Daniel James Brown Wins Christopher Award for "Facing the Mountain"

Redmond, Wash.-based author Daniel James Brown was honored with a Christopher Award for his book Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II (Viking/Penguin Random House.). It is one of 12 books for adults and young people recognized as the #ChristopherAwards mark their 73rd year. The authors join writers, producers and directors of 10 winning TV/cable and feature films.

The book revisits the heroism of Japanese Americans who fought for the U.S. during World War II, while their families at home faced unjust persecution and government internment camps following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In the days and months after Pearl Harbor, the lives of Japanese Americans across the continent and Hawaii were changed forever. Brown portrays the journey of Rudy Tokiwa, Fred Shiosaki, and Kats Miho, who volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and were deployed to France, Germany, and Italy, where they were asked to do the near impossible. He also tells the story of these soldiers’ parents, immigrants who were forced to submit to life in concentration camps on U.S. soil.

Woven throughout is the chronicle of Gordon Hirabayashi, one of a cadre of patriotic resisters who stood up against their government in defense of their own rights. Whether fighting on battlefields or in courtrooms, these were Americans under unprecedented strain, doing what Americans do best—striving, resisting, pushing back, rising up, standing on principle, laying down their lives, and enduring.

Brown is the author of The Indifferent Stars Above and Under a Flaming Sky, which was a finalist for the B&N Discover Great New Writers Award, as well as The Boys in the Boat, a New York Times bestselling book that was awarded the ALA’s Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. He has taught writing at San José State University and Stanford University.

The celebrated authors, illustrators, writers, producers, and directors, whose works exemplify this Chinese proverb “It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness,” also “affirm the highest values of the human spirit,” said Tony Rossi, The Christophers’ Director of Communications. “After the hardships and suffering we’ve witnessed and endured in the last two years, we need stories of hope, light, and unity to lift our spirits and guide us toward a brighter path,” he said.

The Christophers, a nonprofit founded in 1945 by Maryknoll Father James Keller, is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition of service to God and humanity. The ancient Chinese proverb—“It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness”— guides its publishing, radio, and awards programs. More information about The Christophers is available at www.christophers.org.