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{
"id": "Burma Rifles: A Story of Merrill's Marauders (book)",
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"title_sort": "burmariflesastoryofmerrillsmaraudersbook",
"description": "Book for young readers by Frank Bonham centering on a\n \n Nisei\n \n intelligence soldier in Burma during World War II. Published in 1960, it is among the first children's books to depict the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.",
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"Heroism – real and perceived",
"Injustice",
"Vulnerability of the strong",
"War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy"
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"title": "Military"
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{
"title": "Brian Niiya",
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"title": "Burma Rifles: A Story of Merrill's Marauders (book)",
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"modified": "2020-06-02T16:20:23",
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"title": [
"Burma Rifles: A Story of Merrill's Marauders"
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"creators": [
"Frank Bonham"
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"theme": [
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"Injustice",
"Vulnerability of the strong",
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"Told from point of view of young Nisei man"
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"Limited availability"
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"Wartime violence"
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"Los Angeles, California"
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"chronology": [
"1940s"
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"databox-Books": {
"title": [
"Burma Rifles: A Story of Merrill's Marauders"
],
"author": [
"Frank Bonham"
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"publisher": [
"Thomas Y. Crowell Company"
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"pubdate": [
"1960"
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"pages": [
"260"
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"Frank Bonham"
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"Told from point of view of young Nisei man"
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"body": "<div class=\"mw-parser-output\">\n <div class=\"rgonly\">\n <!--\"rgdatabox-CoreDisplay\" removed-->\n <div id=\"rgdatabox-Core\" style=\"display:none;\">\n <p>\n RGMediaType:books;\nTitle:Burma Rifles: A Story of Merrill's Marauders;\nCreators:Frank Bonham;\nInterestLevel:Grades 7-8; Grades 9-12;\nReadingLevel:Grades 7-8; Grades 9-12;\nGuidedReadingLevel:;\nLexile:;\nTheme:Heroism – real and perceived; Injustice; Vulnerability of the strong; War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy;\nGenre:Historical Fiction; Children's;\nPoV:Told from point of view of young Nisei man;\nRelatedEvents:;\nAvailability:Limited availability;\nFreeWebVersion:Yes;\nPrimarySecondary:;\nHasTeachingAids:No;\nWarnings:Wartime violence;\nDenshoTopic:;\nGeography:Los Angeles, California;\nChronology:1940s;\nFacility:Topaz (Central Utah) [1] - Delta, Utah;\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div id=\"databox-Books\" style=\"display:none;\">\n <p>\n Title:Burma Rifles: A Story of Merrill's Marauders;\nAuthor:Frank Bonham;\nIllustrator:;\nOrigTitle:;\nCountry:;\nLanguage:;\nSeries:;\nGenre:;\nPublisher:Thomas Y. Crowell Company;\nPubDate:1960;\nCurrentPublisher:;\nCurrentPubDate:;\nMediaType:;\nPages:260;\nAwards:;\nISBN:;\nWorldCatLink:\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.worldcat.org/title/burma-rifles-a-story-of-merrills-marauders/oclc/312281\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.worldcat.org/title/burma-rifles-a-story-of-merrills-marauders/oclc/312281\n </a>\n ;\n </p>\n </div>\n <p>\n Book for young readers by Frank Bonham centering on a\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Nisei\" title=\"Nisei\">\n Nisei\n </a>\n intelligence soldier in Burma during World War II. Published in 1960, it is among the first children's books to depict the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.