100TH INFANTRY BATTALION VETERANS CLUB Puka-Puka Parade AUGUST 2012 NO. 07/2012 President’s Message been planning this for several months, with the Military by Pauline Sato Intelligence Service taking the lead. We can’t thank them and all the committee members enough for all they are We’ve passed the mid-point of the year and have also doing. We’ll need more volunteers for the annual grave reached a milestone. Formed in June, 1942, we are now 70 decorating tradition on September 29, so please see the years old! That’s a call for celebration! And celebrate we article in this issue and help if you can. th did at our 70 anniversary banquet on July 8 at the Lastly, I’d like to thank the Hawaii Foodbank for honoring Honolulu Country Club with the theme, “For Continuing us at the 2012 Patriots Celebration on July 3. This was Service: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.” Banquet their final year (of 16 years) of celebrating Hawaii’s Chairperson, Janice Trubitt, was a bit worried when sign patriots. In 1997, the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd up seemed to stall, but the numbers jumped to about 350 Regimental Combat Team were the featured honorees. people, and a full house. It was a treat to see the group of This year, all honorees were invited back for one final 40 from Maui and we’re grateful that they made the time, and our very own Robert Arakaki (B Co.) special trip. There are many people to thank for making represented us. Robert continues to take the time to attend this event a reality, and I’d run out of space if I tried to do functions like this and be a great spokesperson. I want to it here, but I’d like to let everyone know that nearly 100% thank Robert and his wife, Nancy, for continually “doing of the work was done by volunteers. Without them, there the honors” on behalf of our organization. We owe them would be no banquet. Thank you, thank you, to all who great appreciation for their continuing service. worked so hard to make it one of the best celebrations ever. Aloha, Some of the highlights of the banquet were the live music provided by the Ebb Tides. Their performance was perfect for our audience. I know my mom and dad perked up every time they sang a Japanese song. Mahalo to Dr. and Mrs. Teraoka for their help in bringing the Ebb Tides to the banquet. The keynote speeches were additional highlights. By popular request, two of the speeches (by Dr. Franklin Kometani and Thomas Kaulukukui, Jr.) are printed in this issue. For those of you who were able to attend the banquet, you probably received a small 100th logo item (mini first aid kit) courtesy of Wayne Fujita. Wayne has been very generous over the years, to the point of surprising us with gifts of hats and shirts with our logo every now and then. He and his mother, May, visited us from California in order to attend the banquet, and we were very happy to see them. Pauline with two of her favorite people, Robert and What’s next? The Joint Memorial Service on Sunday, Nancy Arakaki, at the 2012 Patriots Celebration. September 30, will be held at the National Memorial Photo: Wayne Iha Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl). Volunteers have Puka-Puka Parade, Monthly News PUKA-PUKA PARADE NO. 07/2012 army from the camp. There was also an exhibit about In Memorium Sadao Munemori whose family lived at Manzanar. But the most memorable event during the visit was that we Benjamin Shinichi Yamada (B) met the Superintendent of the Site and two of his staff Passed away on June 17, 2012 members. All had recently looked at 100th website. The Superintendent, Les Inafuku, also said he had seen photos of one of his uncles, James Inafuku (B), that he had never seen before. I was very happy to know that members of the National Park Service had discovered our website. Our deepest sympathy to his family. I hope these examples give you an idea of the scope and potential of the website to inform people who are in many The 100th Website: A Growing different locations. Many thanks to the veterans and their family members who have loaned us material so we can Resource copy and add them to the website. However, I know there by Susan Muroshige are more original photographs, journals, letters and other As Lloyd mentioned in a previous issue, I have continued documents that are available. Please contact the club to oversee the development of the website from my home office if you have these type of items in your home. Help in San Francisco. With the help of Jan Nadamoto, Jan us preserve the 100th's history! Sakoda, Arlene Sato and Drusilla Tanaka in Hawaii, more documents, stories and photographs are being added. Recently we have gotten several indications that the What’s up with the Wine Gang? website is being viewed and valued as an important source by Jayne Hirata-Epstein of information about the history of the battalion. A man We are sad to report that one of our Wine Gang regulars, from Italy sent a message to the club office. He had Kikuji “Kiku” Tojio, passed away on Sunday, June 3, created a website about the Battle of Cassino (in Italian 2012. Although Kiku was not a veteran of the 100th, he with some English sections) and had discovered our was a daily presence at the Clubhouse as he lived in one of website. He said that he had added a link on his website the Club’s apartments to ours, meaning a person just had to click on it to see the next door. Kiku was 100th website; he asked us to do the same for him on our really a creature of habit. website. He would come at A filmmaker saw some photos on the 100th website and sunrise to make breakfast asked for permission to use them in a documentary she which was always the was planning. Another person wrote from a Seattle AJA same thing – one fried organization and asked if they could use a photograph for egg, one piece of toast one of their projects. And in Hawaii, Karleen Chinen, the and one piece of ham. editor of the Hawaii Herald and a 100th daughter, found He would quietly eat the website to be a valuable resource for the recent issue breakfast at the same commemorating the 70th anniversary of the battalion. stool at the bar (the one closest to the windows). Last week my companion and I were visiting the When he was finished, Manzanar Historical Site in eastern California, near the he would wipe the crumbs off the bar with a napkin, wash Nevada border. It was a sobering sight to see the isolated his dishes, make a pot of coffee and then return home to area where 10,000 people had been incarcerated. The take a morning nap. He’d return later in the day to keep exhibits were excellent and very informative. I was glad company with the veterans, always stopping to first raise to see that the 100th, not just the 442nd, was mentioned in the American flag on the flagpole. After lunch, he would the section about young men who volunteered for the 2 Puka-Puka Parade, Monthly News PUKA-PUKA PARADE NO. 07/2012 return home, stopping to take down the flag off the next time you go to Vegas) and everyone else went home flagpole. with beef jerky and pistachio omiyage. In a chicken skin On Wine Gang Thursdays, he’d always have a cold glass moment, the group met up with Helen Kodama and after of red wine –opting for the huge bottle of “two buck talking story, Roy discovered that he and Helen were chuck” over the pricey imported stuff that the veterans’ related! A wonderful photo album of memories of the trip often receive as gifts from high maka maka visitors. At compiled by Tammy Kubo is on display at the Lounge. the start of Wine Gang sessions, he would quietly sit and For those of us whose pockets were empty, the Wine Gang slowly sip from his glass, never saying a word but just celebrated Robert’s birthday with a party at the Clubhouse smiling as the conversations abounded around him. As the on his actual birthday – May 28. Plans to play poker fell glass emptied, his smiles would get bigger and he would by the wayside as everyone just wanted to talk story and join in the laughter of others. At the end of the day, if you eat Okinawan food from Sunrise (including pig feet’s were patient and let the wine work its magic, you would soup). As we gathered to sing “Happy Birthday” to be rewarded with fascinating tales of Kiku’s life and his Robert, Stacey Hayashi surprised me with a birthday cake accurate and sometimes hilarious observations of the other of my own – my favorite dobash – as my birthday was on Wine Gang regulars. May 27th. Robert and I were amazed that we were both A private funeral service was held for Kiku by his family celebrating the same birthday – 21 years old (multiplied and was attended by Wine Gang members, 100th by ?????). descendants, and 100th/442nd Army Reservists. During the On July 3, Wine Gang veterans Akira Akimoto and Robert eulogy, I learned many new things about Kiku – including Arakaki along with 100th veterans Don Matsuda, Robert that he had enlisted in the Army when he was living in Okinawa.