 Mark Slav, the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. Today we're going across the sea of history to talk about an upcoming event that will honor Nisei soldiers, many of whom were from Hawaii. They're being honored for their courage and their go-for-broke attitude. My guest is Lynn Harakuchi. Lynn is the president of the Nisei veterans legacy. She has an extensive and impressive career in state and federal government service. However, for our program today, maybe the most significant part of Lynn's background is that she is the daughter of Walter Harakuchi, who was a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II. I've asked Lynn to talk to us about the upcoming issuance of the go-for-broke soldier stamp by the U.S. Postal Service. I asked her to talk about the history behind it and its current relevance here in Hawaii. Good morning, Lynn. It's good to see you. I'm glad that you are my guest today and I'd like you first just tell us what is the go-for-broke soldier stamp story. Yeah, sure. Hi, Mark. Thanks very much for your interest in this very important story. So the Postal Service, as you know, announced just a few months ago in November of 2020 that it was going to issue the stamp to recognize the importance of the contributions of the Japanese American soldiers of World War II who served in the U.S. Army. And they chose the model go-for-broke as a stamp's name. Hawaii has a very unique connection to the stamp. And we'll talk about this in a few minutes. The first is that the image of the stamp that you see was based on a photo of a Hawaii Nisei soldier. And the second unique connection Hawaii has to the stamp is that three of the four army units, and we'll talk about this, have a very special link to Hawaii, their origins. Okay, so who is being honored by the stamp? Who are the Nisei soldiers? Yeah, sure. So first of all, the image on the stamp is based on a photo of Shiroku Waiti Yamamoto. Waiti was born on the big island and he served in the 442nd. But the image really represents the 30,000 or so Nisei, second generation Japanese soldiers. Who served during World War II. Okay, and why are they being honored? Well, their accomplishments were quite noteworthy. But let me first explain, if I may, who were these Nisei soldiers. And first, a definition of the term Nisei. I assume everybody knows what that means, but there may be some who don't know what that term means. So Nisei is a Japanese word. And it refers to the second generation Japanese to be in this country. So the children of the original Issei immigrants to Hawaii, my parents generation. So this, but the Issei came from Japan in about, oh, the late 1800s. And most of them were poor. They came to Hawaii to work on the sugar plantations. They came to Hawaii looking for a better life. So their kids, the Nisei, they knew Japanese customs, but they were really raised as American citizens. So the Nisei soldiers served primarily in four distinct army units during World War II. And we'll talk about each one, but the four are the 100th Infantry Battalion. That was formed first, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, who most people have known about, the Military Intelligence Service, and the 1399 Engineer Construction Battalion. And let me not also forget, the 142 Nisei women who served in the Women's Army Corps. So let's talk about how we got into this. What happened? I mean, what happened? World War II happened, and then what? Yes, do you want to go back to that prior photo you had? Let me kind of make a mention of what that is. This is a very iconic photo of the 442nd that was taken in front of Iolani Palace in early 1943. And as they are about to depart for training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, and I so wish I had asked my dad when he was alive, where are you? Where are you in this photo? But it's far too late for that. You know, their story is one about, it's an American story of personal grit. We call it Ganbari Perseverance in Japanese. It's moving forward in the face of tremendous odds, including widespread discrimination that the Japanese were experiencing at the outbreak of World War II. Right. Tell us a little bit about that. Okay. So when the attack on Oahu released all restraints on anti-Japanese sentiment that had been ruined in this country for years. When war broke out, the government immediately labeled Japanese Americans to be enemy aliens ineligible to serve in the military. And I remember my mother telling me that when war broke out with Japan, they were Japanese, her family gathered things in the home that were Japanese books, papers, clothing, and they burned them. They got rid of them because they were so afraid of what was going to happen because we were now at war with Japan. And shortly thereafter, if you'll go to the next photo, Executive Order 9066 was issued by President Roosevelt. It was issued in February of 1942, just a few months after war broke out. An Executive Order 9066 led to the incarceration of over 110,000 Japanese on the West Coast. Two thirds of these, of this number, were U.S. citizens. And these individuals were forcibly removed from their homes. They had a couple of days to get all of their affairs in order. They lost homes. They lost businesses. They lost, most of all, they lost their freedom and their dignity. They were relocated to 10 internment camps located in desolate areas throughout the country for the duration of