59 Fall 2019

A PUBLICATION FOR AND ABOUT THE TOWN OF NAPER, Naper Paper NEBRASKA, Volume 17, Issue 3 www.napernebraska.org Fall, 2019 PUBLISHED BY THE NAPER And so that is why we are whose very existence was the re- HISTORICAL HEROES- here today--to remember the fallen sult of segregation. Worse yet, and all who served. from 1877 to 1950, 589 African- SOCIETY. MEMORIAL DAY But how best to remem- Americans were lynched in Georgia ber, how best to not forget? De- with 20 lynchings in Jasper County The mission of the Naper 2019 pending on which records you con- alone. Despite the inequities and Historical Society is to preserve, Let me begin by saying interpret, display, communicate, sult, and how you do your counting, injustices under which he grew up, that it is an honor to appear before close to one and a half million Frederick said “yes” when his na- promote and honor the history, you today. Given that I have no original structures, special places Americans are among our war dead tion called. and artifacts of the people and military service background myself, beginning with the War for Inde- Today, we remember and culture of Naper, Nebraska, and I’m not sure that I am the most pendence and continuing through honor Frederick D. Funderberg. the surrounding area. The qualified or traditional of Memorial ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan And now let us consider Naper Historical Society intends Day speakers. But when Dale Ni- and Iraq--one and a half million Medal of Honor recipient Private to accomplish this mission by colaus, in cahoots with my Mom, operating a museum, publishing fathers and mothers and brothers First Class Joe M. Nishimoto. A a newsletter, sponsoring events, asked me to speak, I said “yes”. and sisters and neighbor kids and California boy, Joe enlisted in the and in other appropriate ways. And I hope that by the end of my friends who did not come home. Army in October of 1943. A little The Naper Historical Society will remarks that just maybe that willing- The names of those dead over a year later, Joe and his squad initially focus on four themes: ness to say “yes” will have a little Americans are etched in stone and from the 100th Infantry Battalion School Days, Life in Naper more relevance in terms of why we bronze in cemeteries across this were engaged in a four day fight Through the Years, White Horse are gathered here today. Ranch, and Naper 28 Plane nation and around the world. Often with the enemy to take a ridge in Crash. Most of us know that Me- Memorial Day celebrations will in- France. Joe’s single-handed hero- morial Day, often called Decoration clude a reading of the names of ics removed three machine gun IN THIS ISSUE Day in the early years, began in local heroes, but how do we read emplacements from action and some parts of the country a few the names of one and a half million opened the way for the Americans years after the Civil War and be- • MEMORIAL ADDRESS such heroes? How do we remem- to advance. A week later Joe was came more firmly entrenched as a ber and honor the sacrifices made? killed in action. AND PHOTOS nationwide event following World And, of equal importance, how do As a Japanese-American War I, finally becoming an official we take meaning from those sacri- during World War II, Joe would • ALUMNI BANQUET national holiday in 1971. fices and apply that meaning to our have had every reason not to an- Originally a day to remem- own lives? swer the call to service. Joe and ber, honor, and celebrate those Those are big questions, his family had been removed from • EXCHANGE STUDENT Americans who died in combat, and I’m not sure I have any big California and interned in a camp in Memorial Day has gradually come answers. So I’d like to approach Arkansas as part of the govern- to also serve as an opportunity to • HOUSES THAT EMMA the matter by remembering and ment’s forced relocation of Japa- honor all veterans and current CLEANED talking about just four of our fallen nese-Americans following Pearl members of the armed forces. soldiers, two from World War II and Harbor. The lives that Joe and his In 1986, President Ronald two from Operation Iraqi Freedom. family had built for themselves in • OL’ HOMESTEADER Reagan spoke at Arlington National And from those four stories, I hope California, their American dreams, Cemetery on Memorial Day. While that maybe, just maybe, we will see were gone forever. Despite the reflecting on those buried at Arling- • LETTERS at least the outlines of something inequities and injustices he experi- ton, he noted, “All of these men