Japanese American Veterans Association
@javapotomacThe Japanese American Veterans' Association, Inc. (JAVA), is a fraternal and educational organization with many purposes: Preserving and strengthening comradeship among its members; Perpetuating the memory and history of our departed comrades; Educating the American public on the Japanese American experience during WWII; and Striving to obtain for veterans the full benefit of their entitlements as veterans.
Updated Janurary 2019
Stories from This Author
Nisei Role as America’s “Eyes and Ears” Against Japan During War II and as a “Bridge” Between the Two Nations During the Occupation - Part 2
June 24, 2021 • Japanese American Veterans Association
Read Part 1 >> South Pacific Area Commanded by Admiral William Halsey, combat was centered on Guadalcanal, Bougainville and other parts of the Solomon Islands. Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti and New Caledonia, which were not occupied by Japan, served as Allied support bases. The following is an example of a skilled interrogator, Roy T. Uyehata, Gilroy, CA, as described by Dr. Stanley L. Falk and Dr. Warren M. Tsuneishi, MIS in the War Against Japan. In February 1944, the U.S. 37th …
Nisei Role as America’s “Eyes and Ears” Against Japan During War II and as a “Bridge” Between the Two Nations During the Occupation - Part 1
June 23, 2021 • Japanese American Veterans Association
Washington, D.C.—When World War II began, the U.S. government and many Americans viewed all ethnic Japanese as potentially disloyal and collaborators of Imperial Japan. The War Department stopped enlisting Nisei and forcibly placed 110,000 ethnic Japanese residing along the Pacific Coast in internment camps guarded by sentries on the ground and from guard towers with machine guns. The Department of Justice and FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, concluded mass internment was not necessary. Army, Navy and FBI intelligence penetration of …
Caucasian Officers’ Role as leaders of MIS Teams assigned to the Asia Pacific Theater During WW II
Feb. 28, 2020 • Japanese American Veterans Association
Washington, DC. “What are those two goddam Japs doing here? Shoot ‘em.” Someone said, “No, they’re good Japs, working for us. Well, shoot ‘em anyway.” The conversation occurred in 1942 in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, at XIV Corps, as Military Intelligence Service (MIS) linguists Shigeru Yamashita and Isao Kusuda walked by; American commanders as well as soldiers questioned the loyalty of Nisei and did not want them around. A major task of Caucasian MIS Team Leaders, with varying Japanese language skills, …
Nikkei Serve their Nation in all Wars since the Spanish American War; Filipinos and Chinese Preceded Japanese
Dec. 11, 2019 • Japanese American Veterans Association
Washington, DC. Nobuteru Harry Sumida, a Nisei, and eight Japanese nationals who enlisted in the US Navy as seamen were the first Nikkei to serve in the US armed forces. The men all served in the Spanish American War of 1898, when the US declared war on Spain, resulting in US acquisition of Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico, and removal of Spain as a Caribbean power. They were followed by Kenji Inomata, a Japanese national who joined the US Navy …
Twelve Nisei Sank with USS Royal T. Frank Torpedoed by Japanese Submarine — Eight Nisei Survivors Also Survived Combat with 100th
Nov. 27, 2019 • Japanese American Veterans Association
Eight Nisei were saved and 12 were killed when a Japanese submarine torpedoed a US Army transport near Maui, Hawaii, on January 28, 1942, just seven months after the Pearl Harbor attack. A few months later the eight Nisei joined the 100th Infantry Battalion and miraculously survived nearly two years of combat in Europe. The 20 Nisei were among the 60 men aboard the USS Royal T. Frank, which transported military personnel, equipment and ammunition to the various islands of …
The Origin of the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate)
Aug. 9, 2019 • Japanese American Veterans Association
Five thousand Japanese Americans were in the US Army when WW II began on December 7, 1941. LTG John DeWitt, Military Governor of America’s Pacific coast, who questioned the loyalty of all ethnic Japanese, unilaterally discharged the Nisei in his zone and many went to internment camps with their families. In Hawaii, 1,432 Nisei were soldiers in the 298th and 299th Regiments of the Hawaii National Guard, which were comprised of all ethnic groups. Because the Nisei were viewed as …
Over 800 Immigrant Japanese and Nisei Served in US Army during World War I. Road to Gain Citizenship was Long and Arduous
June 3, 2019 • Japanese American Veterans Association
Washington, DC. The military record of Japanese Americans who served during and since World War II is well documented and known. However, the role of ethnic Japanese in the military prior to the Second World War and their quest for naturalization has received scant publicity. Nine Japanese immigrants served in the US Maine which sank in the harbor at Havana, Cuba, in 1898 during the Spanish American War. All of them, who had served as mess attendants, steerage cooks, warrant …
MIS Members with Brothers Serving in Japanese Imperial Forces during WW II
May 22, 2019 • Japanese American Veterans Association
Nisei soldiers in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) served in the Asia Pacific war zone as interrogators of Japanese prisoners of war, they entered caves to persuade Japanese soldiers to surrender, they were in the Special Forces working behind enemy lines, and they were in the first or second wave of the Marines or infantry invasion forces. All these duties brought the Nisei in close proximity to Japanese soldiers alive and dead. Many of these Nisei had siblings who were …
Nisei Heroism in the Korean War - Gene Takahashi
April 26, 2019 • Japanese American Veterans Association
Westport, Conn.—David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize winning author of the Best and the Brightest, wrote the Coldest Winter, a story of the Korean War. He was highly impressed by his interview of Gene Takahashi, a platoon leader in the Korean War and later in life an executive of International Business Machines (IBM). Halberstam said Takahashi “is a wonderful man who should be celebrated.” Takahashi and his family were incarcerated in an internment camp during WW II and subsequently settled in …
Bob Hoichi Kubo, Recipient of DSC, Profile of a Hero
Jan. 2, 2019 • Japanese American Veterans Association
Japanese Americans helped to win the War in Europe and the Asia Pacific and to prove their loyalty, which our nation had questioned. Also, timely tactical intelligence provided by Nisei linguists in the Pacific to infantry and marine commanders during combat saved countless American lives. Many combat medals were awarded to Nisei, including one Distinguished Service Cross for valor that was awarded to Bob Hoichi Kubo. Kubo was born in Lahaina, Maui in 1919 and attended Japanese language school after …
