May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and a perfect time to remember Sergeant Ben Kuroki, a US Army Air Corps gunner from the “Mighty Eighth” Air Force during World War II. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Ben Kuroki couldn’t wait to fight for his country. As a “Nisei,” born in America to parents who immigrated from Japan, he had to “fight like hell” for the chance. In last week’s history column, American-born Kuroki, raised on a farm in Hershey, Nebraska, was ultimately able to get a spot in the US Army Air Corps. Sent first to clerical school and then to Barksdale Army Air Field in Louisiana for the activation of the 93rd Bombardment Group, he continued to fight to stay with his squadron once they were deployed overseas.
With much persistence, Kuroki made it to England with the 93rd Bomb Group. This time Kuroki fought to fight from the air in the 93rd’s B-24 heavy bombers, also known as Liberators, in some of the most critical and dangerous air missions of the European front. Kuroki assiduously prepared and proved himself for a spot in the air. He volunteered to be a much-needed aerial gunner and attended gunner school in England. When a young turret gunner in Kuroki’s squadron was grounded for medical reasons, he was allowed to choose his own replacement. He picked the eager Kuroki for the spot.
Sent to Africa for temporary deployment, Ben Kuroki was on his first mission, a raid on the docks and supply depot of Bizerte, Tunisia, when his bomber was hit by flak. One of his crew members was gravely wounded by shrapnel. It was largely Sergeant Kuroki’s clear-headed thinking that kept the man alive, and cemented the bond between Ben Kuroki and the crew.
It was also clear that Kuroki performed extremely admirably as a gunner, moving from waist and tail to turret gunner. His fellow squadron members gave him the nickname “Honorable Son” with affectionate intent, and his reputation as a valued crew member continued to grow. As two examples of his many exploits, he spent three months interned in Spain after being shot down over Spanish Morocco, and was a part of the daring and dangerous low-altitude air raid of the Ploesti oil refineries of Romania.
When Kuroki’s squad member 1st Lt. E.E. Weir returned home to Kilgore, Texas in the northeast part of the state, he visited the Kilgore News Herald’s office. The young navigator proudly wanted everyone to know how he was in the same squadron as the “popular” Ben Kuroki. He also enthusiastically announced that in addition to Kuroki, his diverse fellow crew members included an Italian-American soldier. (With Italy as part of the Axis powers, Americans of Italian descent, like Americans of Japanese descent, faced suspicion and discrimination when the United States entered WWII.) Since Kilgore is just over an hour from Shreveport and Barksdale Army Air Field, the Shreveport Times also ran the News Herald’s feel-good war story on February 26, 1944.
Following 30 combat missions in Europe on the B-24, and earning two flying crosses, Kuroki rotated back to the United States, where he could have stayed. Instead, he hoped to return for another full tour of duty as a B-29 gunner in the Pacific. Once again, Kuroki had to fight to fight, this time even harder. Americans of Japanese descent were expressly prohibited from entering active air combat against Japan.
By that time, Kuroki and his achievements had garnered him media attention and speaking engagements while he was back in the States. These engagements included speaking to Japanese Americans incarcerated in detention camps in the US West, encouraging young men to join the military and fight for America, while also appealing to the larger American society to end the discrimination and civil rights violations against Americans of Japanese descent.
Kuroki delivered one of the most powerful speeches at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, which received national media coverage and caught the attention of such influential Californians as the chancellor of Stanford University, the former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, and the provost of the University of California Berkeley. He also had the support of his Nebraska Representative, Carl T. Curtis. These men successfully pleaded Kuroki’s case to the highest ranks of the Army.
Sergeant Ben Kuroki became the only Japanese American to serve in air combat in the Pacific Theater of Operations, and was one of the very few soldiers of any background to have fought in both the European and Pacific theaters. Following his tour in the Pacific, where he participated in the bombing of Tokyo, Kuroki was awarded a third flying cross. In total, he completed 58 combat missions during his service.
Ben Kuroki continued his mission to end discrimination against Japanese Americans, which he referred to as his 59th mission, and became a journalist and publisher. In 2009, when the 93rd Bomb Group planned a reunion at Barksdale, a reporter from The Shreveport Times contacted Kuroki. Kuroki, he recalled, was cordial and polite and said he would not be taking part in the reunion due to health reasons, compounded by memories of local prejudice. “My traveling days are pretty much over,” he told The Times. He died Sept. 1, 2015 at his home in California at the age of 98.
Kuroki has been the subject of a handful of biographies and documentaries. The most recent and complete biography is titled, Most Honorable Son: A Forgotten Hero’s Fight Against Fascism and Hate During World War II by Gregg Jones, 2024. The book is available online as an e-book and e-audiobook from Bossier Parish Libraries. You can download it from home with your library card number via Hoopla at bossierlibrary.org.
While our History Center is still closed due to installation of our new exhibits, you can explore our resources online, including our online catalog, where most of our photographs and many of our archival materials, such as oral histories, have been digitized. Go to the bossierlibrary.org website and choose History and Genealogy under Resources. You can contact us with questions at (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org For other local history facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.
Images:
- Sgt. Ben Kuroki responding to a speech of welcome given by Project Director Guy Robertson and representatives of the Community Council upon his arrival at Heart Mountain, 24 April 1944. From the War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement housed at UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, available via Calisphere.org
- Sgt. Ben Kuroki holds the damaged turret from his 30th mission in Europe. Photo by Ken LaRock, Courtesy of National Museum of the USAF
No comments:
Post a Comment