the war. This photo that you see next is a Honu-Uli-Uli internment camp. This is a camp that was right outside of the Waikahu area. The Japanese in Hawaii at the time comprised about 40% of the population. And so it was simply not feasible logistically and economically to incarcerate that many people. But the FBI had already been identifying a list of prominent Japanese. So even in Hawaii, we have these internment camps and people basically deprived of their freedom and their livelihood. And what did the Nisei soldiers do then in World War II? How did they deal with this? And what are some examples of how they handled themselves? And why we have this go for broke soldier stent now? Well, many of them volunteered to prove their loyalty despite what was happening in the community. When my father was asked many years later, why did he volunteer to serve in the 442nd, he said simply to prove that we were loyal Americans. And I suspect that many of them volunteered for the same reason. Understanding that they were living in a time of great discrimination against Japanese Americans. And what were some examples of what happened in World War II to show us how brave they were and how they did prove, how do they prove that they were loyal Americans? Well, the Japanese Americans who were in the 142nd, they fought in eight major military campaigns in Italy, France, and Germany. Probably the most known battle that they participated in was the Rescue of the Lost Battalion. And another very iconic photo that you see there is of the 442nd standing in formation after that battle. As you can see, they've got snow on their boots. You can see their battle weary. The commanding officer who ordered the formation after the battle complained, why were there so few men standing here? I've ordered everybody to come and stand in formation. And he was told, sir, this is all we have left. This is all we have left after the battle. Let me kind of set the stage for you if you'll go back to that photo. This is in the winter of 1944 in the Vosges Mountains in France. The 442nd, the men of the 442nd had just come off of nine days of combat. And we're actually looking forward to some time of rest. But then they were ordered to rescue the all Texan 144th Infantry Regiment of the 36th Division. Two prior attempts by the Army to rescue these about 200 soldiers had failed. So imagine that the Nisei soldiers, they've been in combat. They're tired. They're cold. Some of them are sick. Some of them have frostbite. And after five days of brutal combat, they were able to rescue the 200 Texas soldiers. But the price of that victory was very high. Over 400 were killed and wounded to save the 200. So they lost more men than they saved. And until this day, the French annually commemorates this battle as representing their final liberation from German occupation. And what I also like about this and that I learned is that Governor Connolly, I think in 1962, made all the people, all of the soldiers in the 442nd, honorary Texas citizens. And when you think about it, that's remarkable. That is remarkable. And I believe Texas has been one of the states that's been very supportive of the Gopher-Bokes stamp. So they can be as well. What else? What other things were they involved in these soldiers? So in addition to the 100th and the 442nd, you also have the Military Intelligence Service. And this is a photo of a Nisei soldier on the right interrogating a Japanese prisoner. Many don't know about the MIS. As we were talking about earlier, Mark, part of that is that the documents that discussed the MIS were classified until the 70s. So these soldiers literally could not talk about their service. But there were about 6,000 Nisei who had good Japanese language skills, and they were assigned to the Military Intelligence Service. And so they served as interrogators. They served as translators. They served as intelligence specialists. They served as cave fleshers. I don't know if you've heard of the cave fleshers. And the battle of Okinawa was one of the most brutal battles of the war. And the Japanese government had told the Japanese citizens and soldiers that the Americans are coming. So go and hide in the mountains and go into the caves and hide because when the American soldiers come, they're going to kill you. They're going to eat your babies. They're going to rape your women. And so there were thousands of Japanese hiding in the caves. And when these Nisei soldiers came to Okinawa, many of them understood the Okinawan dialect. And so they were able to shout to the folks hiding in the caves and say, we're American soldiers, but we're here to help you. We're not here to harm you. And so they were able to communicate and thereby save hundreds of lives. They were called the secret weapon of the Pacific War because Japan did not know that we had Nisei soldiers who understood the Japanese language. Many of these MIS soldiers after the war stayed in Japan, worked in Japan to help reconstruct Japan and heal the wounds of war. Okay. So what else do we have to know about these soldiers and how they were treated and how our government has responded to them? And what other events took place that you can tell us about? Well, I can tell you that to this day, the 142nd remains the most decorated unit of its size and length of service in all of American history. The number of medals of honor, purple hearts and presidential unit citations that were given is really