Asian American Spies
How Asian Americans Helped Win the Allied Victory
Brian Masaru Hayashi
Reviews and Awards
"By making extensive use of the personnel files of the World War II–era Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA, Hayashi provides remarkable insight into how the intelligence agency used Asian Americans in the fight against Japan." -- Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs
"Spies, triple agents, a Chinese American James Bond, Asian American Special Ops, and the paradoxical role of race in US wartime espionage—Hayashi's pioneering study is a real page-turner full of surprises!" -- Gordon H. Chang, author of Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad
"Asian American Spies offers new and important insights on US intelligence in the Pacific War. Exploring the role of a range of fascinating figures serving in the Office of Strategic Services, it reshapes our ideas about the intersection of ethnicity and espionage during this historic conflict. Readable, fabulously researched, and full of remarkable new stories, this book is a masterpiece and should be read by anyone interested in the rise of American intelligence during the twentieth century." -- Richard J. Aldrich, University of Warwick
"A rare study of how wartime necessity to fight an Asian enemy prompted the Office of Strategic Services to recruit skilled Asian Americans. It demonstrates that such wartime expediency enhanced racial diversity in the federal service, but also posed serious challenges to loyalty, citizenship, internal security, and ultimately what it means to be 'American.'" -- Miles M. Yu, United States Naval Academy
"The book focuses on many individual stories, and in doing so, it raises interesting questions of race, gender, loyalty, and treachery." --Foreign Affairs
