Ronald Takaki, a third generation American of Japanese ancestry, is a professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is an enthusiastic supporter of a multicultural democracy where there will be no racial prejudice, fear of immigrants, racial profiling, or backlash against affirmative action. Takaki believes ethnic people have been left out of our history. That is why he wrote: A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America and Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in World War II.

Many ethnic Americans fought overseas not just to stem the tide of Nazism but to win racial equality at home. Takaki shares the special and often neglected stories of the 442 Battalion of Nisei soldiers, the Tuskegee Pilots, and the Navajo radio messengers. He quotes Herman Melville's observation: "America was settled by peoples of all nations. Spill the blood of an American and you spill the blood of the world."

We can no longer afford to ignore the riches of this country's multicultural heritage. The time has come to reconnect with our founding principles and to celebrate diversity.

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