Reviews of The Colonel and the Pacifist
| Kai Bird | Roger Daniels | Gary Y. Okihiro |
| Sandra C. Taylor | BH, Inkslinger | John Hughes |
| Wes Sasaki-Uemura | Richard Melzer | Momoko Murakami |
| Erika Kuhlman | Dennis Lythgoe | Masumi Izumi |
| Chizu Omori |
Klancy Clark de Nevers’s portrait of Karl R Bendetsen, “the U.S. Army colonel who was intimately responsible for incarcerating some 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II” is a chilling tale of mendacity and crass ambition. de Nevers’s insightful history of this dark story is a painful reminder of how ignorance and war hysteria made it possible for one man to trample on the Constitution of these United States. In the post-9/11 era, this story should serve as a cautionary tale for all Americans.
– Kai Bird,
Author of
The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy &
William Bundy, Brothers in Arms and
The Chairman: John J. McCloy & the
Making of the American Establishment
From the Foreword to The Colonel and the Pacifist: Karl Bendetsen, Perry Saito and the Incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II
The result [of de Nevers’ research] is a gripping and sometimes surprising story that links Saito and Bendetsen in what was a national tragedy. Much of the book’s power comes from the fact that it focuses on a few American lives. It is particularly appropriate to reconsider this aspect of the Japanese American experience at a time when another group of American ethnics, the Muslim community with foreign roots, is under suspicion of disloyalty.
– Roger Daniels,
Charles Phelps Taft,
Professor Emeritus of History
University of Cincinnati
The Colonel and the Pacifist is a fascinating and engaging account of divergent lives marked by a singular event–World War II–and their choices exercised in shaping the course and writing of history. Highly recommended.
– Gary Y. Okihiro,
Professor of International and Public Affairs,
Director, Center for the Study of Ethnicity
and Race, Columbia University
Author of
The Columbia Guide to
Asian American History
This book is a significant contribution to American history and
Japanese American studies. . . [Its] importance lies in its subject
matter: Bendetsen’s life has not been the subject of scholarly
investigation. The stories of the Japanese Americans bring to life
the very real people who [bore] the brunt of the racism [which was a] legacy of
the history of Nikkei in the US as well as the impact of Pearl Harbor.
The fact that there were no incidents of sabotage by the Japanese
Americans is important, because many people on the West Coast . . .
still believe that many were traitors. . . [The Colonel and the
Pacifist] covers an important period of American history, from the
thirties and forties to the present and it does so in a lively and
provocative fashion.
– Sandra C. Taylor,
Author of
Jewel of the Desert:
Japanese American Internment at Topaz
and
Vietnamese Women at War
de Nevers has done a remarkable job of
tying [the lives of Karl Bendetsen and Perry Saito] together and
presenting a picture as horrific as the times they lived through. That
Saito did so with grace and Bendetsen with duplicity and denial speaks
to their individual characters.
– BH,
Inkslinger,
King’s English Bookshop
[de Nevers is] a painstaking researcher and talented storyteller. [She] pulls no punches, but anyone who accuses her of exercising politically correct hindsight will have ignored the facts she has documented so well. . . . The Colonel and The Pacifist . . . . has special relevance to the present in light of the ongoing debate over civil liberties, domestic and foreign, in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq.
The Colonel and The Pacifist is a breakthrough in World War II
scholarship — a tale of two star-crossed lives rooted on the Harbor,
told with the added advantage of someone who grew up in Aberdeen during
World War II.
– John Hughes,
Editor & Publisher,
The Daily World,
Aberdeen, WA
Click here to read the full review published in the Aberdeen Daily World
This work makes one realize that even
people who were not in highest positions of power exerted considerable
influence in the process – even when they denied it. Ultimately, one of
the author’s key concerns is the question of taking responsibility as
the first step to reconciliation.
– Wes Sasaki-Uemura,
Professor of History, University of Utah
Klancy Clark de Nevers has broken new
ground by using new sources and new perspectives to contrast the vastly
different wartime experiences of two men caught up in a truly national
tragedy. . . . [the book is an] astute, revealing, and valuable
contribution to Japanese relocation history.
– Richard Melzer,
University of New Mexico,
Valencia Campus,
In The Journal of American History
The Colonel and the Pacifist is a
valuable resource. . . . Karl R. Bendetsen is fleshed out. . . .
[regarding Perry Saito] the matter becomes a little more personal since
our paths crossed in Chicago. [de Nevers] provides a rich background
tapestry against which Karl Robin Bendetsen and Perry Hitoshi Saito
played out the dramas of their lives.
– Momoko Murakami,
Kamai Forum,
Los Angeles
Paralleling the lives of two men on
opposing sides of one of the most perplexing and complicated episodes in
American history is an effective means of reopening the debate over
causes and casualties of Japanese internment. De Nevers’s provocative
and insightful book will aid in that process.
– Erika Kuhlman,
Idaho State University
Pacific Northwest Quarterly
A dense volume, carefully researched and
well-supported. . . . The reader will be rewarded for his patience.
– Dennis Lythgoe,
Deseret News,
Salt Lake City
The well-researched book . . . . deserves
credit for its historical details and findings that attract an academic
audience while at the same time providing touching human stories for
general readers.
– Masumi Izumi,
Doshisha University,
Kyoto, Japan
To many Japanese Americans . . . the name
Bendetsen casts a dark shadow, for it is this man who had so much to do
with the incarceration during World War II.... de Nevers’ fact-filled
book is a great read, one of value to anybody who is interested in the
internment. Too bad Japanese Americans fell into the clutches of men
like General John DeWitt and Karl Bendetsen.
– Chizu Omori,
International Examiner