9781422282793

places they had never seen before and interacted with people they normally would not have met. These relationships created an overarching worldview for many. Each person shared his or her personal stories and traditions, triumphs and tragedies. While some could not wait to return home, others relished these new experiences. The war had also fostered a resurgent interest in Asia, especially East Asia, which had been brutalized by the Japanese. The Austrian mountaineer and explorer Heinrich Harrer—who gained fame in 1939 as part of the first team to ascend the north face of the Eiger in Switzerland—helped raise this renewed awareness in his book Seven Years in Tibet . When the war began, the British captured Harrer on a climbing expedition in what is today Pakistan. Harrer eventually escaped and traveled to Tibet, where he became an advisor and tutor to the ten-year-old Dalai Lama. Harrer’s chronicle about Many Americans of Japanese descent were taken to internment camps during World War II. However, some worked in the U.S. military as interpreters, a service much needed for operations in East Asia. Here are interpreters Herbert Miyasaki, on the left, and Akiji Yoshima, on the right, with Brigadier General Frank Merrill, who was commander of infantry troops in Burma.

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CULTURE AND CUSTOMS IN A CONNECTED WORLD