Lifting Their Voices
By ELLEN ENDO
Rafu Managing Editor
Saturday, Nov. 25, 2006

Daniel Inouye salutes fellow WWII Nisei veterans at Evening of Aloha.

Photo courtesy of Go For Broke Educational Foundation
Nisei veterans ascended the stage to sing the song that  helped galvanize their spirit during World War II at the the Go For Broke Educational Foundation’s Evening of Aloha held Nov. 11 in Anaheim. Pictured  are Robert Ichikawa, left, (442nd Regimental Combat Team),  Sam Fujikawa (100th Battalion), Henry Ikemoto (442nd), Ted Ohira (442nd), Victor Abe (Military Intelligence Service),  and Frank Fukuzawa (442nd).

Himself a recipient of the Media of Honor for heroism, Inouye reached back 60 years to the days following the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, and his comments soon became more personal.

“When we arrived in Mississippi and got with our ‘kotonk’ (Mainlander) buddies, they were speaking English, and we were speaking…the way Hawaii boys talk,” Inouye remembered.  The two groups of trainees couldn’t understand each other. The mainland Nisei made fun of the way the Hawaii Nisei spoke, and this led to arguments and fistfights.

According to Inouye, the Army commanders worried: “How could these men go into battle together when they’re so bitterly divided?” The officers tried everything from discussion groups to seminars, but nothing worked. “Then one day, 10 men from each company were selected to go on a trip,” Inouye said. Nearly all of those selected were from Hawaii and considered the most outspoken. 

“We dressed in clean clothes, put on after-shave and took our ukuleles. We sang all the way (on the bus ride).  As we arrived at Rohwer (Arkansas), we were greeted by men carrying rifles and bayonets. It suddenly occurred to us that this was a prison,” the senator recalls. “We from Hawaii had no idea about internment camps.”

The realization that the Nisei had volunteered for the Army even as their families were being held in concentration camps stunned the Hawaii soldiers and made a deep impression. The bus ride back to the Army base was nearly silent. “The following day, the (442nd) Regiment was formed,” Inouye said. 

“Looking back, I would like to be able to say that under the same circumstance, I would have (volunteered), too. But I don’t know that I would have.” 

Inouye continued, “We hope we were able to leave a legacy of honor for others to follow.”

Ironically, Executive Order 9066, which in February 1942 ordered the removal of 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, most of them from the West Coast, has come to be regarded as an unfortunate episode—America’s shame. The achievements of the 100nd/442nd Regimental Combat Team, 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, and Military Intelligence Service have been hailed as America’s pride.

Highlighting an evening filled with nostalgia and appreciation was a video
tribute created by Doug Urata and Alice Roe Urata honoring GFB founder,
the late Col. Young Oak Kim.  A video by Media Portfolio saluting the 21
Congressional Medal of Honor winners rounded out the program.

Former Nisei Week queen Nikki Kodama, granddaughter of Buddy Mamiya, also an early GFB leader, appealed for monetary support of the organization’s Hanashi Oral History program.  The program is in a race against time to capture as many of the veterans’ stories on film before they pass on.  The organization has already recorded over 700 oral histories to date and hopes to increase that number to 1,200 during the next four years.  

Stephen Kagawa chaired the dinner, and Christine Sato-Yamazaki is president and executive director of the GFB National Education Center.  Makaha and Sons and the Keali’I O Nalani dancers provided the entertainment along with the 100/442/MIS Veteran Singers.
Emcee Gordon Tokumatsu, NBC4 newsman and a Hawaii native, exclaimed, “I can’t think of better way to spend Veterans Day.”