This Light Between Us: A Novel of World War II

An ordinary drill is interrupted by Captain Ralph Ensminger. The recruits are taken to a trench, and Ensminger administers a test to determine who is qualified for the important position of front observer. Ensminger calls out a letter corresponding to blue flags on the field, and the cadets have to gauge the distance to the flag. Thanks to his years of watching Frank throw footballs down the field, Alex can measure distances with incredible accuracy, and at first Ensminger thinks that Alex is cheating until he guesses the distance of a freshly placed flag to within a foot. Impressed, Ensminger gives Alex special leave to visit Hattiesburg that night. Alex’s fellow cadets are overjoyed, and Alex wishes that Frank were there to see him.

Alex and the other recruits go out drinking in Hattiesburg. Alex’s success on the front observer exam has made him a hero to everyone, including the Hawaiian recruits, who buy him beer after beer. However, thoughts about Charlie prevent him from fully enjoying the evening. As the 442nd recruits return to Camp Shelby, a racist bus driver refuses to let three Black soldiers onto the bus and gets into an altercation with Mutt, who is Hawaiian. The Japanese recruits, including Alex, drag the bus driver off the bus and beat him up.

Captain Ensminger gathers the hungover cadets. They are dreading punishment or dishonorable discharge for assaulting the bus driver, but Ensminger just says, “‘Next time […] have the sense to beat the driver out of sight’” (261) and leaves it at that. Overjoyed at their captain’s support, they rush to their drills in double time.

Alex’s regiment practices for combat, with Alex on the frontlines as the front observer. After months of training, the 442nd regiment is renowned throughout the camp for their skill and discipline. One day, their training with live artillery is abruptly interrupted, and Captain Ensminger announces that they have been given the official call up. The 442nd Regiment will be shipping off to the European front. After a dance in town, the regiment embarks on a ship called Johns Hopkins for an undisclosed location in Europe. Alex cannot help but remember the last time he boarded a ship: the day when he and his family were evacuated from Bainbridge Island. As the ship leaves, he thinks of Charlie.

Alex wakes up in the middle of the night in the stifling quarters on the Johns Hopkins. Unable to sleep, he looks through his letters from Charlie and finds a small piece of paper that he never noticed before.

Alex goes up to the ship’s deck. He watches a mass of bioluminescence shimmering in the dark water and thinks of the paper lantern that Charlie sent down the Seine. It suddenly occurs to him that the slip of paper in the envelope must be a piece of the Sinti magic paper that Charlie referenced in her letter. Alex writes Charlie’s name on the slip. Several minutes pass, and Alex begins to feel foolish when a strange spherical shape suddenly appears on the deck. Alex steps through it and is transported to the barracks of a concentration camp.

Charlie rushes in. Alex is radiating light, just as Charlie did when she appeared to him in Manzanar. She looks dangerously thin and gaunt. He tries to communicate with her and ask where she is, but his voice is muted. All too soon, he begins to fade. Charlie reaches out to him, but it is too late. Alex is back on the Johns Hopkins.

After a month-long ocean voyage, the 442nd Regiment reaches Italy, where they are met with a cold reception from the locals in Bari, where a bombed Allied ship recently released mustard gas and caused civilian casualties. In Naples, the regiment encounters its first signs of war: bombed out buildings and cars and squalor. From Naples, they go to Rome, Civitavecchia, and Belvedere, where they encounter the carnage of war “in all its senseless, unspeakable, insatiable brutality” (278).

The soldiers wake early and eat double rations; Captain Ensminger explains that they do not know when the next opportunity for a meal will be. Alex and the others are nervous; no one knows whether it will be their last day to live. Ensminger explains their tactical situation. Alex’s artillery team will be on the front lines, backed up by E Company as infantry. The Nazis have established an elevated line of defense near Belvedere; they will be attacking an SS battalion post. Ensminger speaks calmly, treating the soldiers as equals. It is for this reason that they respect him so much.

In the brief respite before they set off, Alex and Mutt talk about the prospect of going into battle. Alex admits that he is scared and tells Mutt that Frank told him he would not last a minute in battle. Mutt reassures him, saying, “The last I checked, there’s only one Maki brother fighting in this war” (281).

The 442nd Regiment’s advance onto the frontlines is stressful; they are unable to see the enemy, and their artillery cover is delayed by muddy conditions, leaving them unprotected. A German machine gun opens fire, and soldiers start dying all around them. Ensminger shouts to take cover. A nearby soldier’s head explodes, covering Alex in blood. Alex freezes as the others drop to the ground. Mutt fires back at the Germans, and many others follow suit. Some shout to retreat back to the woods, but Ensminger orders them to advance into a wheat field, where they pause, out of the Germans’ line of sight. Mutt radios to Teddy, but the Howitzers will not be ready for another half an hour.

Meanwhile, the Germans begin shelling the wheat field, and Ensminger orders Alex to estimate the enemy’s coordinates. This is the last thing Ensminger ever says to Alex; the captain will die later that day. Alex and Mutt crawl out, and as Alex waits for the flash of German machine guns, he remembers watching Frank on the football field. Alex gives the coordinates to Mutt, who relays them to Teddy. The American Howitzers annihilate the German entrenchments.

