Literary Journal Launch: 'The Pass In Review' No. 1

Review: "The Pass In Review" Journal, Issue No. 1

In keeping with the newly launched literary journal's name—it's a pun on a command used in military drill and ceremony—The Pass In Review is a quick-step parade with plenty of flash, brass, ruffles and flourishes. While the content is not restricted to soldierly themes, the premiere issue features the poetry, fiction, photography, and artwork of more than 20 military veterans.

One of them, admittedly, is the writer of the Red Bull Rising blog. The issue includes, among other examples of his light military-themed verse, what may be the only poem ever written on the subject of working in a Tactical Operations Center ("TOC"). There is also one about making an on-line purchase of body armor. And one about life on a Forward Operating Base ("FOB") that is infused with Norse mythology.

Even without this potential bias, however, we would be excited by the prospects presented by this new collection of veterans' voices.

The issue is available electronically for $8.99 purchase via the Amazon Kindle Store. (Currently on discounted to $4.99!) For those who prefer ink-on-paper, the 82-page Pass in Review is also available as an 8x10-inch print-on-demand hardcopy via Amazon (around $18—currently discounted to $15) or via CreateSpace ($20). If you buy a print edition through Amazon, you get the option of purchasing the Kindle version for $1 more.

An annual Pass In Review anthology may also be in the works.

With their first effort, the journal's editors and designers have set their standards high. Check out this statement of purpose that's sure to stir both a writer's pen and blood:

The Pass In Review is a quarterly magazine for the arts that is focused on giving a strong, clear voice to the military veteran. This is a place for veterans of all backgrounds and nationalities to share their artistic visions and join the likes of Erich Maria Remarque, Joseph Heller, J.R.R. Tolkien, Kurt Vonnegut, Wilfred Owen, Otto Dix, John Phillip Sousa and Tim O'Brien before them.

It is a difficult endeavor to separate oneself from the cause he or she fights for. Those artists, those warrior poets, whose perceptions are forged through the fires of war are compelled to illustrate the funny, honorable, disgusting, beautiful and cowardly aspects of the human condition. Through their art, they are able to denounce the machinations of the press, the lies of politicians, and the ideal of the glorious soldier to expose the truth to share with future generations.

In an editor's note in the premiere issue, editor Alex Zapata thanks the hundreds of veterans who submitted their work, and anticipates more such successes:

"After a couple of months of prep work, we opened our inboxes to submissions and the result was incredible," he writes. "Stories, poems, paintings and photographs streamed in by veterans from all services. After going through all of the submissions, I realized how completely and utterly wrong I was. All that time, I had been complaining about there being no artists like the ones I listed before. The truth is, they are out there. They just haven’t been discovered yet. We at The Pass In Review hope to change that."

In issue No. 1, front-and-center of Zapata's artistic assault is the work of photographer Chase Steely, an active-duty U.S. Army soldier currently serving with 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team (S.B.C.T.), 25th Infantry "Tropic Lightning" Division (2-25th SBCT), Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

Steely was deployed to Eastern Afghanistan as an infantryman. After peers and leaders responded favorably to his photographic habits, however, he picked up additional and informal duty as a shooter of a different sort.

In addition to The Pass In Review cover photo, the issue presents 20 of Steely's images and an eight-page Q&A interview. In that exchange, Steely explains:

Even my Sergeant Major, who didn’t even know who I was ... I just became "the picture guy." I mean, I got in trouble a couple of times for stuff I posted [online] and they told me I had to take some stuff down but they were pretty supportive. Most of the time I was an RTO [Radio Telephone Operator], so that gave me the opportunity to be there and not have to worry about pulling security as much and just get to take photos. 

Even when I became an AG [Assistant Gunner] later on, they would pull me off that duty and just tell me "Hey, walk around and take pictures."

Despite the fact that he mostly used a small point-and-shoot camera, his eye for composition, color, and pattern delivers a fine-art treatment of the Afghan environment. Through Steely's viewfinder, you will encounter a day-to-day Afghanistan that seems almost magical.

Currently awaiting medical procedures related to injuries sustained while in Aghanistan, Steely has another year or two on his enlistment. In the meantime, he has self-published a 60-page photo book via Blurb, available in either print  or e-book formats.

