Like so many Japanese Americans born in the years following World War I, Ted Tsukiyama was shaped by the Great Depression, fought with honor in World War II – even as other Japanese Americans were exiled in internment camps – and went on to contribute much to his country’s success and prosperity. In a life that has spanned nearly a century, he has been a proud member of the U.S. Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a military intelligence operative in the jungles of Burma, a groundbreaking Nisei student at Yale Law School, an internationally renowned attorney dubbed “Mr. Arbitration” and a missionary of the art of bonsai.

Now, at age ninety-six, Hawaii’s Ted Tsukiyama shares his story in his own words. Here is the riveting memoir of a community leader, historian, public speaker and – above all – ardent American citizen.