unprecedented. The government also recognized the service of the 142nd and that MIS by bestowing the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010. And this is Congress' highest award for civilian service that can be awarded. And so this was given in 2010. You also have a couple slides here of other services that were involved. What are they? Yeah, so I always want to make sure that we mentioned that there was actually a fourth unit. So in addition to the 142nd and the MIS, there was also a unit called the 1399 Engineering Construction Battalion. And this was a unit of about a thousand men, MIS men, and they stayed in Hawaii. But what they did was to complete major defense construction projects in support of the war effort. And many of these men are a little humble to talk about what they did because they felt, well, we didn't go into battle. But nevertheless, they supported the war effort. So I think it's very important to mention the Engineering Construction Battalion. Okay. And MIS women were involved also? Yeah, this is a little known story and probably something that deserves more attention. But there were a few MIS women who wanted to serve their country. And they were finally allowed to join the Women's Army Corps in November of 1943. So something like, I believe it was about 142, actually did volunteer and they served in the back. Wow. So they have a long history of service despite the prejudice that they encountered at the beginning of World War II. And after the war, what did the veterans do when they returned to Hawaii? What was the outcome of their all their experience? And where did they go from? When the veterans returned home, they said, we have shed our blood on the battlefield. And we have proven our loyalty. And we're no longer interested in going back to the plantation. And we're no longer willing to be called second class citizens. So many of them use the GI Bill. And they got an education. They went into politics. You can probably name a number of people, went into business, went into government, and working with many others. And a lot of them went into law also. Yes, they went into law. That's right. Working with many others, Governor Burns, many other ethnic groups, they really helped to reshape Hawaii's environment, Hawaii's social, political and economic landscape. They were very instrumental in the push for statehood. I think you've got a photo coming up there of a bunch of Nise veterans pushing for statehood for Hawaii, which eventually came in 1959. Their decorated service was one of the factors that persuaded President Eisenhower and the Congress to endorse statehood for Hawaii. And I know you're very aware of this, Mark, having grown up here, but they were also very instrumental to the Democratic Revolution in 1954, where the Democrats basically swept into the majority power in the territorial legislature. They helped to do other things like bring back Japanese customs, like taiko drumming and karaoke and Japanese dance sumo. As you can well imagine, during the war, Japanese customers were not that popular because we were at war with Japan. But when these soldiers returned, they said, we're proud of our heritage. We're proud of our culture, proud of our culture. And so they helped to bring back some of these Japanese customs. Yeah, so they were actually proud of both of their cultures. They're American and their Japanese side, and they kind of brought them together, it sounds like. And the stamp, it has the gopher broke slogan on it. And tell me a little bit about the gopher broke. I'm familiar with it, but I'd like you to tell our audience here. What does gopher broke mean? So gopher broke very simply means give it all you've got. Don't hold back. And I don't know how true this is, but the story I've heard from my father was the gopher broke model comes from a love of gambling, where when you would have these soldiers sitting around a gambling and they would roll the dice and they'd go for broke and bid everything they had on the roll of a dice, that somehow got translated into a rallying cry. And one can imagine that cry on the battlefield, but it's give it everything you've got. Yeah, go all in as they also said. You go all in. And I think it's all in, but all together as well, all together. You know, what did it take to get this stamp issued by the United States Postal Service? I mean, how did you get it out there? Well, it's been a long history, Mark, the origins of the campaign started 15 years ago. And it was started by three Nisei women in LA in 2005. Two of them were married to Nisei soldiers, one all endured incarceration in internment camps. But they gathered together a long time ago and said this would be a really important thing to see if we can get done. They were later joined by another fellow. His name is Wayne Osako. And I think we've got a couple of photos of these women and of Wayne. So these are two of the women that is Busa Takahashi on the left and Aiko King, the late Aiko King on the right. And if you'll go to the next photo, the is a Chizohira who was married to a 442 soldier. And there's Wayne Osako who joined the campaign in 2006. He's a Sunseid likely from LA. So these four worked relentlessly to gather political and community support for the stamp for all of these years. They wrote letters, they circulated petitions, they talked to government officials, they talked to the USPS. They even received support from French