Murphy's War, ISBN: 1-4241-3781-0

Happy day, my latest novel, Murphy’s War, ISBN: 1-4241-3781-0, is available for order from the online bookstore of Publish America. Visit www.publishamerica.com and click on the bookstore icon and type in my name, William Brennan or the title and you’ll see the new baby ready for your adoption.

The book is also listed on Amazon and the image of the cover can be expanded and viewed there. Unfortunately, it is not yet available for sale there, and the prices of those dealers promising early delivery are very high. The initial sales price offered by Publish America is below that which will be charged on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in bookstores; it is really good to go. It may be a few weeks before Publish America can gear up to print and deliver but, guaranteed, it will be worth the short wait.

Murphy’s War is a completely fresh view of the internment of Japanese people living in the Western States during the early months of World War II. The story is unique in that it describes the horrible program from the point of view of government bureaucrats charged with implementing the effort rather than that of the victims. It is a character driven story that examines the life of Thomas Murphy who while coming of age becomes embroiled in this most controversial of programs.

Murphy, a Massachusetts native, is inspired by campaign appearances by Franklin Roosevelt to become one of the president’s `Whiz Kids’. Despite the remoteness of his goal, Murphy becomes a lawyer and obtains a reserve commission in the Judge Advocate General Corps of the Army.

In 1941, Tom is assigned to the Office of the Provost Marshall General – the military police – in Washington, DC and prepares to settle into the routine life of a young army attorney. But immediately he becomes involved in an interagency task force charged with identifying German, Italian and Japanese ethnics suspected of having ties with potential national enemies of the U.S. The task force is developing plans to intern these people should hostilities break out.

Soon after Pearl Harbor, the trap of the interment program is sprung on the task force, and the Provost Marshall General becomes one of the most rabid advocates of removing all ethnic Japanese from the West Coast. Both Tom and Sid Frank, his associate, are appalled. Frank argues so forcefully that he is transferred to the Pacific. Murphy, while suspected of treachery by his superiors, is thought to have been cowed into compliance with the office’s position.

Murphy visits one of the collecting camps in California and is shocked by the conditions. He makes his concerns known and a descending spiral in relations with his superiors begins. He is counseled and once more sent to west where he visits one of the most famous camps, Manzanar. While there, he innocently violates an order to not interact with the Japanese and is horrified by the internment. He is confronted by important army supporters of the program on the West Coast and threatened with court martial for his transgression.

Surprisingly, the reaction back in Washington is quite the opposite and Murphy is courted rather than punished, and he is ordered to give a presentation to key War Department officials on his observations on the West Coast. He protests that he will be unable to make his report on Western military preparations without describing his views on the internment. Every effort is made to browbeat him into making the report, but they come to believe that he is not trustworthy, and Murphy, too, is summarily exiled to the Pacific.

Justice Department officials who served on the task force with Murphy intervene on his behalf. En route, his orders are changed and he is ordered to Hawaii where he is assigned to the Territory’s military district. Delos Emmons, the Commanding General, is one of the true unsung heroes of the internment who has been fighting the notion that all ethnic Japanese should be removed from Hawaii and interned with their mainland counterparts.

In the months following the decisive naval Battle of Midway in June 1942 it becomes increasingly clear that Japanese forces will never be able to mount an attack on the U.S. West Coast and whatever weak intellectual underpinnings for the internment existed after the attack on Pearl Harbor become completely unreasonable and the program is obviously no longer tenable.

Forces opposed to the program ascend within the government and hard line supporters of the program are reassigned. Murphy follows his commanders from Hawaii to California where they assist in dismantling the program. Tom visits Manzanar again. He finds a completely different climate and rides back in a train to San Francisco with a man with whom he interacted during his initial visit. Tom is shocked into awareness that even though the Japanese are being allowed to return home their problems are far from over.

Murphy is sent to Washington to participate in a conference about the end of the program. On the way, he takes home leave and the dilemmas in his personal life are shakily resolved. During the conference, President Roosevelt dies and his role in the internment is considered. The war is winding down, and Murphy’s role in the main plot is resolved.

The secondary plot of his personal life runs in parallel with the primary story. As the book closes, Tom’s future, like most soon to be veterans, is bright, but in the end the reality is that he is a far less dashing figure than he perceived himself to be when the adventure began four years earlier. While changed by his experiences in this sad chapter in American history, Murphy can be seen to be influenced to act morally by the positive echoes of American Transcendentalism that are quietly evident throughout the novel and which have trickled into mainstream Irish American thought over the previous century.

Murphy’s War examines the actions of many of the historic characters involved in this sad episode and praise and blame are apportioned. The casual racial and ethnic prejudices in wartime America are clearly shown, and, for the first time, the reader can see how this travesty came about and how a small group of mean spirited but adroit people acting under cover of national hysteria can precipitate reprehensible actions that would be otherwise unthinkable.

I hope the story sounds intriguing. It was fun to research and is an easy read.

I haven’t advertised anything on this site until today. But today’s the day!

Read Murphy’s War. You’ll be glad you did, so will Wild Bill.

Blog on!

Wild Bill