My current colleagues in the History Department at UC San Diego have been incredibly supportive. Special thanks to Luis Alvarez, Bob Edelman, Claire Edington, Denise Demetriou, Jessica Graham, Mark Hanna, Cathy Gere, Dave Gutierrez, Todd Henry, Nancy Kwak, Wendy Matsumura, Dana Murillo, Pamela Radcliff, Nir Shafir, Matthew Vitz, and especially Natalia Molina and Danny Widener for their camaraderie and advice. The incredible staff in our department made much of this work possible. Thanks to Sarab Aziz, Joan Bahrini, Susan Bernal, Sally Hargate, Andy Liedholm, Amber Rieder, Leah Tamayo-Brion, and Susan Winchester. It has been a joy to work with and learn from Yen Espiritu. Yen welcomed me to the Critical Refugee Studies Working Group, and I’ve benefited from conversations with group members Mohamed Abumaye, Rawan Arar, Lisa Ho, Alexis Meza, Linh Nguyen, Davorn Sisavath, and Jael Vizcarra; I thank them for their rigorous comments on one of my chapters. My writing group kept me focused during the academic year; thanks to Claire Edington, Jessica Graham, Jin-Kyung Lee, Wendy Matsumura, and Abbie Yamamoto for their invaluable feedback. Colleagues and friends beyond my department and institution have enriched my time in San Diego. Thanks to Patty Ahn, Victor Betts, Jody Blanco, Erica Cho, Josen Diaz, Erin Glass, Lilly Irani, Aftab Jassal, Dredge Kang, Hoang Nguyen, Yumi Pak, Joseph Ramirez, Erin Suzuki, and Kamala Visweswaran. Ash Kini is as solid as they come and is dearly missed in San Diego. Saiba Varma, thank you for being my unfailing tennis partner, and for always being up to do fun things.
Numerous people have offered timely encouragement and helped sharpen my thinking and arguments over the years. Thanks to Eiichiro Azuma, Keith Camacho, Chris Capozzola, Kornel Chang, Andrew Friedman, Tak Fujitani, Irene Garza, Cindy I-Fen Cheng, Jenny Kelly, Paul Kramer, Julia Lee, Jana Lipman, Allan Lumba, Liz Mesok, Mark Padoongpatt, Chris Patterson, Vicente Rafael, Chandan Reddy, Seema Sohi, Colleen Woods, and David Yoo. Nikhil Singh believed in this project long before I saw what it was, and has been an unstinting supporter since I started this journey. I’m grateful for my coconspirators at Yale who sustained me through graduate school, including Mike Amezcua, Megan Asaka, Ryan Brasseaux, Karilyn Crockett, Zane Curtis-Olsen, Hong Liang, Deborah March, Uri McMillan, April Merleaux, Ana Minian, A. Naomi Paik, David Stein, Tim Retzloff, Quan Tran, and Susie Woo. Thank you, Jessie Kindig, for our many conversations that helped shape the core of this book, and for your sharp editorial eye. I would not have survived graduate school were it not for Monica Muñoz Martinez, whose generosity and brilliance never ceases to amaze me. Sam Vong, thank you for being one of my staunchest critics and supporters, and for being a good friend.
I’m grateful to the many individuals who shared their personal stories with me. Although many of them did not make it into the book, I thank them for their time and willingness to trust me with their stories. Thanks to Jim Albertini, James Arima, Dale Borgeson, Ray Burdeos, Doug Chin, Ed Greevy, Richard Kim, Kenji Kudo, Lee Lagda, Chalsa Loo, Sharon Maeda, Stanford Masui, Allan Miller, Ken Mochizuki, Toshio Nakano, Vincent Okamoto, Josefina Pablo, Hugh Paik, Alan Sugiyama, Yuzo Tokita, Mayumi Tsutakawa, Henry Wadahara, Bob Watada, John Witeck, Mike Wong, Keith Yamaguchi, Mike Yanagita, Richard Yee, and Teruo Yorita. Many thanks to Kathy Masaoka, Mike Nakayama, and Nick Nagatani.