Alex’s artillery unit cracks the German defense. The battle was expected to take days, but the 442nd Regiment and the 100th Battalion take the town by midafternoon. The 442nd takes heavy losses, but they kill 178 Germans and capture 86, later earning the Distinguished Unit Citation.

Alex sends a V-mail to Frank on September 2, 1944. Locations and names are blacked out by army censors. He asks about any news about their father and describes the death and destruction he has encountered. Alex also tells Frank about the patriotism that has gradually grown in him, born partially from the patriotism of the Hawaiians in his regiment. He insists Frank would like them.

Alex’s next V-mail is sent from France on October 19. He describes a bloody battle in the Black Mountains. His hatred for the Germans has grown deep; he has lost many fellow soldiers, which feels to him like losing family. He describes how even though they shelled the town into ruin, the locals did not hate them for it; instead, they were glad to be liberated from the Germans. Alex describes looking for Charlie in town, though he knew it was foolish.

The next V-mail is from October 23. Alex describes more death in his regiment. He asks Frank not to tell their mother. He tells of his regiment’s exposure to the freezing rain for 10 days before being withdrawn for relief, but they are being sent back to the front lines. Alex has a bad feeling about the upcoming battle, as if death awaits them. In a postscript, Alex mentions that he has asked Frank to write, but his brother never does.

Alex’s premonition comes true. A white regiment, now known as the Lost Battalion, has been cut off behind enemy lines. The 442nd Regiment does not know that the 2nd and 3rd Battalions have already tried and failed to rescue the Lost Battalion, suffering heavy casualties in the attempt. The Germans are dug in, prepared for a massacre when the 442nd Battalion is sent to help the Lost Battalion. It feels like a trap.

As the battalion moves into the Foret Domaniale De Champ in the freezing rain and mud, they are assaulted by mortar shells and gunfire. The Germans have the high ground, but the battalion advances nonetheless, capturing the Germans’ key positions. Alex, Mutt, and Teddy are still alive at nightfall, although many others have died. They dig a narrow trench and wait out the night. Alex has trench foot, a serious condition. He and Mutt smoke cigarettes, observing a soldier nearby who appears completely hardened to the horror of their situation.

Mutt says that he is glad his girlfriend dumped him. He thinks that he and Alex will eventually become emotionless brutes like the other soldier. Mutt asks Alex how things are with his “girlfriend,” and Alex finally explains the situation to Mutt. He feels as though Charlie, Frank, his parents, and his past life on Bainbridge Island are so remote that they feel unreal. He asks if he is a bad person, and Mutt assures him that he is not.

Alex’s foot is in terrible condition. Mutt offers him a pair of clean, dry socks. General Dahlquist orders the soldiers to advance against the field officers’ better judgment, and they head straight into a German trap. A soldier named Zack is the first to die in the advance, and Alex and the others watch helplessly as he is repeatedly shot, toyed with by German snipers. Teddy fixes his bayonet, leading the charge with a newfound fervor, and is soon shot down, but the others still advance. Alex and Mutt capture machine gun nests. By the end of the charge, they are blood-soaked but alive.

Alex’s unit finds the Lost Battalion the next day, well hidden in the woods. The men are filthy and starved, but their gratitude for the 442nd Regiment overflows. Alex realizes how Frank must feel when he wins football games: popular, heroic, and accepted.

The Lost Battalion sends a message to Dahlquist: “Patrol from 442nd is here. Tell them we love them” (314).

Alex’s unit is ordered to march on, but Alex is sent back for medical treatment for his foot. Mutt carries him piggyback down the mountain. Mutt is upset that they have to leave the corpses of the fallen soldiers behind, and he vows to come back for them. When the field doctors examine Alex, they notice the stench of infection coming from Mutt, whose feet are even worse than Alex’s, and he is placed on medical leave as well.

During the night, Alex hears other soldiers mention that the Germans have rigged the bodies of American soldiers with explosives, but he thinks nothing of it until he notices that Mutt is missing. Alex panics and goes out into the forest to find his friend and warn him, but he is too late to prevent Mutt from trying to retrieve the bodies of fallen soldiers. Mutt moves a corpse and dies in the resulting explosion.

Alex waits in the clearing station for three days until his foot is deemed sufficiently healed. He has become numb to the world since Mutt’s death. The only time he feels any emotion during these three days is when he reads an American newspaper article about the rescue of the Lost Battalion, for despite the heroism of his fellow soldiers, there is absolutely no mention of the vital role that the Japanese Americans of the 442nd Regiment played in the rescue.

After only two days of rest, Major General Dahlquist assembles the survivors of the rescue of the Lost Battalion (a mission now known as “Suicide Hill,”) for a commemoration speech in front of cameras. He is perturbed when he realizes that only 26 soldiers from companies I and K survived. Alex shakes Dahlquist’s hand “only because he is a soldier, only because he has obedience stamped into his bones” (324-25). A somber ceremony is given for the fallen.