No Sword to Bury

"Franklin Odo has captured with much warmth and poignancy, the emotions of men who, though abandoned by their country, loved this country and proved it by repeatedly standing in harm's way to defend it."
—Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D, HI)

"No Sword to Bury is a fascinating study of an often overlooked part of the story of Americans of Japanese ancestry in the World War II era. The Japanese American population of Hawai`i navigated its way through one of the most dangerous and transformational periods in U.S. history. Franklin Odo's use of personal stories of the men and women who made that journey reveals the choices that were made, the strategies that were used, and the lessons we all can draw from them."
—The Hon. Norman Y. Mineta

"One of the strengths of No Sword to Bury is Odo's care in presenting a more layered, nuanced study of Japanese Americans and their role in Hawaiian history. What emerges is a portrait of a lively, diverse group of men who had mixed motives and feelings of what they did during the course of their lives."
—International Examiner

"No Sword to Bury is a masterful contribution based on years of painstaking research. In fact, there is nothing quite like it written about the Japanese American experience. Franklin Odo presents a detailed history of the Varsity Victory Volunteers in the larger context of Hawai'i before and during World War II. He does an excellent job of marshalling data from the extant literature, rare archival sources, and most importantly, a plethora of original oral history interviews. The voices and biographies of key VVV members and the public figures in Hawai'i who supported their endeavors lie at the core of Odo's work. Captivating and informative, No Sword to Bury demonstrates the multicultural dynamics that have been so central in the formation of our 50th state."
—Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of California, Riverside

"(A) significant addition ot the literature in western U.S. history...a fine book, (it) promises to be an important work for years to come."
—History: Reviews of New Books

"By drawing on oral records and archival materials, Odo provides a rich and detailed social history of the VVV members. He not only situates them in the racial dynamics of prewar and wartime Hawai'i, but also successfully allows them to tell their individual stories."
—Choice

"The story is well told and carefully documented."
—SAGE Race Relations Abstract

"...a deep and detailed look at an articulate and important group." The book was described as being "a good addition to the literature on Asian America, on WW II's transformation of American life, and on Hawai'I..."
—Biography: An Interdisciplinary Journal

"(This book) is a long-anticipated work that should not disappoint its readers.... Extending beyond the VVV experience, No Sword To Bury is a significant contribution to our understanding and analysis of Japanese American history in Hawai'i, particularly of the Nisei generation, and complements well other major works that appeared in the 1990s. Odo's achievement lies in detailing the diverse lives and viewpoints of the VVV members in their own words through many revealing oral history interviews."
—The Contemporary Pacific

"Seldom has a work drawn from military history provided such a rich assortment of provocative reflections on ethnic group identity, racism, and social forces.... (Odo's) notable success (is) in stimulating hard thinking about the history of Japanese Americans and of American society."
—The American Historical Review

"...an important addition to an understudied aspect of Japanese American's wartime experience."
—The Historian

"...this book makes an important contribution by showing how the racial reformation of the Nisei contributed to the model minority myth."
—The Journal of American History

"Thoroughly familiar with Hawai`i and Japanese American history, Odo recounts that past with confidence and grace, and illustrated by family stories the issei experience and nisei coming of age spring vividly to life....No Sword to Bury, accordingly, engages huge issues and themes while paying attention to the particulars of individuals and their everyday lives….(the book) deserves a wide and appreciative reading."
—Hawaiian Journal of History

"Franklin Odo’s carefully researched, textured narrative examines a select group of second generation Japanese American, or Nisei men who volunteered to be manual laborers for the U.S. Army for approximately the first year of the war… Odo’s excellent book helps us begin to understand why."
—American Studies

"One of the strengths of Odo is among the best of historians who work backwards from the present, wanting to find explanations in the past to understand and solve the problems of present conditions….The main strength of this book are the life stories – a treasure trove of stories hitherto untold about the lives of Japanese Americans in Hawai’I during World War II."
—The Journal of Asian American Studies