Short stories in The Pass In Review's inaugural issue include:

• "Illusion" by Micah Reel

• "Dinner With the Anarchists" by T. Mazzara

• "A Sign of Things To Come" by Keith Ryan Kappel

• "Stream R" by Gerald Nutini

• "The Boatman" by Brad Drake

Poems include:

• "Bullet Proof Me," "Café Sessrúmnir," "Combat Patch," and "Quiet as TOC-rats" by Randy Brown

• "The Cotton-threaded Manacles of Legal Tender will Leave Ligature Marks on our Children’s Wrists" by Phillip Smith

• "Bird Flu" by Anthony L. Haskins

• "Walking Point" by Brett Perry

• "Fireflies" by John M. Koelsch

• "A Ball A Bat and A Beer" by Michael Fredson

Visual artworks—including photography, sculpture, and painting—include:

• "Can’t Patch a Wounded Soul with a Bandaid" and "Tiffany" by Edward Santos

• "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" by William Medina

• "Albatross" by Claude Freaner

• "All I Am" by Kimberly Deliz

• "Tesla's Dream" and "Angel's Nest" by Apolinar Peralta

• "Apples Cubed" by Hugo Gonzalez

The submissions window for the second issue of The Pass In Review opened Feb. 1, and continues until April 1. The theme of the next issue is "Humor in the Military." Editors seek previously unpublished fiction, poetry, visual art, and music. Submissions are made through the journal's website. Click here for more guidelines.

*****

Disclaimer: As indicated earlier in this post, the writer of the Red Bull Rising blog has work appearing in the poetry section of The Pass In Review's issue No. 1.

Japan-based WWII Reenactors Conduct Winter Event

Historical reenactors seek to re-create the look and feel of a particular period by conducting equipment demonstrations, living history encampments, and even mock battles. Recently, a Japan-based unit of World War II reenactors conducted field exercises in the cold and snow of their own country, while depicting conditions American "Red Bull" soldiers encountered 70 years ago on the mountainous battlefields of Italy.

"Heavy snow got down on that day," the group writes in English about their recent event, conducted in Shizuoka, Japan. "This much much snow did not fall in Cassino."

The reenactors of Bravo Company, 100th Inf. Bn, / 442 RCT Reenactment Group commemorate the 100th Infantry Battalion / 442nd Regimental Combat Team (R.C.T.). In brutal combat through Italy and Germany, these second-generation ("Nisei") Japanese-American soldiers repeatedly fought with loyalty and valor. For a time, the 100th Inf. / 442nd RCT was assigned under the 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division.

The reenactors recently posted an album of more than 100 photographs of their winter exercises on Facebook, along with a few impressionistic captions. To some, the short account that accompanies the pictures reads like poetry:

The event of Reenact and Airsoft which were set as the Italy battle line. 

However, heavy snow got down on that day. 

This much much snow did not fall in Cassino. 

We spent many of 1st day on the snow measure. 

In the pyramid tent, the stove was used and it slept night. 

Firewood and coal were burned by the stove. 

Cooking was carried out in field oven and gasoline burned. 

"Chicken Heka" and "Musubi" which are said for the Japanese-American soldier to have eaten were cooked.

Historically, the Nisei soldiers' story has inspired many retellings. Readers of the Red Bull Rising blog may remember that there's even a graphic novel depicting the 100th Inf. Bn. / 442nd RCT story.

By wearing uniforms appropriate to the era they represent, and experiencing in small ways some of the hardships of World War II soldier life, the Japanese reenactors continue to keep the story of the 100th Inf. Bn. / 442nd RCT burning bright.

The Japan-based group is not the only group of reenactors based on Red Bull units, however. There is, for example, also a 442nd RCT group based in California, as well as a 113th Cavalry unit in Oregon.

Comic Book Tells of Nisei Soldiers' Service, Humility

Oahu-based writer and entrepreneur Stacey Hayashi didn't start out to write a comic book about World War II—particularly one filled with disarmingly cute characters drawn in a style called "chibi." Inspired first by family and friends' war service, she wanted to tell an unflinching story about the Nisei soldiers—Japanese-American soldiers who fought in Italy, France, and elsewhere—as a feature-length film.

If the world is lucky, it might still be a Hollywood movie someday. This is, after all, a story that should be told again and again.

When Hawaii's film economy turned cloudy in the late 2000s, however, Hayashi was worried that years of research into a screenplay would go to waste. "It's not like you can bind a script and have people read it," she says. "And then it hit me ... a comic book! It would be like storyboards, sort of."

