First profiled is Shiro Kashino's experiences. He was born in 1922 in Seattle, Washington, the sixth child of Bujinosuke Kashino and Hatsume Oda. His family had lived in Denver, Colorado but moved to Seattle. Shiro was raised by his older siblings from the age of thirteen, after the deaths of his mother in 1934 and his father in 1935.
A good athlete, Shiro received a football scholarship to Willamette University in Oregon but he never attended. Shiro delayed attending to work and earn money first and then Pear Harbor happened. Shiro ended up at Minidoka War Relocation Center in Idaho. He volunteered for the 442 RCT in 1943 and "fought in all the major battles of the European campaigns."
The second profile is of Frank Nishimura who was born in 1924 in Seattle, Washington to Ritoji and Kiku Nishimura. Frank had five older siblings: Toshimi, Shizuko, Hiromi, Yuki and Toyo. HIs parents brought and sold hotels through a Jewish attorney as Japanese nationals could not purchase land in Washington state.
Frank attended Cascade and Bailey Gatzert School. Like many Japanese children he attended the Japanese Community Language School after regular school. In the fall of 1938, he was enrolled at Broadway High School. Frank was a newspaper carrier for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He delivered papers in his 1937 Plymouth automobile that he had purchased used.
Life was carefree and good for Frank and his friends: they went to various beaches to clam and picnic. They also attended the annual Japanese Community Day at Seattle's Playland Amusement Park. But life took a drastic change on December 7, 1941.
Jimmie Kanaya was born on October 3, 1920 to parents who were farmers in Clackamas, Oregon. He enlisted in the U.S. Army when he was twenty-years-old and became a medic. In 1942 when Japanese and Japanese-Americans were sent to concentrations camps, Jimmie accompanied his family to the temporary detention center, Portland Assembly Center. However, because he was in his U.S. Army uniform, he wasn't allowed in with his parents, brother and sister.
He was stationed at Camp Crowder upon completing his medic training, then transferred to Camp Shelby in Mississippi. From there Jimmie was assigned as a medic to the all Japanese-American 442 RCT. As part of the 34th Infantry Division, Jimmie saw action in Italy and then in France with the 36th Infantry Division. He was captured by the Germans in the Vosges Mountains while attempting to evacuate wounded soldiers. Jimmie was taken to a prisoner of war camp for officers, Oflag 64 which was located in Szubin, Poland. When the Red Army occupied Poland and German forces fled, Jimmie and the other prisoners were marched four hundred miles to Hammelburg, Germany and another camp. The death march was done in subzero temperatures in deep snow.
The fourth profile is that of Roy Hiroshi Matsumoto who served with the 5307th Composite Unit in Burma as a Military Intelligence Service language interpreter. This unit was nicknamed Merrill's Marauders after Brigadier General Frank Merrill.
Roy was born in Laguna, California on May 1, 1913. He was sent to Hiroshima, Japan to attend Japanese school when he was eight-years-old. When Roy was seventeen, he and his brother returned to the United States while his parents and family remained in Japan. After graduating from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in 1933, Roy worked at a Japanese grocery stroy where he learned many different Japanese dialects.
Roy was born in Laguna, California on May 1, 1913. He was sent to Hiroshima, Japan to attend Japanese school when he was eight-years-old. When Roy was seventeen, he and his brother returned to the United States while his parents and family remained in Japan. After graduating from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in 1933, Roy worked at a Japanese grocery stroy where he learned many different Japanese dialects.
After Pearl Harbor, Roy was sent to the concentration camp at Jerome, Arkansas. He volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army as a Japanese language specialist. Merrill's Marauders was tasked with opening the Burma Road connecting India and China.
Tosh Yasutake's father Jack left Japan in 1907 when he was sixteen-years-old to live in San Francisco. He did not wish to be a farmer like his father. Jack attended high school and then Stanford University studying engineering. He left his university studies in the U.S. travelling to Japan to marry Hideko Shiraki in 1918, and returning to the States after the marriage where he was hired as a translator for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Their first son, Seiichi, was born in 1920. Tosh was the second oldest of four boys: he was born in 1922, followed by his brother Mitsuye born a year later in Japan and the youngest brother Joe who was born in 1932.
Tosh Yasutake's father Jack left Japan in 1907 when he was sixteen-years-old to live in San Francisco. He did not wish to be a farmer like his father. Jack attended high school and then Stanford University studying engineering. He left his university studies in the U.S. travelling to Japan to marry Hideko Shiraki in 1918, and returning to the States after the marriage where he was hired as a translator for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Their first son, Seiichi, was born in 1920. Tosh was the second oldest of four boys: he was born in 1922, followed by his brother Mitsuye born a year later in Japan and the youngest brother Joe who was born in 1932.
Because Jack and Hideko were Japanese Nationals, they were not allowed by law to purchase land in Washington State, so they had an INS secretary do so for them. Tosh attended Beacon Hill School, then Cleveland High School and was studying science at the University of Washington when Pear Harbor happened in December of 1941. The very next day, FBI agents came to the Yasutake home for Jack who was not at home. Jack was arrested at the Japanese poetry club meeting he was attending and incarcerated in various concentrations camps. At this time Tosh left his studies at the university.
