Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence: Coming Home to Hood River

10. “No Japes Wanted in Hood River” : The Hood River Situation

1 3 7 T e n “No Japes Wanted in Hood River” The Hood River Situation W hat a lowdown thing to have done,” exclaimed Mam Noji. The action by citizens in his hometown struck a visceral blow at Noji’s service to his country and discredited his parents’ forty years of sacrifice in their adopted homeland. What’s more, news headlines across the country were describing his community in venomous terms. Even in the South Pacific, he overheard MIS buddies whisper sympathetically , “One of them guys is from Hood River.” Nine months before the war’s end, Hood River residents were making headway in growing fruit and continuing with community life as usual. They voted the Republican ticket in the November 1944 election (except for the state attorney general, a Democrat but a Hood River native), giving Thomas Dewey a forty-eight-vote lead over Franklin Roosevelt in the presidential race. Mayor-elect Joe Meyer rolled the first ball at the Hood River Bowling Alleys’ grand reopening. Hi-Ho crackers sold for $.21, a two-pound jar of orange marmalade for $.33, and a head of lettuce for $.10 at Eby’s Food Market. J. C. Penney advertised rayon crepe holiday dresses for $7.90 and men’s suits for $29.75; Goodyear tires cost $16.05 each; and Hackett Furniture Store offered a four-piece mahogany bedroom suite at $79.50. For entertainment, the Rialto featured Wallace Beery in Barbary Coast Gent as well as Rosie the Riveter, and the Cascadian showed The Deerslayer. Apple and pear production was at nearrecord levels, with both exceeding one million boxes and Extra Fancy 1 3 8 C h a p t e r T e n or Fancy Anjous bringing $4.10 a box. In order to meet growth needs, the Apple Growers Association cooperative opened a new warehouse in Parkdale.1 That same month, an act by a local veterans’ organization became a hotly contested public issue that would incite debate across the country . On November 29, 1944, American Legion Post No. 22 defaced a war memorial it had erected fourteen months before. The honor roll, which ran along the upper section of the entire east wall of the county courthouse, was composed of wooden plaques that displayed the names of more than 1,600 young men and women from the county who were serving in the armed forces. Sometime that evening, Legion members dashed black paint over sixteen of those names. All sixteen were of Japanese Americans. The reason, the organization declared, was its belief that these young men were citizens of Japan and subjects of the emperor of Japan.2 Overseas, Hood River Nisei were shocked and agitated when they read the news. “It was kind of a dirty deal,” commented Shig Imai. “Nothing less than an insult,” added Noji. “Here we were risking our lives, you might say. And it wasn’t good enough to be on the board.”3 Several aroused Nisei took pen in hand. “I was kind of angry,” recalled George Akiyama. “That’s the reason I wrote a letter to Life magazine . . . I wanted the rest of the country to know what the situation was. I got a reply from the Legion post in New York. . . . They welcomed me and said as soon as you get discharged, you’re welcome to join our American Legion.”4 From an island near New Guinea, Sergeant Taro Asai expressed surprise at this “most cruel gesture.” His name meant more than just an inscription on the board, Asai maintained, for it stood for one of democracy’s ideals.5 From France, two months after his brother was wounded in action, Sergeant Johnny Y. Wakamatsu of Hood River penned more acrid words: . . . Remember, we did not volunteer unless we thought that as Americans it was our duty. Many have died believing in Liberty, equality, and the pursuit of Happiness. Many more are crippled in various hospitals here in France, England and back there in the states. Your actions and policies are not American; they do not give us the treatment of loyal American soldiers. Really it is too bad that the Hood River Legion Post must follow such UnAmerican ideals. I regret that I was reared and educated in such an unjust community with such narrowminded so-called Americans. Th e H o o d R i v e r S i t u at...