\n </p>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Synopsis\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Synopsis\">\n Synopsis\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n The protagonist of the novel is Jerry Harada, a Nisei farm kid from Southern California, nineteen years old as the story begins just prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. His family runs a successful flower farm. Fiercely patriotic, Jerry is in the ROTC and is also a radio enthusiast with an elaborate home-built unit, a hobby he shares with his best friend, Russ Bennett. Though white, Russ attends Japanese language school with Jerry and other Nisei at the urging of his father, an insurance agent with many Japanese American clients. After the attack, Russ rushes to enlist, while Jerry and his family are harassed by local bigots who also destroy his radio set. Inevitably, the family is forcibly removed, ending up at the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Topaz\" title=\"Topaz\">\n Topaz\n </a>\n , Utah, concentration camp. Bored there, he perks up when recruiters for the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Military_Intelligence_Service\" title=\"Military Intelligence Service\">\n Military Intelligence Service\n </a>\n arrive in the fall; Jerry is surprised to find that Russ is one of the recruiters. Jerry signs up, passes the relevant tests the is assigned to the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Military_Intelligence_Service_Language_School\" title=\"Military Intelligence Service Language School\">\n Military Intelligence Service Language School\n </a>\n at\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Camp_Savage\" title=\"Camp Savage\">\n Camp Savage\n </a>\n , Minnesota.\n </p>\n <p>\n Despite the rigorous course of study—and a rampant curiosity that gets Jerry in trouble—he makes it through the schooling ranking among the top students and is among those asked to volunteer for a dangerous assignment: to become one of the fourteen Nisei to become part of the 5307th Composite Unit, popularly known as \"Merrill's Marauders\" after their commander Frank Merrill. Assigned to the jungles of Burma, the Marauders played a key role in the war by opening up a passage from India to China while battling disease and jungle conditions in addition to a numerically superior Japanese enemy.\n <i>\n Burma Rifles\n </i>\n follows Jerry, Russ, and the other Nisei Marauders through the war. Wounded in a special assignment that saw him interrogate a downed Japanese pilot, Jerry does other interrogations in Australia while he recovers. Rejoining his battalion, he is involved in harrowing battles at Nhpum Ga and Myitkyina, using his Japanese language skills both to translate key documents taken from felled Japanese soldiers and memorably impersonating Japanese officers.\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Background_and_Historical_Accuracy\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Background_and_Historical_Accuracy\">\n Background and Historical Accuracy\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Author Frank Bonham (1914–89) was a prolific writer who specialized in Westerns and mystery novels in the first half of his career before turning to children's books in the second. A native Californian, he attended Glendale Junior College and UCLA in the '30s and served in World War II. Plagued by asthma, he took to writing as a profession, publishing some 500 stories and twenty-one books from 1948 to 1964 and also wrote teleplays for Western-themed TV shows such as\n <i>\n Wells Fargo\n </i>\n and\n <i>\n Restless Gun\n </i>\n . He later turned to adventure books for young people, many of which focused on ethnic minorities. His best known work was likely\n <i>\n Durango Street\n </i>\n (1965), on youth gangs in the Watts district of Los Angeles. Bonham later published a second book on Japanese Americans,\n <i>\n Mystery in Little Tokyo\n </i>\n (1966).\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n [1]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <p>\n While Bonham was doing research for the book that would become\n <i>\n Mystery in Little Tokyo\n </i>\n he came across the story of Nisei in the Marauders. In the foreword to the book, Bonham credits former Marauder Stanley Uno, then a Los Angeles police sergeant, for sparking the idea for the book. The book was based on interviews with Uno and several other Nisei and\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Kibei\" title=\"Kibei\">\n Kibei\n </a>\n , along with existing literature on the Marauders. Though Jerry is a composite fictional character, real Nisei Marauders including Edward Mitsukado, Ben Sugata (misspelled Sugeta), and Henry Gosho, and Roy Matsumoto appear in the book.\n </p>\n <p>\n The depiction of the Haradas' wartime incarceration is relatively brief and contains a number of errors. In the foreword, Bonham refers to \"nine relocation centers\" rather than ten (page x). Rather than being forced to gather at a central location for transport to a concentration camp, the Haradas are picked up by a truck at their home (33–34). They are also sent to Topaz—seemingly without going to an \"\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Assembly_centers\" title=\"Assembly centers\">\n assembly center\n </a>\n \"—where they are settled in by July 1942 (35). As Southern Californians from the South Bay, they would likely have gone either directly to\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Manzanar\" title=\"Manzanar\">\n Manzanar\n </a>\n or to the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Gila_River\" title=\"Gila River\">\n Gila River\n </a>\n , Arizona, via the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Tulare_(detention_facility)\" title=\"Tulare (detention facility)\">\n Tulare Assembly Center\n </a>\n . Additionally, Topaz, which was almost entirely populated by Japanese Americans from the San Francisco Bay, did not take in its first inmates until September of 1942. Later, when Jerry leaves Topaz to join the army, his family gives him a camera as a going away present (43); but cameras were not allowed in the concentration camps.\n </p>\n <div id=\"authorByline\">\n <b>\n Authored by\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Brian_Niiya\" title=\"Brian Niiya\">\n Brian Niiya\n </a>\n , Densho\n </b>\n </div>\n <div id=\"citationAuthor\" style=\"display:none;\">\n Niiya, Brian\n </div>\n </div>\n </div>\n</div>\n",
