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1 0 4 F red Sumoge anxiously shined his shoes and donned his khaki, Class A dress uniform. Word had drifted out that President Roosevelt was going to visit the army camp where Sumoge was stationed on that Easter Sunday in 1943. “Hey, gonna see the president!” he chortled as he adjusted the folds of his hat. Sumoge’s optimism, however, was short-lived. By sundown, his ardor would dissipate, replaced by feelings of humiliation, betrayal, and anger. The astonishing events of the day would also launch him on a trajectory in his military service that would extend from Fort Riley, Kansas, to Fort McClellan, Arkansas, and lead to his court-martial and imprisonment with twenty others. Ultimately, it would perpetuate courtmartial appeals that would go all the way to the Pentagon. Verbal sparring was atypical behavior for Sumoge. He grew up in the orchards of western Hood River’s Oak Grove and described himself as “kind of quiet” as a child. Following his older brother, Yoshio, around, he “didn’t have to say much” and relied on his sibling to do the talking. When he made a purchase, he simply handed his money over and waited for the clerk to complete the transaction. Even as he grew older, he was described by a classmate as “a quiet personality of few words.”1 Signs of impending war with his parents’ homeland (which he had never visited) became apparent after Sumoge graduated from high school. While working for an Issei grocer in Portland, he recognized trouble brewing between Japan and the United States. Crew members from Japanese ships, E i g h t “I’ve Got a Lot of Fighting to Do Right Here” Charged with Willful Disobedience C h a r g e d w i t h W i l l f u l D i s o b e d i e n c e 1 0 5 who regularly purchased goods from the grocery, began to leave port on ships with empty holds. “Any nation that boycotts another nation means they’re starting a war,” Sumoge surmised as the government froze Japanese assets in the United States, ending trade with Japan. The day after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the FBI arrested his employer (the president of Portland ’s Japanese Grocer Association) along with other prominent Issei and placed them in a Justice Department internment center. “The FBI knew just where to go,” Sumoge declared. “It seemed like it was all arranged.”2 Though Sumoge had registered for the draft early in 1941, he did not receive his notice until after the war began. With the signing of Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, he supposed he might land “in prison in the concentration camp” instead. Whatever the orders, though, he was sure of his response. “I got the notice. I went. . . . We were discriminated [against], . . . but really, what can you do?” Sumoge’s basic training began in March 1942 at Camp Robinson, Arkansas. Each company was composed of two hundred men, including fifteen Nisei assigned to their own five-man tents.3 Sumoge’s sergeant introduced Nisei to the other men by assuring them, “They are not Japanese from Japan. They’re United States citizens, just like you and me.” Well, that’s true, thought Sumoge. “You know, it’s good; we’re citizens. So we trained. Nothing other than basic training.” The preparation seemed pointless, however, when other units shipped out eight weeks later, leaving the Nisei behind. Some remained at Camp Robinson, while the army dispatched the rest to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri , a small number to other camps, and around six hundred to Fort Riley, Kansas. Sumoge remembered that Nisei at Fort Riley were segregated into a “Japan Town” and the army declined to issue them firearms or helmets. Instead, their military service was reduced to menial tasks: mowing lawns, chopping weeds, shoveling manure, cleaning, and working in the motor pool and at the target range. “I took basic training to fight. What am I doing here?” Sumoge wondered.4 Within a year, the army sent two-thirds of the Fort Riley Nisei to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, where they joined Nisei volunteers from Hawaii in combat training. Of some 160 remaining Nisei (about half of whom were Kibei), about 30 served at the post’s headquarters while the remainder formed two detachments at Fort Riley’s Cavalry Replacement Training Center (CRTC). There, some fifteen miles from the main camp, they unloaded freight trains and...

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