If you want to have even more research!fail on the part of the Cap's integrated unit, you need only consider Jim Morita, the nisei soldier from Fresno, CA. Given the timeframe (1942/43) Jim would have to have belonged to the 100th Infantry Battalion, which was (a) composed primarily of members of the Hawaii National Guard and (b) deployed in North Africa/Italy during the early parts of American involvement in the war. So, you know. Not in Germany, not from Fresno. (I'm actually Chinese-American, but the Japanese-American experience during WWII is relevant to my interests.)
I think one thing that would actually shock Steve Rogers would be the change in attitude towards the Chinese and the Japanese. At the time he became a capsicle, the Japanese were still a serious military threat while the Chinese were considered our friends and victims of Japanese aggression (e.g., the rape of Nanking) -- there were even propaganda posters printed out (I can't remember the book I saw this in so I can't cite my source, unfortunately) that purported to teach the American populace how to visually differentiate the Japanese from the Chinese. As a contemporary (if non-American) pop-culture source, consider how the Chinese and Japanese are portrayed in the Tintin comic Adventures of the Blue Lotus (published in both 1936 and 1946 per Wikipedia). I think Steve would be rather bemused to see a reversal of public sentiment regarding the Japanese and Chinese.
On a non-Avengers related note, thank you for this post! I mostly write in a historical fandom as well, but the canon is set in the Wild West (1870 or thereabouts) and I often have moments of extreme angst over the gross inaccuracies in canon regarding cultural mores and ideals as well as in fic. And I'm not even a proper historian!
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Here via...petra, I think
Date: 2012-06-17 07:17 pm (UTC)I think one thing that would actually shock Steve Rogers would be the change in attitude towards the Chinese and the Japanese. At the time he became a capsicle, the Japanese were still a serious military threat while the Chinese were considered our friends and victims of Japanese aggression (e.g., the rape of Nanking) -- there were even propaganda posters printed out (I can't remember the book I saw this in so I can't cite my source, unfortunately) that purported to teach the American populace how to visually differentiate the Japanese from the Chinese. As a contemporary (if non-American) pop-culture source, consider how the Chinese and Japanese are portrayed in the Tintin comic Adventures of the Blue Lotus (published in both 1936 and 1946 per Wikipedia). I think Steve would be rather bemused to see a reversal of public sentiment regarding the Japanese and Chinese.
On a non-Avengers related note, thank you for this post! I mostly write in a historical fandom as well, but the canon is set in the Wild West (1870 or thereabouts) and I often have moments of extreme angst over the gross inaccuracies in canon regarding cultural mores and ideals as well as in fic. And I'm not even a proper historian!