bigger. enced, Joe said “yes” when his were different, but they shared this Let us first pay tribute to nation called. in common: They loved America Purple Heart recipient First Lieuten- Today, we remember and very much. .And they loved with ant Frederick D. Funderberg, a honor Joe M. Nishimoto. the sureness of the young. It’s hard young man from Jasper County, A little over sixty years not to think of the young in a place Georgia. An enlisted member of later, we come to the life of Purple like this, for it’s the young who do the 301st Fighter Squadron seeing Heart recipient Corporal Kareem the fighting and dying when a action in Europe, Frederick claimed Rashad Sultan Khan. Kareem en- peace fails and a war begins.” the first victory for his squadron by listed in the Army upon graduation Reagan continued speak- shooting down two enemy fighters from a New Jersey high school in ing of those who answered the call in aerial combat in June of 1944. 2005 and found himself in Iraq just to serve in Vietnam, “It was often Six months later, while flying escort a year later. Roughly a year into our poor who fought. .it was the duty for a bomber squadron near his tour in Iraq, Kareem and three unpampered boys of the working Munich, his plane was shot down. squad mates from the 2nd Infantry class who picked up the rifles and Frederick’s body, along with those Division were killed when a bomb went on the march. They learned of his fellow crew members, was exploded in a house they were not to rely on us; they learned to never recovered. clearing. rely on each other. .They seized As an African-American, As an American Muslim, certainty from the heart of an am- Frederick would have had every Kareem would have had every rea- bivalent age; they stood for some- reason not to answer the call to son not to answer the call to ser- thing.” service. He grew up in an era vice. Even though the attacks of From this, Reagan con- where he was confronted with seg- September 11 were directed by a cluded, “And we owe them some- regated bathrooms, water foun- terrorist from Saudi Arabia and thing, those boys. We owe them tains, restaurants, public transporta- carried out by terrorists from Saudi first a promise: That just as they tion, schools, and more, including Arabia, anti-Muslim sentiment in did not forget their missing com- his service as a member of the post-9/11 America affected Ameri- rades, neither, ever, will we.” Tuskegee Airmen, a military unit can kids like Kareem deeply and Volume 17, Issue 3 Page 2 Fall, 2019 continue to do so through today. ded in our Pledge of Allegiance. We are in- much but who are in need. Again, we must Despite the unjust anger directed toward him deed one nation, indivisible. do so because we are America, one nation, and those of his faith, Kareem said “yes” Unfortunately, I think sometimes we indivisible. when his nation called. forget that greater purpose; our recitations of The relatively obscure American Today we remember and honor the Pledge of Allegiance become little more poet Wallace Bruce is not considered one of Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan. than a display of rote memorization as op- our most talented or successful writers, but The final American hero I will talk posed to something we reflect upon and dedi- the last few lines of his poem titled “Memorial about today is Specialist Dustin L. Workman cate ourselves to. Day” are what makes Wallace Bruce quota- II. From Greenwood, Nebraska, Dustin enlist- So occasions like Memorial Day are ble. In speaking of America’s war dead, ed in the Army upon graduation from high a good time to renew our dedication to Ameri- Bruce wrote, “Who kept the faith and fought school in 2005. After advanced training in can ideals. Remembering and honoring the fight;/the glory theirs, the duty ours. .” Fort Carson, Colorado, Dustin deployed to those who sacrificed their lives in war is good As we remember and honor the Iraq. In early July of 2007, Dustin and four and right so long as we do not do so with an fallen on this Memorial Day, we must realize fellow soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division end toward glorifying war but in keeping with that the sacrifices of kids like Frederick, Joe, were attacked by insurgents in Baghdad. All words offered by President Eisenhower a few Kareem, and Dustin mean nothing unless we five died of wounds sustained from impro- months after the end of World War II: “War is say ”yes” to the duty those sacrifices impose vised explosive devices.

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