"reviews": "<div class=\"section\" id=\"Reviews\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Reviews\">\n Reviews\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n <i>\n Kirkus Reviews\n </i>\n , Oct. 17, 1960. [\"While the part of the book dealing with the campaign reads too much like a division history, and may prove hard sledding for the uninitiates, as a whole the book is absorbing reading. Mr. Bonham spices his story with amusing comments on army life, and leaves a warm sense of the contribution made by American- born Japanese to the winning of the Second World War.\"]\n </p>\n </div>\n</div>",
"footnotes": "<div class=\"section\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n Footnotes\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <div class=\"reflist\" style=\"list-style-type: decimal;\">\n <div class=\"mw-references-wrap\">\n <ol class=\"references\">\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n <i>\n Something about the Author: Facts and Pictures about Authors and Illustrators of Books for Young People\n </i>\n , Volume 49, edited by Anne Commire (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1987), 57–62;\n <i>\n Something about the Author: Facts and Pictures about Authors and Illustrators of Books for Young People\n </i>\n , Volume 62 edited by Anne Commire (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1990), 7.\n <i>\n Mystery in Little Tokyo\n </i>\n is about missing samurai swords and a feud between two Issei men; despite being set in 1960s Los Angeles and having a young Sansei protagonist, there is no mention of the wartime incarceration or of racism in general.\n </span>\n </li>\n </ol>\n </div>\n </div>\n <!-- \nNewPP limit report\nCached time: 20230613175310\nCache expiry: 86400\nDynamic content: false\nComplications: []\nCPU time usage: 0.023 seconds\nReal time usage: 0.030 seconds\nPreprocessor visited node count: 397/1000000\nPost‐expand include size: 7861/2097152 bytes\nTemplate argument size: 1764/2097152 bytes\nHighest expansion depth: 5/40\nExpensive parser function count: 0/100\nUnstrip recursion depth: 0/20\nUnstrip post‐expand size: 957/5000000 bytes\nExtLoops count: 0\n-->\n <!--\nTransclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template)\n100.00% 19.715 1 -total\n 11.92% 2.350 1 Template:RGDatabox-Core\n 11.49% 2.266 1 Template:Reflist\n 10.58% 2.085 1 Template:Databox-Books\n 6.90% 1.360 1 Template:Published\n 6.85% 1.351 1 Template:AuthorByline\n 6.68% 1.317 1 Template:FindAtIA\n 6.51% 1.283 1 Template:publish-rgonly\n-->\n <!-- Saved in parser cache with key encycmw:pcache:idhash:4060-0!canonical and timestamp 20230613175310 and revision id 29630\n -->\n </div>\n</div>",
"findatia": "<div class=\"section\" id=\"Find_in_the_Digital_Library_of_Japanese_American_Incarceration\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Find_in_the_Digital_Library_of_Japanese_American_Incarceration\">\n Find in the Digital Library of Japanese American Incarceration\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n <b>\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/burmariflesstory00bonh\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n Burma Rifles: A Story of Merrill's Marauders\n </a>\n </b>\n </p>\n <p style=\"font-size:8pt;line-height:1.5;color: #aaa;\">\n This item has been made freely available in the\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/digital-library-of-japanese-american-incarceration\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n Digital Library of Japanese American Incarceration\n </a>\n , a collaborative project with\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n Internet Archive\n </a>\n .\n </p>\n <p>\n <br/>\n Might also like\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Eyes of the Emperor (book)/\" title=\"Eyes of the Emperor (book)\">\n Eyes of the Emperor\n </a>\n </i>\n by Graham Salisbury;\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Hunt for the Bamboo Rat (book)/\" title=\"Hunt for the Bamboo Rat (book)\">\n Hunt for the Bamboo Rat\n </a>\n </i>\n by Graham Salisbury;\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Missing in Action (book)/\" title=\"Missing in Action (book)\">\n Missing in Action\n </a>\n </i>\n by Dean Hughtes\n </p>\n </div>\n</div>"
}