Linda Tamura is professor of education at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. She is the author of The Hood River Issei: An Oral History of Japanese Settlers in Oregon's Hood River Valley.
Nisei Soldiers touches deeply into America's reckoning with race and bigotry and deserves a wide reading. The author offers a persuasive and compelling account of the treatment of Japanese Americans in peace and wartime. -- William G. Robbins Oregon Historical Quarterly Tamura's Nisei Soldiers is an interesting, solidly researched, and well-written piece of history, one that fills a gap in the literature on the American war experience. -- Thomas Saylor Oral History Review ... an excellent history of the Hood River Nisei who served during WW II. Her book is backed by all of the expected (and nicely utilized) sources... what helps to distinguish the book as unique are the multitude of rare interviews... Highly recommended. Choice An important book about a shameful era in the history of the Columbia gorge... Tamura uses interviews and newly uncovered documents to tell a shocking story. -- Jeff Baker The Oregonian Tamura has done well to write this book, which strikes a blow at historical amnesia and resonates in Puget Sound country. -- Mike Dillon City Living This important chronicle of the community's wartime contributions interweaves fact and anecdote... Tamura provides an engaging outlet for a hidden voice... Publishers Weekly Linda Tamura's revelatory community history, Nisei Soldiers, exposes the racism experienced by Japanese American soldiers from Hood River, Oregon during World War II and the postwar years...Her poignant case study fills a necessary gap in the social history of Japanese American postwar resettlement. -- Melanie English Pacific Northwest Quarterly, A superb read, an excellent source of Northwest social history, and a welcome addition to the literature on Japanese internment. -- Eric Cunningham Columbia Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence is a much-needed account of a crucial period in Japanese American history... Linda Tamura's clearly written, discerning, and engaging book deserves careful study by both specialists and general readers interested in Japanese Americans' contributions during and after the Second World War. -- Brian Casserly Michigan War Studies Review