Honolulu Record, August 26, 1948, vol. 1 no. 4, p. 7
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By Rolf Martin
(Harper & Brothers)
In Hershey, Nebraska, where he was born and raised on his father's farm, Ben Kuroki was just another American boy, sharing the lives and boyish pranks of his playmates, entirely unaware that he was in any way different because his skin was brown and his eyes were narrow.
Then the war came and Ben discovered a new America in which there were many people possessed of a cruelty that burned into his soul like a branding iron. From that time on Ben Kuroki had two wars to fight, one for his country and one against man's inhumanity to man.
After heartbreaking delays and run-arounds, Ben was at last accepted into the army and eventually into the Air Corps and sent to Europe to fight as a gunner/Then the long, slow climb to recognition; the many nights he stayed in camp in solitary loneliness while the rest of the crew went out to celebrate, because he could not face the contemptuous glances and remarks.
The train trip where the click of the wheels beat a refrain to the words that a man in Denver had spoken . . . lousy Jap . . . lousy Jap . . . lousy Jap . . .
The gradual understanding and comraderie of his crew; the first time someone called him "Honorable Son," the nickname that was to be written on the tail of his plane along with the others. . . . Then the completion of his 25 missions—medals, the distinguished service cross. The incredulity of the others when he asked the colonel to allow him to make five more missions.
His luck held and the 30 missions were finished and he was home at last. They were treating him like a hero. He was to be on the Ginny Simms program and was having supper with her at the Brown Derby, with movie stars all around. Back at the radio station something had gone wrong. Somebody in the executive department had the bright idea that the Japanese American question was too controversial. Ben came stumbling out to his pals, white-faced: "They wouldn't let me on because I'm a Jap. . . ."
He wanted to cancel a speech before San Francisco's exclusive Commonwealth Club but was told that he could not, all arrangements had been made. Ben saw a headline in a Hearst paper, "Jap to address S. F. Club . . ." Not American but Jap . . . Jap . . . Jap . . .
At the close of the address businessmen crowded around to shake his hand and letters poured in for days afterwards, some from the other side of the world. But Ben was not through. He would go to the Pacific theater and prove his Americanism. After another long fight that had to be taken to Secretary of War Stimson himself, Ben won again and was the first Nisei to go into combat in the Pacific, where he fought until the end of the war, making in all 58 missions.
Back in San Francisco Ben was told to report to General Marshall in New York at once. Filled with bewilderment he flew to New York. Dirty, unshaven and with the mould of the Pacific still on his shoes, he was met at the airport by a chauffeur and driven to the Waldorf Astoria where he was taken to Mrs. Ogden Reid who told him they wanted him to speak at the annual Herald Tribune Forum.
Two days later he found himself on a platform with General Marshall, Chennault, Capt. Harold Stassen and, beside him, General Wainwright.
When it was over and the applause kept on and on, he felt a hand gently squeeze his arm and turned to see General Wainwright grinning at him.
On a radio program for Town Hall Ben Kuroki said: "The enemy is Fascism, whether it's in Germany or a Congressman from Mississippi. . . ."
In an address to Hershey High School he said: "I find prejudice once again directed at me, and neither my uniform nor my medals have been able to stop it. I don't know for sure that it's safe for me to walk the streets in some parts of my own country."
The war will not be over for Ben Kuroki until prejudice and bigotry are wiped from the face of the country he fought for so valiantly. —A.K.