"Go for Broke!" is a World War II-era Hawaiian pidgin-English phrase[1] that is occasionally, and surprisingly, reappearing in today's American vocabulary. This gambler's saying was adopted as the motto of the US Army's 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team (hereinafter "the 100/442nd") by its Nisei—second-generation Japanese American—members. Historian James McCaffrey[2] (Univ. of Houston–Downtown) now uses it as the title of his history of both Issei (immigrant, first-generation) and Issei (American-born, second-generation) Japanese from the panic following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor through the 100/442nd's formation, training, overseas deployment, and combat in Italy and France, to its eventual return home. His account is detailed and readable but not without shortcomings.

Going for Broke is, like McCaffrey's previous books, firmly based on memoirs, letters, and remembrances. It loosely follows the story of Pvt. (later S. Sgt.) Carl K. Morita, a Colorado Nisei, who enlisted in the Army before Pearl Harbor and served in Europe through V-E Day. McCaffrey repeatedly quotes Morita's personal letters to friends and family; we follow the story of the 100/442nd via this artillerist's journey through enlistment, initial training, and assignment to the Nisei regiment's 522nd Field Artillery Battalion.

McCaffrey "seeks to provide a more comprehensive look at the entire story [and] to build upon … previous works [on the 100/442nd] to present a more complete story. But it is more than a synthesis of earlier books. It is the story of the fight these men waged against this nation's enemies and also their battle for acceptance by the people of the United States. It is told, as much as possible, from the perspective of the common soldier, often relying on their [sic] own words" (xiii). The author's chronological approach and plain, direct prose style will appeal both to the general public and to those with a particular interest in the Nisei unit or the Second World War generally.

To begin with a basic matter of culturally (in)appropriate terminology, McCaffrey writes that his subjects "considered themselves to be Americans of Japanese descent. They do not, nor therefore do I, use the hyphenated term Japanese-Americans. They are Japanese Americans" (351). However, the period-specific term "Americans of Japanese Ancestry" (AJA) was preferred among the Nisei who grew up in Hawaii, listening to the stories of uncles, cousins, and "Hawaiian uncles" (older family friends). Better yet to think of them as "just Americans."[3] McCaffrey also attempts to discount the slur "buddhahead" by claiming it simply designated mainland-born AJA. But a more plausible interpretation is that the word derived from "buta-head," buta being Japanese for "pig," meaning not "pigheaded," that is, stubborn, but "piggish," that is, crude and lacking manners; this was likely used in reference to the country folk on the plantations of Hawaii, especially by the more "refined" kotonks (mainland AJA) in the 1930s and 40s.

McCaffrey astutely taps a variety of sources in telling the history of the 100/442nd. He begins by introducing Morita and sketching the events that led to America's entry into World War II. He then turns to the activation of the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) and its journey to Camp McCoy in Wisconsin. He even describes in some detail the little-known Cat Island experiment, in which selected Nisei soldiers were sent to the Mississippi coast to test the ability of war dogs to sniff out Japanese soldiers (they could not). McCaffrey also discusses the rampant racism behind President Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 (19 February 1942), authorizing the imprisonment of over 120,000 Issei and Nisei[4] from the West Coast. Laudably, he also mentions the overlooked courage of Colorado Governor Ralph Carr, who, at a time of racist hysteria, sacrificed his own political career in 1943 to open his state to AJA who might wish to move there. We also learn of the contributions of Earl Finch, the Mississippi merchant who befriended the Nisei of the 100/442nd and became their local sponsor and benefactor.

A special virtue of the book is its richly detailed and vivid description of the formation and initial training of the 100/442nd in 1943–44.

McCaffrey's description of artillery training at Fort Sill and Camp Shelby (no doubt, based on Morita's letters) is comprehensive and includes a discussion of the Nisei learning the nomenclature and operation of the M1903 Springfield, the M1 Garand, and the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (60). Unfortunately, once the scene shifts to combat in Europe, his narrative becomes less accurate. For example, he describes the 100/442nd landing at Anzio on "amphibious trucks" (145), omitting to inform readers whether these were 2.5-ton capacity DUKWs or smaller "seeps" (sea-going jeeps). He also misidentifies the enemy units[6] in one of the pivotal battles fought by the 100/442nd—the regiment's rescue of the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Division—the so-called "Lost Battalion"—during the ferocious German attempt to destroy the isolated unit.

In the same vein, McCaffrey too often refers to a given Nisei as "a boy," "a man," "a soldier," or "an officer," burying his name in an endnote. This is a frustrating habit in a book aiming to tell its story "from the perspective of the common soldier" in his own words. It detracts from the achievements of individual soldiers by eliding their names and faces from the narrative proper.[7] Nor does McCaffrey report the soldiers' thoughts and feelings about racism or the importance of the 100/442nd's success in prompting President Harry Truman to issue his Executive Order 9981 (July 1948), mandating desegregation of the military and thus paving the way for integrating the nation at large.

The book suffers from a lack of maps showing, for example, the movements and positions of the 100/442nd and the ten AJA relocation centers in the United States. More illustrations would have painted a clearer picture of the Japanese Americans' experiences both stateside and in combat; the included fourteen pictures are randomly placed and often unrelated to the subject matter of the surrounding text.

McCaffrey gives too little attention to the upgrading of the Distinguished Service Crosses awarded to regiment members to Medals of Honor in 2000. He misses golden opportunities by not discussing in detail each of the twenty-one Medal of Honor combat episodes or the funding efforts of the AJA that led to the construction of the Club 100 and the 100/442nd Veterans' Club on some of the choicest properties in Honolulu, a real testament to the tight social fabric of the Nisei. Some treatment of the veterans' clubs would have provided a natural bridge to the author's abbreviated discussion of the 100/442nd today.

In summary, James McCaffrey tells the story of the US Army's most highly decorated unit[8] in a broad but sometimes superficial work flawed by poor fact-checking.[9] Nonetheless, he has performed a valuable service by recalling the valiant service to country of a remarkable combat team of Japanese Americans during the Second World War.