Research for this book would not have been possible without the help of many people who guided me to the right sources. Thanks in particular to the archivists and staff at the Hawai‘i State Archives, the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, the Hoover Institution, the Bancroft Library, and the U.S. Army Military History Institute. Thanks especially to Dore Minadotani at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa Library for her patience and expert guidance.
Generous financial support from UC San Diego’s academic senate and the Hellman Foundation provided funds to complete this book. Thanks to Niels Hooper, my editor, for his enthusiasm and incredible patience in shepherding this project. It was a pleasure working with Bradley Depew and the staff at University of California Press. Kornel Chang, Moon-Ho Jung, and George Lipsitz gave the manuscript a thorough read and offered incisive comments and generative critiques that guided my revisions. I especially thank George for helping me expand my conception of what this book could be, and for pushing me to articulate the stakes of my project. Thanks to Anthony Chiffolo, my copyeditor, and to David Lobenstine and Zoë Ruiz, whose crucial interventions at the final stage of my revisions made this a better book.
I dedicate this book to my parents, Yvonne Tam and John Man. Thank you for encouraging me to find my own path and for always reminding me to stay grounded and true to myself. I’m eternally grateful for your love and support and for making everything possible. Moses Man has been my anchor and source of guidance my entire life. I thank him, Son Nguyen Man, and Caleb Man who came into this world as I finished the book, for bringing so much joy into my life. Edward Choi endured the writing of this book more than anyone else; words cannot express my gratitude to him. My grandmother, Chan Sau-Yuk, is the strongest person I know. I miss her laughter, wit, and beautiful spirit.
Abbreviations
| AVF | All-Volunteer Force |
| AAPA | Asian American Political Alliance |
| AFP | Armed Forces of the Philippines |
| AMMO | Asian Movement for Military Outreach |
| CCD | Civil Censorship Detachment |
| CIA | Central Intelligence Agency |
| DOD | Department of Defense |
| ECCOI | Eastern Construction Company, Incorporated |
| EDCOR | Economic Development Corps |
| FTA | Free the Army (Antiwar Troupe) |
| FOA | Foreign Operations Administration |
| JACL | Japanese American Citizens League |
| JACS | Japanese American Community Services |
| JCI | Junior Chamber International |
| JUSMAG | Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group |
| KM | Kabataang Makabayan |
| KATUSA | Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army |
| KDP | Katipunan ng mga Demokratikong Pilipino (Union of Democratic Filipinos) |
| KMAG | U.S. Military Advisory Group to the Republic of Korea |
| MDAP | Mutual Defense Assistance Program |
| MDM | Movement for a Democratic Military |
| NCRCLP | National Committee to Restore Civil Liberties in the Philippines |
| NLG | National Lawyers Guild |
| NLF | National Liberation Front |
| PCS | Pacific Counseling Service |
| PTSD | Post-traumatic Stress Disorder |
| PHILCAG | Philippine Civic Action Group |
| PVL | Philippine Veterans Legion |
| ROK | Republic of Korea |
| SCAP | Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers |
| USAID | U.S. Agency for International Development |
| USOM | U.S. Operations Mission |
| VVAW | Vietnam Veterans Against the War |
| VNA | Vietnamese National Army |
| VVL | Vietnamese Veterans Legion |
Introduction
“DO YOU WANT TO JOIN THE ARMY, or do you want to go to jail?” Nick Nagatani and Mike Nakayama had heard this line many times. The two teenagers grew up in the West Los Angeles neighborhood of Crenshaw in the 1960s as the Vietnam War was pushing into the public consciousness. They were Sansei, born in the United States with Japanese grandparents. Their neighbors were nearly all black and Japanese American, and nearly all working class. Crenshaw reaped little of the state and federal resources that made cities desirable for capital investments; its streets, and the worldviews of its residents, were shaped by organized neglect. Nagatani and Nakayama remembered the time as one of widespread disaffection. The teenage boys around them joined gangs, got into fights, and took drugs. And again and again, these young men were arrested, brought before a judge for their petty crimes, and asked the question: “army or jail?” To most it was an easy choice. To some it was an opportunity. Before ever having to answer the question before a judge, Nagatani and Nakayama weighed their options and made their decisions: they chose war. In 1967, the pair enlisted in the Marines and traveled halfway around the world to South Vietnam. They saw it as “one of the options for getting out,”