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Red Arrow across the Pacific
The Thirty-Second Infantry Division during World War II
Mark D. Van Ells
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2024
The history of combat and culture in a celebrated National Guard unit from the Midwest 

Red Arrow across the Pacific reveals the long-overdue story of the Thirty-Second “Red Arrow” Infantry Division and the crucial role it played in the Pacific during World War II. Discover how this National Guard unit from Wisconsin and Michigan became one of the first US military units deployed overseas in World War II, eventually logging more combat hours than any other US Army division.

Far more than a traditional battle narrative, Red Arrow across the Pacific offers a cultural history of the Red Arrow’s wartime experience, from its mobilization in 1940, to its deployment across New Guinea, Australia, and the Philippines, to its postwar occupation of Japan. Drawing from letters, memoirs, and interviews, author Mark D. Van Ells lets the soldiers speak for themselves, describing in their own words the terror of combat, their impressions of foreign lands, the struggle to maintain their own humanity, and the many ways the war profoundly changed them.

Nuanced and remarkably thorough, this book explores the dramatic evolution of the Thirty-Second Infantry Division and reveals how the story of the Red Arrow reflects the experience of the US military during World War II.
 
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front cover of Hmong in Wisconsin
Hmong in Wisconsin
Mai Zong Vue
Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2020
Unknown to many Americans at the time, the Hmong helped the US government fight Communists in Laos during the Secret War of the 1960s and 1970s, a parallel conflict to the Vietnam War. When Saigon fell and allies withdrew, the surviving Hmong fled for their lives, spending years in Thai refugee camps before being relocated to the United States and other countries.

Many of these families found homes in Wisconsin, which now has the third largest Hmong population in the country, following California and Minnesota. As one of the most recent cultural groups to arrive in the Badger State, the Hmong have worked hard to establish a new life here, building support systems to preserve traditions and to help one another as they enrolled in schools, started businesses, and strived for independence. 

Told with a mixture of scholarly research, interviews, and personal experience of the author, this latest addition to the popular People of Wisconsin series shares the Hmong’s varied stories of survival and hope as they have become an important part of Wisconsin communities.

 
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