REVIEWS
The Colonel and the Pacifist tells the story of two men, Karl Bendetsen and Perry Saito, caught up in one of the most infamous episodes in American history: the forced imprisonment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War.
– Kai Bird,
Author of The Color of Truth and co-author of American Prometheus.
The Colonel and the Pacifist is a valuable resource. . . [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
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, Columbia University.
John Hughes, publisher of the Daily World in Aberdeen, WA, describes de Nevers as “a painstaking researcher and talented story teller.” His review concludes: “de Nevers 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 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.” (Daily World, June 3, 2004).
– John Hughes,
John Hughes is recently retired as the State Historian of Washington. Read John Hughes’ full review here.