442nd Soldiers Are Avid Readers

The reading habits of Japanese American troops in combat-team training at Camp Shelby indicate a fondness for books on American history and biography, technical subjects and social sciences, according to Miss Mattie Swearingen, librarian at the Service Club No. 3, which is well patronized by the Japanese Americans.

Many books on Japan are available at the library but so far not a single one has been taken out by the soldiers of Japanese ancestry who come from Hawaii and Relocation Centers on the mainland.

Berlin Diary and Guadalcanal Diary are popular and biographies of General MacArthur and Abraham Lincoln are constantly sought, Miss Swearingen says. In the technical field, books on preliminary flight training, medical aid and care and maintenance of motors are avidly read. One soldier drew “The Boiler Operators’ Guide” for seven days.

Some of the boys go in for heavier stuff such as The Art of Thinking, The Story of Philosophy and Prolegomena to Ethics.

Newspapers from Hawaii are in demand but so far the library has none on file. Subscriptions to the feeding island papers may be taken out later. In the meantime all the newspapers and news magazines available received the closest attention as the boys seek out the latest developments and comment on the situation.

Many of the soldiers, particularly those from Hawaii, are puzzled by the lack of wild flowers in nearby areas. They believe that with a climate as warm as Mississippi's there should be a profusion of flowers in evidence, as there is in Hawaii. Questions along the line are asked at the library and several have taken out books trying to solve the floral mystery of Mississippi. The librarian had high praise for the conduct of the boys. “I have never seen a more orderly group in soldier reading rooms,” said Miss Swearingen. “They really set an example to the others.”