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This son of a poor potato far mer, r wati@l·!Wi·i·fflj+ 2 skin or religion doesn't tell you all old jalopy , drove 150 miles to I one of our great air hen. es, has the re is to know about a man, then Grand Island and enlisted. "It a job to finish before he retur ns I'll begin to feel my job is done." started right then," says Ben. "I to the Nebraska home he love s I spent a breathless week with had to fight for the right to fight. "' Ku roki. He started at 8: 00 a.m. Ur to that time most folks took me Mo nday, by answering two dozen for what I was, a potato farmer's bu siness letters for the Japanese­ son. My parents happ ene d to hav e Am erican Citizens League, for been born in Japan , that's a!l." which he sometimes speaks. A But not so the Army. There he Nisei ex-GI wrote that he couldn't ran into racial discrimination head get a job in his home town because on. Ben volunteered for combat MISSION of racial feeling. Would Ben Ku­ dut y in the Air Force. roki help? A Nisei sailor asked what H e was sent to Louisiana and to do to reclaim his West Coa st spent the next five months mostly oyster beds, lost when he went into peeling potatoes. Finall y he was the service. Then Kuroki went to assigned to the 93rd Bomb Group By Arn old Perl work for two hours on a book that in England as a clerk. His appli­ PAGEA NT herewith pres en ts the second turer, lobbyist, spokesman-a one­ is being written about his life by cation for combat dut y was always of its series of true Americ ans who are man campaign for the rights ofall R alph Martin, former Stars and getting lost. making the ideals of good citizenship a living, vital thing. minorities. Nobody told Ben to do Strip es editor. Finally he hopped Finally accepted for gunnery this; he isn't paid for it. But since off to Washington, visited Walter school, after five da ys of training his discharge Ben has averaged two R eed hospital, interviewed three he was sent to North Africa. His Ben Kuroki's dad owns a farm in speeches a day on the radio, at big Nisei amputees, bearded half a first missions were against targets Hershey, Nebraska, with a lot of rallies and at small gatherings . He d9zen Congressmen, talked to Phil in Africa , Italy and Austria. On shady trees on it. Learning of Ben's has made junkets through Neb ras­ ·Murr ay of the CIO and to Gener al his 24th mi sion, over Plo esti, Nazi war record, you'd expect to find ka , Idaho, Utah, New York , New Bradl ey, director of the Veterans oil center, only two of the nine him lying under one of those trees, J ersey, California. "And even now , Administration. ships in his squadron came back. taking it easy. Because when Ben when people know my record, I still So go his days. On his 30th and last mission in Kuroki, Nisei gunner of a B-29 hit the same things a visiting Ja pa­ Ben Kuroki has a big family in Europe , flak tore open th e rear Superfortress, walked out of Fort nese spy might hit." N ebraska: father, mother and nine turret, cut his face, threw off his Dix last February with his discharge In Idaho he spoke to the tow n's rothers and sisters. His father oxygen ma k. Had it not been for papers, he was one of the most best people, but had trouble get­ onders when Ben is coming home the help of Gunner O'Conn el, who decorat ed men in the Army. He had ting served in a local coffeepot . In to be a potato farmer. Hi s mother held a spa re mask over Ben's face, won three Distinguished Flying the East, hotel clerk try to wave sk; about marriage. "How long he would have died. "It's a funny Cro e , two Presidential Citations, him away. He was scheduled to go this rat race going to go on?" thing," he say , "I've flown with a an Air Medal with six clusters. on a national radio program but at writ es one of his brothers. "I don't Poli sh gunner, a J ewish engineer, There were six battle stars on his the last minute was yanked off. kno w," say· Ben. a German bombardier and a full­ European Theater ribbon and four "Being a Japanese-American," he ·nt il December 7, 1941, Ben blooded Dakota Indian. Nobody on hi Pacific ribbon. He had 58 say wry 1y, "I was 