Four-Four-Two

By: Dean Hughes

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the author of Soldier Boys and Search and Destroy comes a thought-provoking, action-packed story based on the little-known history of the Japanese Americans who fought with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II.

Yuki Nakahara is an American.

But it's the start of World War II, and America doesn't see it that way. Like many other Japanese Americans, Yuki and his family have been forced into an internment camp in the Utah desert. But Yuki isn't willing to sit back and accept this injustice - it's his country, too, and he's going to prove it by enlisting in the army to fight for the Allies.

When Yuki and his friend Shig ship out, they aren't prepared for the experiences they'll encounter as members of the Four-Four-Two, a segregated regiment made up entirely of Japanese American soldiers. Before Yuki returns home - if he returns home - he'll come face to face with persistent prejudices, grueling combat he never imagined, and friendships deeper than he knew possible.

©2016 Dean Hughes (P)2016 Recorded Books

Tough Story Of Prejudice, Devastation, Devotion

I was familiar with the story of the 442nd, even have Audible's "Honor Before Glory" (good book, just suffers from the narration of Traber Burns), so I knew "Four-Four-Two" would be hard-hitting and filled with strife and devastation.
Still, I wasn't prepared to cry, for heaven's sake! It's a story of racism, heroism, and good and strong friendships. It's a story of what young men, brothers (even "bruddas") will do for each other during the hard slogs, during the white-hot heated pitches of battles. It's of what it costs to kill and to die.
It's a story of what it means to be American during the toughest of times: when America doesn't want you or only thinks of you as cannon fodder, perhaps.
Hughes has crafted marvelous characters in Yuki, Shig, and the other young men they go into combat with. They're complex, want the best, desperately fear the worst, and are willing to place themselves in the toughest of spots just because that's what men, what friends, do for each other when the bullets fly, when the grenades are thrown.
Kirby Heyborne, a fine narrator, turns in a dramatic performance filled with guttural commands, the screams of dying men, the regrets of the aftermath.
And what on earth does it mean when all is said and done?
Like I said, I cried...

10 of 14 people found this review helpful

It is not fair!

This is a story about Japanese Americans who were put in internment camps during WWII simply because they were of Japanese heritage. Some of these people were from families who had been in America for many generations. It is sad and is not fair, but it happened. The young son from one such family decided to join the military and fight for the country he loved, in spite of the fact that the country did not seem to love him back. How do these things happen? It was such an indignity to these good Americans. We tend to believe such things cannot happen here in America, the greatest country on earth, but the fact is they can and they did. So sad!!!

Missed the point of these great men.

I have a personal family friend that was part of the 442 and I have heard some of his stories. Dean Hughes could have substituted the names and changed the race and it still would of been a disaster. I was looking for a book that had more hart and more discrtiption of these men. I wish there was a real book about the personal struggles these men fought and the battles that they won. This is the last Dean Hughes book I will listen to.
Don't waste a credit n this one.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful