at fiction. i decided if i was going to make a living as a writer, it better be as a journalist. >> of that up there, again, i saw hemingway, nvakoff, edgar alan powe, tolstoy. what's your favorite? >> i don't know if i have a favorite. i have to say i love hemingway so much because he was a great -- my favorite of my youth. i like fitzgerald. i liked -- i love novacoff, just wonderful. i dope know if i have a favorite. those are all terrific books, though. >> also looking up here you've got shelby foote civil war series. >> i've read all three of those. >> and you have what looks like a white book. looks pretty old. the book itself, i meant.

>> i'm sometimes hard on books because i read them on the beach and outside and in the weather and in the rain and stuff like that. >> i noticed there's a sam and david mccukuckcullof that looksy worn. >> as i said, i'm hard on books. my father was not a literary person but an interesting man. he was a chemical engineer. a utility executive. when i was born, he bought me the complete works of kipling, when i was born. took me some years to get into, but kipling was a journalist, too, as you know. so, i enjoyed kipling. and i liked his -- i liked -- i liked his poetry very much.

fancy people would call it dog roll, but i enjoyed it. i also looked poetry that i read in college very much. i liked t.s. elliott and -- particularly, as the modern poets and john dunn of the metaphysical poets in the 17th century. >> are people surprised when they learn you like poetry? >> i don't tell many people that. there's one episode in the book where i met ezra pound, just as he was getting out of the insane asylum in washington. and he gave me some advice. he said, if i was going to stay in journalism, above all, to avoid too much accuracy. >> finally, i want to ask you about the english buy graphe bi

specifically paul onson and martin gilbert. you have a whole series of their books. >> martin gilbert i, of course, has written so much on the -- on the holocaust and the genocide, which is one of the great stories of our time. and also he was -- he wrote the multivolume biography of winston churchill. as you probably know, churchill -- it was supposed to be written by rajd churndall ch, got through two books and he died. he turned it over to gilbert, which turned it into a much more ordinarily work and more complete, perhaps, lacked some of the human text. paul johnson, of course, is a conservative, one of the great conservative writers. "modern times" is very often --

people ask me for my christmas reading list and i give them the golden oldies. whitaker chambers and paul johnson. >> will there be another book? >> well, i can't believe -- i'm only 76, you know. and i can't believe it's my last book. i have -- i have never written a novel after my bad experience in college. i have had a project going on in my head for about 20 years. a novel on -- the name is the mercenary, a political novel. it's based -- it would be based on the experience of ernst

during the 30 years war. i don't know if i'll write it or not. >> there's nothing in the laptop yet on that? >> not a word. >> robert novak, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> next weekend on "history bookshelf," author nora titone talks about her book "my thoughts be bloody" the rivalry that led to the assassination of abraham lincoln. the author examines john wilkes booth's relationship with his older brother. "history bookshelf" airs three times each weekend on american history tv, including saturday at noon eastern. >> i want people to get from the book is a better understanding of who she was, what she was like during that four-year period. because there are been a lot of books written can most of it has been written to people who talked to friends of friends of friends. they really don't have the information themselves. i happened to be there. i knew her 37.

>> from late 1960 through 1964, former secret service agent clint hill served on the protective detail to first lady jacqueline kennedy. >> there isn't any gossip in there, no salacious information. what happened, what she was like, things she liked to do, how humorous she was at times, how athletic she was at times and how intelligent she was. and how kind of ram bunks she was. she tried to put me to the test many, many times. and i did my best to meet that. >> more with clint hill sunday night at 8:00 on c-span's "q & a". next on american history tv, oral-s from densho, the japanese american legacy project. in 1942 president franklin d. roosevelt signed executive order 9066 resulting in the forced war time relocation of more than

10,000 japanese-americans into internment camps. in this interview senator daniel inouye talks about if he would have volunteered for service out of the japanese camps as many did. he sebed with the famed 442nd regimental combat team, made up entirely of second generation japanese-americans. he was awarded the medal of honor for gallant action and lost an arm in battle. >> i guess the first question i have for you is how did the two of you meet? >> well, it was after the war because in an organization such as a regiment or battalion, you generally got acquainted with men of your platoon or your company at the most. your name, as you may know a few of them, but as a general rule, you stayed within your company confines.

but after the war in discussing veteran matters with fellow veterans, it was, well, unavoidable. the leader of veterans in the seattle area was cakashino. so if you want to discuss anything about the 442nd, you had to discuss base with kash. >> what kind of man was he? >> he was up front, he was honest. he had a good sense of humor. and although he knew that the charges against him were false and should are been cleared, he kept on working. >> in seattle kash was known as a very good fighter while in

europe. in a similar way you were known as a very good fighter in europe. the question i have is, what are the factors or characteristics that make a good fighter. >> i don't know what you mean by good fighters but kash and i were considered gentle people. but there's something that happens to a person when there's a cause. one must keep in mind that the people who step forward and volunteered, i think, constituted a rather special breed. i'm not suggesting we were super men or people better than the rest. but when you consider the times like kash volunteering from a camp, a concentration camp, to serve and defend a country that had encars rated him, you know, that's extraordinary. when i first learned about these camps and visited one of those,

hi to ask myself the question, would i have volunteered? to this day i'm not able to give an honest response because i can't say honestly yes i would have or no i would not have. but the fact that hundreds upon hundreds volunteered under those conditions is not only historic, it's almost unbelievable. i don't suppose there's any similar chapter in our history, the history of the united states, where people in large numbers stood up and said, we're going to defend a country that is doing us harm. and when you look back to the life in the camps, here again, children standing up before

school and pledging allegiance to the flag, it's almost beyond comprehension. and when you consider the buildup of animosity and hatred in certain circles, and to have these men step forward, that's extraordinary. >> no, i agree, they were extraordinary men. last year -- >> they were not bruits. in ordinary life i'm certain kash, before he got into the service, was a fun-loving young fellow, like all of us. in fact, if you look over the list of those who have received medals, they're not the huge bruitish looking men. they usually look angelic. >> well, in fact, i've known the

kashino family for 30 years. and i knew bevera's father. i didn't know that side of him until i did this research. you're right, he was a very gentle man. >> however, he did get his fair amount of squabbles. before, during and after the war. >> well, all of us have those. >> well, thinking about shiro, shiro died last year and i know he wanted to come to this reunion in particular to see you and his other comrades. in his stead bev and the family came. what thoughts do you have or words do you have for bev and the rest of the family about her father? >> well, i'm really sorry that he's not here with us for this reunion, which in all likelihood is our very last one, a national one. the companies will continue to have their annual gatherings,

but when you consider that the average age of the men in the regiment must be at this moment about 77, five years from now the average age would be 82. according to statistics, and the census, we don't live forever. so, this may be our last gathering. but i'm certain kash is happy, wherever he is, because he obviously would be with his men. >> when you think about this being possibly the last national reunion, what -- what would you like to see happen at this last reunion with the men? >> nothing extraordinary. because our work has been done. i think if we can leave this place knowing that the future is in good hands, because in this

convention you will note the active work of the sons and daughters, for example. i think that in and of itself should please us, that for some, the work will continue. our message will be heard for generations to come. so, we're going to have fun, you know. we're not going to come forth and pass resolutions of massive importance, calling upon congress to pass this law, that law. we're not gdo those things. i think for the most part, the convention highlights would be the company gatherings. kash's company will get together. i company, k company, e company, and we'll be rehashing the war and the war will get bigger and bigger and the heroics get much

more valorous, you know. >> let's start back in 1922 and a piece of legislation that happened back then. why don't you just talk about that a little bit. >> well, i was born in 1924, but i became aware of the supreme court decision of 1922 rather early in my life. that decision declared that japanese were not qualified for citizenship. and as a result of that, the practical effect was that japanese could not be naturalized. in more practical terms, my father who was born in japan came over as a child of two, got his education here, paid his taxes and served well.

could not be naturalized. and when he married my mother, who was born in hawaii and a citizen, therefore, the moment she got married she lost her citizenship because of a law that was passed. and in 1924 the law was passed in congress, approved by the president, that said if a people is to be found unqualified for citizenship, their homeland would not qualify to receive a quarter. see, this was the quarter legislation. china would get so many, korea so many, et cetera. and in the case of japan, it was singled out. the one country in the world without any immigration. so, if you use this as a background, i think one can

understand why certain levels of animosity developed and existed prior to december 7th. we as young people had no idea what was going on, but i knew that my mother had lost her citizenship. >> let's now jump forward now to december 7, 1941, the day that japan attacked pearl harbor. let's talk specifically about your experiences as a young man, i believe, 18 years old at that time. >> i was 17 at that time. and senior in high school. i was well aware of the events of 1922, '23 and '24. and although our neighbors were very friendly and understanding, when the news of december 7th finally hit me, and i realized what had happened, i sort of

concluded that the end of the world was here as far as our future is concerned, because after all the men who piloted those planes looked like us, looked like me. and who knows, some may have been related, cousins or something like that, because i do have relatives in japan. all of us have. so it was a difficult time, but our neighbors accepted us. they understood the problems that we had. they felt sorry for us that we were singled out for special treatment by the fbi. and i was, believe it or not, an employee of the federal government soon after december 7th. i was a member of the first aid

station and had been training for over a year. for some reason, we anticipated problems in hawaii. in fact, on december 7th, there were bomb shelters already built. so, it wasn't anything so it wasn't anything new. and we were already training for over a year on how to participate in mass injuries or mass evacuations. and so when december the 7th came the aid station was already established and i was put on the federal payroll as a member of the civil defense agency. >> and describe what was happening at the aid stations after the attack. >> well, i've been told, i have no way of documenting this, that i may very likely have picked up the first civilian dead of december the 7th. what had happened, in the