'controversia l' ." lived the ordinary life of a farm ever takes the time to find out combat missions to his credit. Ben Kuroki walked out of the boy in Nebras ka. H e was born May who your grandfather was when But Ben Kuroki is still fighting. Army, last February, with a che ck 16 1918, in the little town of Her- you'r e fighting. I saw men wound­ "I call it my '59th mi sion,' " he for $1,600, back pay and savi ngs. ~ . His father raised sugar beets ed, but the blood was always the say . ·'This time I'm fighting preju­ "I've been riding on that," he says. and seed potatoes. He went to high same color." dic e in the U.S.A." "When that runs out, I'll figure out ho ol and got to be a first-rate H e came back to America on the Kuroki had never made a public a way to keep going. But that's not basketball player. second anniver ary of Pearl Har­ addr ss in his life, but during the the point; the point is that when T he day after Pearl Harbor , Ben bor. "Ribbons were scarce at that pa . t ten months he has been lec- people learn that ancestry, color of and his brother, Fred, got into the tim e. I was someth ing of a hero." 20 21 Newspapers interviewed him; he tives. " Then the war ended and was written up in magazines. Then Ben came home. he was invited to address the influ­ The day he hit San Francisc o ential Commonwealth Club, in San there was a special or der: "Repo rt Francisco, with Henry Kaiser and to Mrs . Og den Reid of the Heral d­ ex-Governor Young of California. Tribune Forum at the Waldor f­ Ben was scared stiff. But he ..spoke. Astoria in New York." Ben says: He spoke of the record of Nisei "There I was, a broken down GI troops which saw action at Saler­ who hadn't been paid in two no, at the Volturno, at Cassino, at months, with five cents in my pock­ Rome, at Livorno and at the inva­ et, nee ding a haircut, about to sion of Southern France. Their wa lk in to a room with General casualties were 9,230 men, three Marshall and General Chennault." times the unit's original strength. He h ad little chance to prepare "Yet, in the official report on his speech, but he spoke of things the nee d for evacuating Japanese ­ that made him sore: returning Americans from the West Coast," Nisei GI's being kicked out of bars, Beri added bitterly, "Gen. John De ­ Japanese -Americans' homes being Witt, in charge of evacuation for burne d, signs in Portland and the Army, could say: 'A Jap is a Seattle, "No Jap Rats Allowed." Jap. They are a dangerous ele­ The speech was the beginnin g of ment, whether loyal or not.'" his 59t h mission. A lot of offer s for Ben put in for combat duty in jobs came in, but there also ame the Pacific. Again there was the pleas to Ben to keep on fighting fo familiar pattern of papers getting the things he stood for. lost. Ben said he'd fly anything. Ben Kuroki's $1,600 has dwin dled The authorities said "impossible." to a very small sum. His father stil There was a regulation barring sol­ asks wh en he's coming back to the diers of Japanese ancestry from farm . He doesn't like living ou t of combat duty in the Pacific. a suitcase, but he has decide d t . Some friends from the Common­ stick out his last mission. In th wealth Club, a San Francisco edi­ words of the credo of the Japanese­ tor, a Congressman and others American Citizens League, this is bombarded the office of the Secre­ what he's thinking about : tary of War. They kept at it until "America has permitted me finally he got a special dispensation. to earn a livelihood, to wor­ . His B-29 crew welcomed him. ship, think, speak and act as They christened the ship "Honor­ I please. Although some may able Sad Saki." discriminate against me, I shall Ben flew 28 more missions, in­ never become bitter or lose cluding several on Tokyo. "Most faith, for I know that such of the fellows thought I was nuts, persons arc not repre entati ve flying when I didn't have to," says of the majority of the Ame ri­ Ben. "But I told them that the mail can people ... " was so poor these days, bombing Ben K uroki, son of a potato Nagasaki wa~ the easiest way of farmer from Her hey, Nebr ska, keeping in touch with my rcla- is a modern man of good will. 22