Entrevistas

1. Growing up in segregated schools

2. Feeling prejudice while looking for jobs

3. Joining the army

4. Generosity of the Italians

5. Animosity between the Hawaiians and the mainlanders

6. Being scared during combat

7. Never feared that he wouldn’t come back home

8. On saving the Lost Battalion

9. Coming home to his mother after the war

10. Getting a PhD under the G.I. Bill

11. Invited to teach at Harvard by his boss

12. Feeling at peace with himself

Ito,Susumu “Sus”

(1919 - 2015) Nissei que serviu na Segunda Guerra Mundial com a 442ª Equipe de Combate Regimental

Animosity between the Hawaiians and the mainlanders

You probably may have heard of some of the animosity between the Hawaiians and the mainlanders. This conflict persisted for a long…even after the war.

Every night the Hawaiians, especially, would like to go to the PX, have beer – ten cents a bottle. Right after lights out, I think it was ten o’clock, we were in our hut, I heard a large commotion outside the door. A drunk Hawaiian came barging in, into our hut – we were all in our beds – and they started beating up my friend “Yuk” Minaga, who’s from Utah, and he was my radio man in forward observer crew. And they jumped on him and started pounding him. So I jumped up and I tried to pull off the guy that was on top pounding him. And someone else, maybe it was two, choked me and pulled me down and started beating me up too. All the while, nobody else got up, nobody could…I’m sure nobody could sleep through this ruckus – it was a small room with cots side-by-side. And they beat us up, but not to the point where we had to go to the infirmary.

And the next day, the captain came to us and said, “You know, they found the fellows that beat you up last night.” The question came, “Do you want to press charges against these guys?” After just a few minutes, it didn’t take us very long, we said, “Well why don’t we drop this completely and take it out on the Germans.” And we shook hands, and that was it. It was not even on our records. I think that was our good move that we made.

442ª Equipe de Combate Regimental forças armadas educação Havaí residentes do Havaí Nipo-americanos militares militares aposentados treinamento Estados Unidos da América Exército dos Estados Unidos veteranos Segunda Guerra Mundial

Data: January 3, 2015

Localização Geográfica: California, US

Entrevistado: Lily Anne Y. Welty Tamai

País: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Entrevistados

Susumu "Sus" Ito nasceu em 1919, em Stockton, Califórnia, de imigrantes japoneses, Sohei e Hisayo Ito. Como muitas outras famílias nipo-americanas em sua comunidade, os Ito trabalharam como arrendatários, meeiros em colheitas de aipo, beterraba e aspargos. Sus Ito cresceu com poucos luxos.

Em 1940, aos vinte e um anos de idade, Ito foi convocado para as forças armadas - antes do envolvimento direto dos Estados Unidos na Segunda Guerra Mundial. Inicialmente, ele foi designado a um Quartermaster Truck não-segregado e a uma unidade de manutenção de veículos em Camp Haan, perto de Riverside, Califórnia. Durante a guerra, ele serviu como tenente da "C" Battery da segregada 442ª Equipe de Combate Regimental do 522º Batalhão de Artilharia, enquanto sua família ficou mantida no campo de concentração americano em Rohwer, Arkansas. Após a Segunda Guerra Mundial, estudou Biologia com a ajuda do GI Bill e mais tarde recebeu seu título de PhD em Biologia e Embriologia. Um pioneiro em sua área, Dr. Ito juntou-se ao corpo docente da Harvard Medical School em 1960 e é professor emérito desde 1991.

Ele morreu em setembro de 2015, aos 96 anos de idade. (Setembro de 2010)