An Unlikely Revolutionary: Matsuo Takabuki and the Making of Modern Hawaii

Appendix A The 442nd Veterans Club: A President Looks Back on Its First Five Years

Appendix A The 442nd Veterans Club: A President Looks Back on Its First Five Years March 25–26, 1952 NINE YEARS AGO, this organization found its roots with the formation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. We were then cast in an unenviable position of being of the same racial strain as the enemy who attacked Pearl Harbor. We were citizens by birth, but were we Americans who would meet the test of loyalty and patriotism by our willingness to fight and die for one’s country? The draft board thought otherwise. It had by then classified us as “unwanted” citizens. But at our insistence , and the faith and promise of America that “Americanism is a matter of the heart and mind, and is not, and never was a matter of race or ancestry,” the opportunity to demonstrate the soundness of this precept was given to us. We have, with the 100th Battalion that preceded us, and the Linguists and Interpreters of the Pacific, nobly met this test. Our Americanism , notwithstanding Senator Tom Connally, is borne out by the records. Even today, six years after the termination of World War II, our achievement under fire as a unit has stood in good stead for the people of Hawai‘i. The senior senator from Texas, who made the deprecating remarks on the Americanism of 193 Hawai‘i’s people, had reason to regret his intemperate and absurd statement. The people of Texas, particularly members of the 36th Division, rallied to our support. We have as members of the 442nd contributed in part to support the forceful and convincing reminder to the nation that the people of Hawai‘i are proud of their citizenship and are Americans in the fullest sense of that word. ❆ The military laurels of the sons of all races of Hawai‘i, of which we are a part, have dramatically been called to the attention of the American public. They compared with the best the states had to offer. But we are the heroes of the past. For today’s heroes are our younger brothers again defending with valor the cause of a free world. We are the “home fronts” of yesteryear’s today. Our heritage, however, compels us to respond to their call of creating conditions to ease their adjustment from soldier to civilian. We can recall our hopes and dreams of a returning soldier to a home, a family, and a job with unlimited privilege to exercise his rights to act and make known his choices as a citizen. Our fighting days are over, at least for a time, but the obligation rests on us to apply ourselves to a greater effort to realize the promise of Hawai‘i. ❆ Five years have passed since the incorporation of this club. We find ourselves now, able and prepared, and in a position to tackle this job effectively and intelligently. The youthful soldier who served the cause with such vigor and stamina is no more. The years have flown, and in his place now stands a serious and mature adult schooled in the operations of the social processes of the community. The uninterrupted education for most is completed; the family is started; and the misty hopes of the past are now concrete and real. For this must be today’s member of the club—with a collective record of achievement forging the bonds of a strong and cohesive unit, but willing to 194 AN UNLIKELY REVOLUTIONARY stand today on its participation and service to its members and community. ❆ The club by its very heritage is dedicated “to honor and esteem the supreme sacrifice made by the deceased comrades .” The War Orphans Scholarship Fund, a major project to aid the children of all war dead in Hawai‘i, symbolizes an adherence to this aim. The religious services, Christian and Buddhist , are our continuing obligations for memorializing them. But are these sufficient to meet this pledge? I can recall the message of Chaplain Yost at a memorial service after our last push when he challenged: “What are you as the living going to do for these fallen comrades?” He had reached the core of our obligation to them when he pictured our cause of unsullied citizenship without reservation or question by others more fortunate by the accident of birth. We have gained that right, but will we now use that right to realize the hopes and...