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Father’s words

On the day I left to put on the uniform, he took time off which he had to request because under the laws, you gotta get the approval of the employer, you can’t just walk away you know. And so he accompanied me on the street car and if you can picture the two of us sitting side by side, both of us looking straight ahead and nothing is said until we get close to the destination.

When we know that the street car is gonna stop, he clears his throat and he says, this country has been good to us. It has given me jobs, it has made it possible for you to go to school, we have lived a good life. We owe a lot to the country. We owe a lot, therefore if you must give your life, so be it. But whatever you do, do not dishonor the family, do not dishonor the country. And that was it.

It appears that this was an important part of the Nisei’s, as you put it, values system. Because I recall very vividly the night before we began our first attack. So that following morning I’m part of a squad, assistant squad leader, there were 12 of us waiting for the orders to start moving, so I sat down and said, “By the way, what were you people thinking about last night?” I’m just curious. After a while, one of them popped up and he said, “I was praying that I don’t be a coward.” And the next one said, “Yeah I was thinking about the same thing. That would bring shame to the family.” Everyone said the same thing in different ways. Do not dishonor the family, right?

So here, these are the men who work in the plantations, who work in the fields, men who volunteered from the camps, you know. Cause they’re mixed with kotonks and us. And everyone of ‘em, whether they were in Montana, Wyoming, or Arizona, or Honolulu, came out the same thing.


442nd Regimental Combat Team armed forces identity military retired military personnel United States Army veterans World War II

Date: May 31, 2001

Location: California, US

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Senator Daniel K. Inouye was born September 7, 1924 in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. He witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and at the age of 18 he enlisted in the U.S. Army and joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Following the Rescue of the Lost Battalion, Senator Inouye was awarded a Bronze Star and received a battlefield commission as a Second Lieutenant. Later, in intense fighting in Italy, Senator Inouye lost his right arm from an exploding grenade. For his action that day, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second highest award for military valor.

Following the war, Senator Inouye became Hawai‘i’s first representative in Congress when Hawai‘i achieved statehood in 1959. In 1962 he was elected to the United States Senate and has been re-elected every six years since then. Senator Inouye, a Democrat, was the first American of Japanese descent to serve in either House of Congress.

In 2000, Senator Inouye and 20 other Asian American veterans were honored in a ceremony at the White House. The medals they had earned in World War II were given a long-overdue and deserving upgrade to the Medal of Honor.

He passed away on December 17, 2012 at age 88. (December 2012)

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