white officers that fought in the European Theater.... Hughes sends these men through the wringer. They endure foot rot and the stress of taking the next hill (which is worse is up for grabs), and they also grapple with the consequences: how does one reconcile shooting a kid, even if he's an enemy soldier? Yuki reflects that "what he and Shig were doing—and the Germans, too—was brutal, disgusting," and he would "spend his life trying to remove all this ugliness…