The 30-something Hawaii native teamed up with artist and Rhode Islander Damon Wong, to create and publish "A Journey of Heroes"—an educationally accessible and emotionally powerful graphic novel about second-generation immigrants who put their country first, no matter the cost. In the wake of Japan's Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese-American citizens struggled for opportunities to serve their country. Too often, their efforts were met with distrust and racial discrimination.

The Nisei soldiers—the word connotes "second generation"—include the 100th Infantry Battalion (100th Inf. Bn.), and the 442nd Infantry Regiment (442nd Inf. Reg.). In World War II Italy, the 100th Inf. was, for a time, attached to the 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division (34th Inf. Div.). In addition to wearing the patch, the soldiers even painted the Red Bull symbol on their helmets. The unit was celebrated as the "Purple Heart Battalion," due to the number of its members who had been killed or wounded while fighting the enemy.

The 100th Inf. Bn. trained at Camp McCoy, Wis., and Camp Shelby, Miss, and fought as part of the 34th Inf. Div.'s 133rd Regiment in North Africa and Italy, including battles at Mount Cassino, Anzio, and Rome. After Rome, it became part of the larger 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team (100th/442nd R.C.T.). The unique, combined numerical designation was a special recognition of the 100th Inf. Bn's previous military accomplishments.

Later, at great cost in lives and casualties, the 100th/442nd Inf. RCT would famously rescue a "lost battalion" of Texas's 36th Inf. "Arrowhead" Div.

Nisei soldiers also include those who served with Military Intelligence Service (M.I.S.). These Japanese-American soldiers served as translators, and trained at Camp Savage and Fort Snelling, Minn.

In addition to battlefield heroics and tragedies, "Journey of Heroes" also offers moments of humor and light-heartedness. Initially, for example, there are language- and culture-barriers between the "Buddhaheads" from Hawaii and the "Kotonks" from mainland states:

"Jus cuz you soun' like one haole no mean you mo bettah dan me!" 

"How am I supposed to know what you're talking about, you crazy Hawaiian?"

Later, those differences are erased when the troops are taken on a field-trip to visit an internment camp. During World War II, the American government detained Japanese-American citizens in camps, and deprived them of their freedoms and properties. With dinners and dances, the internees hosted the troops. From those experiences, the soldiers took lessons of patriotism, thanksgiving, and humility.

"Some were very angry at being put in these camps, and rightfully so," says the narrator, "but I noticed the Japanese philosophy of 'shikata ga na'—it can't be helped—at work. They also reminded me of my parents at home, who said "Gaman"—to endure hardships with grace. [...] We based a real unit after that. From then on, we were all in this together."

The "Journey of Heroes" comic is drawn as a manga, similar to black-and-white comics originating in Japan. Rather than a gritty or realistic style, Hayashi and Wong opted for cute characterizations, called "chibi."

Using the friendly-looking cartoon characters meant they could soften the story without dumbing down the facts. That was important, because Hayashi's objective was always that "Journey to Heroes" could be used in libraries and classrooms. "Yes, it's a book that's going to have war and violence in it, but I didn't feel that that was the lesson," Hayashi says. "To me, the true story is the story of [the veterans'] character, and what they did in the face of racism and adversity ..."

"Also, because they're so cute—like the vets themselves—as the reader, I think maybe people are sometimes sadder ... like, how can something so awful happen to this guy who is so cute?" she says. "Even when you meet the vets themselves [in person]. Sure, some of them are tough, gruff old men you don't want to mess with, but they are also so friendly, so cheerful, so generous and gracious and playful, it's hard to believe that these guys were also tough soldiers."

When "Journey of Heroes" was first published as a 30-page comic in 2012, some 5,000 copies were donated to Hawaiian schools and libraries. The content is suitable for ages 10 and up. A second run of the comic is anticipated in late 2013, with additional new pages. One notable innovation: As individuals and organizations, World War II veterans and their supporters often sponsor distribution of the comics into classrooms—putting history in the hands of today's young people, in a fresh, tangible, and unforgettable way.

An introduction to the book by the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, himself a 442nd RCT veteran, reads in part:

We were unlike most other soldiers because we bore the responsibility of bringing honor to our families' names, and proving that Americanism was not a matter of skin color, but a matter of heart and mind.

To purchase a copy of "Journey of Heroes," visit the website here. Cost is $10 each, plus shipping and handling. There is also a 5-mintute movie-style trailer for the comic book posted on YouTube here, and embedded below in this blog-post.

There is also a Facebook page for the comic book here.

To learn more about sponsorship opportunities, visit the website here, or view a 5-minute YouTube video here.