Quotes from Chaplain Hiro Higuchi

Take time to read through the quotes by the 442nd Combat Regiment’s chaplain. Once you have finished think through the questions that follow.

Selected Quotes from Wartime Letters of Hiro Higuchi:

8 November 1943:

“I find that the island boys are very cordial and very easy to make friends with—while the mainland boys seem to be more reticent and very poor mixers. In George’s hut last evening however, I met some very swell fellers—its funny sometimes to hear these mainland boys speaking Pigeon English ala Waipahu. The process has reversed itself—the English of our boys don’t seem to be improving at all while the mainland boys are falling into the easy short cut of Hawaiian English. …And as usual these Hawaiian fellers have invented a name for the boys from the mainland ‘Ko-tonks’…. At first the two groups did not get along very well—but these Hawaiian fellers as usual are too fast with their fists and kinda slow on the argument so that peace reigns seemingly along this front.”

12 November 1943:

“At least the people here are getting friendlier to the Hawaiian boys. Even getting so that the mainland officers and wives claim themselves as Hawaiian … I guess it is partly due to the fact that Hawaii is always glamorous, and perhaps due to the 100th but mostly due to the fact that the mainland fellers in camp have caused the most trouble in trying to get out of the army. In a way you don’t blame them—they go home to the relocation camps on furlough, see their folks behind wired fences and then come back wondering what it is all about. Some even go as far as to take back their army oath. The Hawaiian boys being volunteers and very kanaka are anxious, instead, to go overseas with the 100th.”

8 June 1944:

“Everywhere we go, the officers and men ask us if we are from the 100th. The 100th certainly has an enviable reputation here and the people at home certainly should be proud of those boys—they are giving a good account of themselves and are considered a crack outfit. Only hope that our outfit will make the same showing.”

20 July 1944:

“I wish the whole thing was over with so that our boys can go back to their normal lives and to normal happiness with their families. I have especially tough time with the mainland boys who had wives and families in relocation camps. There is nothing once could do for them except to advise them, and most of the time advice is so inadequate—our island boys having been free from such experiences do not have problems of that sort…”

8 September 1944:

“The 100th and the 442nd has been given a lot of publicity as I see and know that in the future the fact will carry a lot of weight in the treatment of the AJA’s in the mainland. At least, I hope.”

20 October 1944:

“One of my very good friends—an officer you wouldn’t know, was speaking to me not an hour ago—and now I hear that he was killed. That is battle—and we get to look at things the same way—very pessimistic and looking for the worse every time. It’s tough—so far I have been lucky—the road I traveled on four times was shelled as many times yesterday claiming many wounded but I just happened to be travelling at the right time.”

39 [31] October 1944:

“We’ve been in the field now for a long time and fighting without rest. When we mean without rest—it means without rest—how the human body stands it I don’t know but they say the human body is a pretty strong machine. Through rain, fog—up a hill down a hill over a mountain down another—fighting all the way and always fearing that the enemy may throw a barrage any minute. That’s how the boys have to fight.”

22 November 1944:

“Haven’t had a bath for over a month now and only one change of clothes during that time. Hoping that soon I will have a chance to take one as I feel so dirty.”

Based on the quotes answer these questions:

What do you think these quotes are from? How can you tell?

Is this a primary or secondary source?

How does this show what the Japanese American soldiers went through?

Did the Japanese American soldiers from Hawaii get along with those from the mainland? Why did they have problems understanding one another?

What was the reputation of the 100th Battalion? According to Higuchi, what were they trying to do for the Japanese-American community as a whole?

How did Higuchi help the soldiers in his role as chaplain? How did the soldiers respond to him?

What were some of the hardships faced by the 442nd? How did they affect Higuchi and the other soldiers?

This source came from the letters housed in the University of Hawaii.                     http://libweb.hawaii.edu/libdept/archives/mss/aja/higuchi.pdf

 

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