When Historical Truth is Stranger Than Fiction
When people in the past defy their era stereotypes
Hello from my WWII writing desk,
Summer is in full swing, and I hope you're all enjoying the sun and warm weather. It's certainly making it hard for me to stay at my desk as I just want to be outside all the time.
When I can't resist the good weather, I try to at least be productive and read up on books I collected for research. I read a lot of memoirs and personal accounts of soldiers and people who lived during the war era. It helps me to understand their mindset and get a look at the first-hand experiences in ways that other WWII non-fiction books cannot. Recently, I read the autobiography by Virgil Westdale, a soldier who served with the all-Nisei 442nd Regiment. One thing that fascinated me about him was that he was only half Japanese. His father was a first-generation Japanese immigrant, and his mother was a Caucasian American.
For historical fiction writers, we’re always asking ourselves whether the characters, things, and scenes we’re writing are authentic. Anachronism can really jerk readers out of the story. But what I’ve discovered over and over again is that our perception of people of the past is too limited. We often box them into stereotypes based on a very basic understanding of how things were in the past, and assume they would never behave in ways outside of the boxes we ascribe to them. I often do the same thing too, only to be surprised whenever I learned that people of the past sometimes did think and behave as we do today, and they were not a monolithic group who lived according to the social norms all the time. Many situations that we might think “couldn’t have happened” had always happened throughout human history, because human nature did not change that much.
Take Virgil Westdale’s parents. His mother, Edith Loy, was born in Indiana in 1895. His father, Sunao Nishimura, was born in Japan in 1890, and immigrated to San Francisco in 1906. (Virgil changed his last name after the war.) Later in life, both of them moved to Denver, where they met and married in 1912. Of course, interracial relationships had been happening throughout human history. Still, I’m confounded by how a Caucasian woman like Edith Loy would do something so unusual for her time as to marry a Japanese man. Further, by Virgil’s own account, his father was a very traditional Japanese man who was stoic, aloof to his children, and not very communicative. He wasn’t very Westernized, and Virgil had a strained relationship with him because of that.
And yet, this is what Virgil wrote:
One would think that in those days prejudice against a Japanese man courting a Caucasian woman would have prevented them from making the match, but at least out West that didn’t seem to be the case…Pop’s extended family back in Japan, however, was none too pleased that Pop had married an American, and they promptly disinherited him. He no longer had any contact with anyone from his native country.”
Later on, Virgil discovered letters his father had written to his mother during their courtship, which showed that his father had a softer side. In his autobiography, Virgil included several of these letters. In two of them, his father addressed his wife as “My dear” and “My loving Edith”, and signed “Your darling” and “Your Dear”. Even today, this is almost unbelievable for a Japanese man. Asians traditionally don’t verbally express their affections. Japanese men are generally known to be even less likely to do so.
If I were to write a love story based on Virgil’s parents, it would probably be a very hard sell. To the modern-day audience, a romance story like this in the 1900s would be very far-fetched. Maybe it’s plausible if the story was set in the Far East. But in America? Most would be skeptical. And if the main male character speaks to his lover with tender expressions like Virgil’s father did in his letters to his wife? I suspect the author would get a lot of criticisms that the character is unbelievable.
It is a very common author’s dilemma when truth is stranger than fiction.
Anyway, Virgil Westdale is a very interesting and accomplished man, and a very good writer. Like most WWII veterans, he didn’t talk about his war experience for a very long time. It wasn’t until 1995, when a coworker started asking him about it. I want to share with you this part he wrote:
“Little by little, I opened up to her persuasive probing, and over time it became a little easier to talk about the war. Eventually, I told her about Hill 140 in France, explaining how I was instrumental in killing a large number of Germans in just a couple of minutes with our powerful artillery. Tears poured down my face, and I fought so hard to hold myself together until I finally excused myself. I had had no idea those feelings had been there.”
Virgil’s memoir, Blue Skies and Thunder, was published in 2009. After I read it, I couldn’t help but search for him on Facebook to see if I may reach out to him. Alas, he passed away in February 2022! I just missed him.
If you would like to hear his story, his memoir is available on Amazon.
Have a great summer and till next time,
Alexa Kang
Summer Read
What are you reading this summer? If you’re looking for a new WWII novel to add to your reading list, my friend Eoin Dempsey’s new book, The Grand Illusion, is out. This novel is the fourth book in his Lion’s Den series. Eoin’s books are always riveting and full of acting. I highly recommend this.
Backstage
Backstage is a supplemental newsletter I publish in which I share historical events, people, things, and inspirations for my novels. Here’s the latest one I wrote about 1940s swimming suits and cars.
If you wish to receive Backstage directly in your inbox when it is published, you can login to Substack to manage your subscription, and check the box to subscribe to Backstage.
*Last time, some of you alerted me that you weren’t able to comment due to a glitch. The glitch is fixed now. Feel free to leave me a comment and I’d love to hear from you.
Wow, what a story! Thanks for sharing!
Your discussion of the mixed marriage of Virgil Westdale's parents reminds me of my family history. My maternal grandfather was a Mexican American, born in Arizona: his parents were Hispanos whose ancestors had lived in New Mexico for generations. His wife, my maternal grandmother, was born in Oklahoma and of predominantly Scots-Irish descent. They married in the early 1930s in Arizona. My mother told me once that my grandparents met because my grandmother's brother was a co-worker of my grandfather. I wonder just how common Anglo-Latino marriages were in the 1930s Southwest. Although Latino phenotypes differ vastly, my grandfather had a mestizo appearance and my grandmother had light brown hair and blue eyes. Also, I wonder exactly how my grandparents managed the religious difference, although my mother was raised Methodist and not Catholic. My grandparents stayed together till my grandfather died in 1971, although the death of their only son in 1948 was a blow to them.
My mother has mentioned that she did not face discrimination as a girl (I suspect at least partly because she has a pale complexion, with a tendency to freckle), although she changed her name when she came to Southern California in her early twenties. Also, I wonder whether she chose to marry my father not only because he had a slight resemblance to her favorite actor, Jeff Chandler (my father and Jeff Chandler both had prematurely grey curly hair), but also because he had a resonant French (well, Prince Edward Island Acadian) surname.
After I finish my current WIP (an alternate history novel set in the world of British politics from 1912 to 1948: the point of divergence from our historical timeline is in May 1915 and the repercussions from the point of divergence include an early end to the Great War and no World War II), I would like to write a novel inspired by my mother's youth, growing up with four sisters, a Latino father, and an Anglo mother, in a small town in 1950s northern Arizona while dealing with the aftermath of her brother's death. I have a provisional title for the novel: *The Vargas Girls*. (No, my characters are not depicted in scanty negligees: it is a play on words. My mother's actual maiden name was Garcia.)
Anyway, please excuse my lengthy digression! I enjoyed your post very much and I intend to read *Blue Skies and Thunder* soon. Thank you very much!