hysteria of the initial bombing, when our anti-aircraft units went into operation, i think some of the men got so excited that they forgot to put the timer on. see, these shells have to be timed so that it will burst at a certain height. and if the planes are coming in at so many feet, you set it up for that height. well, there were, i would say, about ten shells during that period that somehow failed to have these timers, and many of them fell in our neighborhood. and so the aid station in which i worked was called upon to do the work. and i led the stretch of team that picked up this elderly

japanese lady who was just having her breakfast at that time. i think oblivious to the fact that an attack was in progress and a shell just went through the roof and sliced her head. >> probably at that moment you couldn't think about this, but do you ever reflect back on the ironies of, you know, in the planes, the pilots were japanese and perhaps the first civilian. this is the first time i've heard this. >> my first reaction as a young man was anger. to think my future was now destroyed because of the stupid act on the part of the japanese. as like most people, i had no idea what was happening diplomatically and i had no idea as to whether such justification existed.

all i knew these people who looked like me dropped those bombs and, therefore, had an impact on my future. which it did. >> i'm going to now jump forward to, because later you enrolled at the university of hawaii as a pre-med student and the government then asked americans with japanese ancestry to volunteer for military service. i wanted to ask you what your reaction was when you heard about this. >> well, we greeted this with jubilation. now, keep in mind that on february 19th, the executive order was issued authorizing the army to set up concentration camps. now, we in hawaii had no idea that these camps had been established. all we knew was that every so often we would heard that

so-and-so disappeared. i have no idea that there was a camp on this island until after the war. that some of my neighbors were there. schoolteachers and priests. and there were those who just disappeared from our neighborhood and we found out after the war that they were in other camps on the mainland. there were hundreds from hawaii who were shipped out, but the major numbers of us were not affected. we were left here. >> and then going back to your case, so when the government said, americans with japanese ancestry could volunteer for the service -- >> well, the -- we had asked for it. on march 17th when the government of the united states designated japanese as a

designation for enemy alien, many of us took this as personal matter and insult to us. we considered ourselves just as good americans as our neighbors. and so we began petitioning washington. we began offering ourselves to anything. dig ditches, string barbed wire, what have you. and an organization called the victory volunteers was formed. made up of university students who went out to dig trenches and put up barbed wires and i was too young for that, but then i also signed these petitions and when the president of the united

states issued a statement saying that americanism is a matter of mind and heart, it is not and has never been a matter of race or color, and declared that if we wished we could volunteer and become a part of this special combat team. when that announcement was made, together with several of my classmates, we literally ran from the campus to the draft board. you know, that's a couple miles. we ran there and we signed up. >> after you signed up and went back home, what did your mother and father say? >> well, they anticipated that. in fact, in most homes, very quietly, they must have said -- they anticipated this. and naturally no mother or father would want to see their sons leave and possibly not return, but they sensed the

mission and i think approved. >> given your mother, you know, had lost her citizenship upon marrying your father, within your mind, did that enter your mind as, you know, japanese-americans were classified as enemy aliens at that time in terms of what would happen to you? what would happen to japanese -- >> well, knowing that and having that in the back of my mind, that's why i was angry that this event very likely could have shattered all of my dreams of the future. but when the opportunity was presented to us to sign up and

volunteer, i think i reached a conclusion that many others reached that this was the opportunity we've been waiting for. possibly to be able to demonstrate once and for all that we are americans. unhyphenated americans. so that's why over 85% of the eligible men in hawaii volunteered. >> you were upset that your dreams were sort of upset in terms of because of the war, of the japanese attacking pearl harbor. tell me, what were some of your dreams as -- >> well, i wanted to be a physician, a surgeon to be precise. i wanted to be part of the mainstream of the united states. raise a family and have a practice. these are dreams. but then when this war came around, i could see a future made up of segregation of good

americans and bad americans and knowing what had happened in '22 and '24, i thought, i would just imagine what was in stock for us. >> you had anger toward the japanese that attacked pearl harbor. did you have anger toward the government as a young man of sort of this segregation happening? >> no, not much. i think one should remember the times and should recall that the early immigrants, my grandparents and my parents, came from a society and a background that's quite different from today. they for the most part were not successes in their communities. if they were, they wouldn't be

here. they would have stayed back here. why should they want to move out to a strange land not knowing what is in the future? where they came from, for centuries they had lived the life of presses. above oppressing the ones below. that was part of the life. some were high and those below that. the rich and the poor. so it was just transferring the headman from a yellow man to a white man. so you found japanese workers to be rather docile and hi, hi, hi, you know? and in fact, in many cases, some of the plantation workers looked upon their new bosses to be much more liberal and understanding than the bosses in japan.