citizens and officials who remembered the Nisei soldiers from World War II. So they called their movement the Stamford story movement. So it's been a very, very grassroots effort on their part, a lot of hard work. And how is your Nisei veterans legacy involved? What is the Nisei veterans legacy and how did it get involved? Yeah, so the Nisei veterans legacy, the NBL, it's a very small nonprofit organization housed here in Hawaii. And I'm the president of that organization. Our mission is to share and preserve the story of the Nisei soldiers of World War II. And we do that through community events, presentations. We host a annual Nisei Memorial service at Punchbowl every year. We give presentations. And I was asked by the folks on the mainland if I would help coordinate the Hawaii launch for the stamp. And of course, I said, yes, I would. So I'm the co-chair of the event, but make no mistake, this is not an NBL focused committee. This is a committee that's made up of several of the Nisei veteran organizations here in Hawaii. Well, you know, tell me, you know, why is this important? Why is this Gopher Broke Soldiers Stamp important? Why is a little stamp being issued important? That's a great question. It's a big story behind a little stamp. You know, I think, Mark, it's on a personal level. On a personal level, there's a story about perseverance, about gambari, that spirit of perseverance. It's about living a story that's bigger than yourself. But on a larger level, at a time when our nation is facing increasing divisions and a rise in anti-Asian sentiment, we hope that this Nisei soldier story and the stamp will bring attention to the importance of upholding equality and justice, especially today, given what's going on. You know, our Nisei fathers and mothers took a stand against discrimination many years ago, and I can't help but believe that they would want us to do the same today. You know, I agree with that very much. I really like it coming out at this time. It's very meaningful, actually. It's a symbol. And, you know, it's remarkable that it came out, because it's so appropriate at this time. Take a look at these gentlemen. And could you briefly, before we close, tell us one of these is Whitey Yamamoto. Yeah, he's the gentleman in the middle. And it's an interesting story how he, well, let me tell you a little bit more about Whitey. So he was born on the Big Island in 1923. He was an only child, orphaned at 17, and was raised by foster parents, the Rhodes. And so he joined the 442nd, was in combat in Italy and France. And when he returned to Hawaii, served as a docent at the U.S. Army Museum in Hawaii for over 20 years. And unfortunately, he passed just a couple years ago in March of 2018 at the age of 95. I'm sure he would have been tickled to have seen the stamp come to fruition. His photo, which I don't think we have in this presentation, his photo was used for the basis of the image on the stamp. And his photo was posted on the Hawaii Nisei story website, which is a joint project between the UH and KCC. The company that had been contracted by the Postal Service to design the Gopher Book Soldier Stamp came across the photo. It came across the photo and liked it and thought he represented the regular Gopher Book Nisei soldier and worked with the Nisei soldier website folks to obtain access to the photo. And I believe also talked with Whitey himself to make arrangements for the use of his photo. But that's how his photo was chosen, among I'm sure hundreds that the contractor looked at. You know, we have a couple minutes left and as we take a look at the stamp again and Whitey's picture on the stamp, let's please tell us, where can we get the stamp and how do we get it? And what can the local Hawaiian community do to support the Gopher Book Soldier Stamp? Yes. Thank you, Mark, for those questions. The stamp can be preordered right now. I'm not sure exactly when you can physically go to the post office. We're still waiting to hear from the post office on that. But if you want to preorder the stamp, you can do so by simply going to the USPS website. And it's very simple. I visited the website myself. So you can preorder. The community can support the stamp by purchasing the stamp. And viewing our launch of the stamp, which will take place on June 4, check out your local Nisei veteran organizations, you know, support them if you wish to. But I'd like to make sure I mentioned that the Postal Service is doing their national rollout on June 3. They are not doing a public ceremony. They're doing a video of a very short video of the stamp launch. They've asked the other regions to do their launches after June 3. So the Hawaii launch is going to be June 4. And because of COVID concerns, we're not doing a public ceremony or anything like that. We're going to have the unveiling live streamed and recorded for public viewing. We're going to be doing this at the 100th Infantry Battalion Clubhouse again on June 4. Unfortunately, COVID is causing all kinds of things to make it impossible for us to do a more public viewing. Well, I know that all of the folks involved will go for broke. We'll go all in and we'll make this happen. So Lynn, I want to thank you for being my guest today on this program. Is there anything further you'd like to say or conclude? No, thank you. Thank you for this opportunity, everyone. Check out the live stream and put a few stamps in your pocket. All right. Go for broke. Aloha.