In 1941 Tokuji Ono was a teacher in Maui when he got drafted. He remembers having mixed feelings abo
In 1941 Tokuji Ono was a teacher in Maui when he got drafted. He remembers having mixed feelings about it, but since it was a peaceful time in America, he thought he’d only have to serve a year. Because he had ROTC experience, the training was “duck soup” or “easy” in Hawaiian pidgin. He was stationed in Honolulu when he heard on the radio that all military personnel were to report to base. The date was December 7, and as he waited for the bus to take him to Scho eld Barracks, he remembers how he and his fellow soldiers saw fighter planes overhead. Everyone thought they were going through another drill. The guys were marveling at the authenticity of the drill because they could see the “Rising Sun”—the Hinomaru—painted on the wings on the planes. As they approached Pearl Harbor, they saw black smoke rising from the battleships and they could still see a few planes dive-bombing and strafing the harbor. Tokuji said “everyone went silent” once they all realized this was not a drill…it was an actual attack. When they got to Schofield, all the Nisei soldiers had their weapons confiscated. Their worst fears of being at war with Japan were now being realized..Read more of Tokuji Ono’s story as well as the others in “The Go For Broke Spirit”. -- source link
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