The Eagles of Heart Mountain

A True Story of Football, Incarceration, and Resistance in World War II America

By: Bradford Pearson

Narrated by: Feodor Chin

Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

“One of Ten Best History Books of 2021.” (Smithsonian Magazine)

For fans of The Boys in the Boat and The Storm on Our Shores, this impeccably researched, deeply moving, never-before-told “tale that ultimately stands as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit” (Garrett M. Graff, New York Times best-selling author) about a World War II incarceration camp in Wyoming and its extraordinary high school football team.

In the spring of 1942, the United States government forced 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes in California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona and sent them to incarceration camps across the West. Nearly 14,000 of them landed on the outskirts of Cody, Wyoming, at the base of Heart Mountain. 

Behind barbed wire fences, they faced racism, cruelty, and frozen winters. Trying to recreate comforts from home, they established Buddhist temples and sumo wrestling pits. Kabuki performances drew hundreds of spectators — yet there was little hope. 

That is, until the fall of 1943, when the camp’s high school football team, the Eagles, started its first season and finished it undefeated, crushing the competition from nearby, predominantly white high schools. Amid all this excitement, American politics continued to disrupt their lives as the federal government drafted men from the camps for the front lines — including some of the Eagles. As the team’s second season kicked off, the young men faced a choice to either join the Army or resist the draft. Teammates were divided, and some were jailed for their decisions. 

The Eagles of Heart Mountain honors the resilience of extraordinary heroes and the power of sports in a “timely and utterly absorbing account of a country losing its moral way, and a group of its young citizens who never did” (Evan Ratliff, author of The Mastermind).

©2021 Bradford Pearson. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

I wanted to like it

The football, human interest story seemed to be really something that I would like...but you don't even start to hear about it until Chapter 10! The history lesson was fascinating and was something about which I was not aware. But it's too much of a history lesson for the premise of this book. I wanted more stories (from the beginning) of the individuals and less background filler such as a letter that FDR wrote or the childhood of "X" government person who was a racist. This is a story about incarceration and should be taught in school. It's not really a story about the football team (again, you don't even start to learn about the team until Chapter10)

How did I not know this story before?!?!

This is a powerful story and an amazing lesson in how easily bigotry and racism in private citizens can drive awful government policies. It’s also an unbelievable story of perseverance and the power of football. I’ve been a football coach since 1995, including a number of years in CT. That I haven’t heard this story before is a tragedy for me. I’m so glad that my friend recommended it to me.

A lesson of history and endurance

This should be required reading in US history classes…treatment of Asians, both immigrants and those born here, is appalling. Read, listen, and learn.

unknown story

a story I never heard. a nation I didn't know we were. sadness Wishing it wouldn't happen again but

My father's war.

My parents and families were imprisoned at Heart Mtn. They were removed from central Washington and would not speak of the war. this is very interesting for me. Enlightening.

terrible

good concept/true story. terribly executed. as written, will only be enjoyed by those on the football teams which get mentioned

open you mind

loved it, for a nissi born in 1943 at Tule Lake. this book was inlighting