The entire family including Jack were incarcerated at Minidoka War Relocation Center concentration camp. In April, 1942, Tosh and his siblings along with their mother Hideko were taken from the Seattle area to the WCCA Puyallup Assembly Center.
Teruyuki "Turk" Suzuki was born in 1923. Unlike the other Nisei profiled in Fighting for America, both his parents were college graduates and Christians educated in Japan. Turk's father had also served in the Japanese Navy prior to the war. The Suzuki's immigrated to Seattle and operated a hotel called the Spring Lodge Hotel located near the downtown library. Turk and his friends loved to play in the area.
Teruyuki got his nickname from a good friend, Willie who could not pronounce his name. Turk's four siblings were also given American names when they entered school. All the Suzuki children walked to Baily Gatzert School located east of Japantown.
Even though Turk's parents could not become American citizens (this wasn't possible until 1952), his father stressed to him that he was an American citizen. Like Tosh's father Jack, Turk's father was also arrested after Pearl Harbor and taken to the INS building. And like Turk, Tosh also joined the 442nd all Japanese-American RCT.
Discussion
Fighting For America is an intimate look at the war from the perspective of six Japanese American soldiers and their families. Fighting For America is divided into six chapters, each featuring the biography of one of six Nisei soldiers. What started as a graphic novel on Nisei veteran Shiro Kashino, quickly expanded into a project that included the "personal war accounts of other Nisei veterans Frank Nishimura, Jimmie Kanaya, Turk Suzuki, Roy Matsumoto, and Tosh Yasutake." Each chapter begins with an Introduction, followed by a series of graphic novel panels detailing some aspect of each soldier's life based on their personal experiences and closing with an Epilogue about their life in the post-war period as well as photographs of the men . Each account tells of the incarceration of their families and their combat experiences as part of the most decorated unit for their size in U.S. history.
In the Introduction, author Lawrence Matsuda writes, "Approximately 14,000 Nisei or second generation Japanese Americans fought as members of the 442 Regimental Combat Team (RCT) during World War II against Germany and Italy. The 442 RCT consisted of three infantry battalions (originally 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions, 442 Infantry, and later the 100th Infantry Battalion in place of the 1st.), the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, the 232 Engineer Company, an anti-tank company, cannon company, service company, medical detachment, headquarters companies, and the 206 Army Band."
In the Introduction, author Lawrence Matsuda writes, "Approximately 14,000 Nisei or second generation Japanese Americans fought as members of the 442 Regimental Combat Team (RCT) during World War II against Germany and Italy. The 442 RCT consisted of three infantry battalions (originally 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions, 442 Infantry, and later the 100th Infantry Battalion in place of the 1st.), the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, the 232 Engineer Company, an anti-tank company, cannon company, service company, medical detachment, headquarters companies, and the 206 Army Band."
For the six men profiled in Fighting For America, life as teenagers and young adults was filled with school, sports and jobs. However, their parents bore the brunt of the discrimination so common at that time: they could not become American citizens and couldn't own property. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, life changed quickly and drastically: fathers were jailed, they lost their homes, businesses and possessions, school ended and they were forced into concentration camps with guards and barbed wire.
Nisei volunteered from the mainland United States and Hawai'i. Most from the mainland volunteered after being incarcerated in concentration camps. They would go on to fight in France, liberating towns and in Italy overtaking German positions blocking the Allies path into Europe. That the Nisei would volunteer to fight for a country that treated them and their families so terribly is all the more remarkable and reflects the loyalty, patriotism, and bravery of these men and their families. As Matsuda writes in his Foreword, "The story must never be forgotten for it was their heroics that opened the doors for future generations of Japanese Americans."
Despite their tremendous personal sacrifices and patriotism for their country, many Nisei continued to experience discrimination and prejudice in the post-war period. Frank Nishimura found it difficult to purchase a home and was told he would never be hired as a welder. Shiro Kashino was certified in refrigeration and air conditioning but faced discrimination from unions in Seattle. Despite this climate of systemic racism, all six men made significant contributions to America. Turk Suzuki had a long career as an engineer and Tosh Yasutake had a distinguished career as a fish histologist. Jimmie Kanaya had a long army career reaching the rank of colonel while Roy Matsumoto became a career Army soldier. Frank Nishimura was an amazing scoutmaster and a postal worker, while Shiro Kashino worked for forty-four years in the automotive industry.
The artwork of illustrator Matt Sasaki ably portrays the many emotions of the events experienced by the soldiers and their families, whether it be the fear and worry of impending incarceration, the joy of being with family. the desolation and anger at the lost of friends and comrades, or the terror and violence of combat.
Fighting For America serves to remind readers that the experiences of Nisei and their families during World War II demonstrate the incredible patriotism, loyalty, and self-sacrifice made for the country that treated them so badly. It also highlights the forgiveness, industriousness, humility and charity they offered the American people, in spite of that discrimination.
Book Details:
Fighting For America: Nisei Soldiers by Lawrence Matsuda
Seattle: Chin Music Press 2023
167 pp.
Fighting For America: Nisei Soldiers by Lawrence Matsuda
Seattle: Chin Music Press 2023
167 pp.
No comments:
Post a Comment