View from the Pew Mary Adamski

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Pieces of history

Memoirs of WWII chaplains paint lively pictures of their service

A vivid picture of the World War II battlefront and the philosophizing of the Rev. Hiro Higuchi are contained in letters he wrote to his wife, Hisako, in Pearl City. Now researchers can read the chronicle by the 442nd Regimental Combat Team chaplain contained in letters, official memos and postwar sermons that his children have donated to the University of Hawaii-Manoa Library.

A Pennsylvania Lutheran minister who served as 100th Infantry Battalion chaplain also saved his field notes and copies of his letters home. The Rev. Israel Yost compiled his memoirs after retiring from the ministry in 1984. "Combat Chaplain: The Personal Story of the World War II Chaplain of the Japanese American 100th Battalion," edited by his daughter Monica Yost and Honolulu writer Mike Markrich, has just been published by the University of Hawaii Press.

Veterans of the two Japanese-American combat units and the chaplains' families will be honored guests at a celebration tomorrow hosted by the University of Hawaii-Manoa Library.

"Their Legacy of Service" is the theme of the program that will applaud the service of Higuchi, Yost and the Rev. Masao Yamada, a Kauai-born United Church of Christ minister who also served with the 442nd.

The 2 p.m. program tomorrow at the University of Hawaii Architecture Auditorium will thank the Higuchi and Yost families for donating the ministers' personal papers for the benefit of future students and historians. The program is open to the public.

When the Army first assigned Yost to the 100th Battalion, "he wasn't sure it was going to work, because he was a Christian minister and most of the men were Buddhist. From the spiritual point of view, he wasn't sure what he would have to offer them," said his son Nathan Yost, here for the festivities. "But very quickly that became a nonissue because of the camaraderie between them.

"As he often told us, the main reason the Army has chaplains is for morale. He was an agent to maintain the morale of the fighting force," said Yost, one of 11 children.

"Day to day, he functioned more as a medic than anything else. They were always in need of litter bearers. One story he told us children was that because he was so much taller than the Japanese Americans, he would take the downhill side of the litter. Guys would say that would keep it level.

"Another thing he would tell us was about rations. A lot of rations had potatoes, and the goal was to trade them for rice. And the typical American soldier didn't want rice anyway. My dad liked rice. He would take cold rice and put milk and sugar on it. The nisei soldiers thought that was sacrilegious."

"He had a sense of history," said Yost. "One of the things he was sensitive to was that this outfit was under a magnifying glass. It's hard for us to look back and realize a lot of the military didn't think they could trust Japanese Americans as a fighting force. He knew these soldiers felt they had something to prove, that the honor of their families and community were dependent on their service."

Nathan Yost said his father came to Hawaii after the war and visited the families of men who had been killed. In 1962 he brought his family to live in Hawaii briefly. "The assistance and affection, the outpouring of help to our family was overwhelming. We were treated almost like visiting dignitaries. It was the first time we had seen the other end of what he talked about."

Higuchi's daughter Jane Fukunaga said, "My mother was a pack rat; she kept everything. I didn't know what to do with them; my grandchildren wouldn't know him. I was hesitant because so much was personal; he was emotional, very descriptive. We decided it would be worthwhile for academics to have them."

Fukunaga said her father did not talk about his wartime experience except in occasional sermons. "He was a pacifist."

She said, "I just started reading the Yost book," which is almost a daily log of events in the European combat. "I'm learning from the book about what my father lived."

The Rev. Masao Yamada died in 1984. After the war he helped returning veterans to buy land or establish businesses, according to a biographical sketch written by his wife, Ai Yamada. He worked with Big Island community leaders for the establishment of the University of Hawaii at Hilo and promoted the establishment of a veterans cemetery on each island.

Yost died in 2000 in Maryland after serving congregations in New Jersey and Maryland. During his brief stay in Hawaii, he founded Maluhia Lutheran Church in Waianae. After retirement he continued to volunteer as a prison chaplain.

Higuchi died in 1981. During his postwar years as a United Church of Christ pastor, he founded Waipahu United Church of Christ, Pearl City Community Church, Manoa Valley Church and Waimea Christian Church on Kauai. He often enlisted his 442nd friends to help in the construction work, and records at the Waipahu and Pearl City churches show that they came willingly at the chaplain's call.

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Excerpts from his writings from the World War II battlefront "To think that we, in this world made by God, all of us enemy as well allies with families at home and loved ones whose pictures we carry around, go rushing to commit wholesale mayhem, certainly does not speak too well for the human race." "Am in the rear area resting today as I need the rest. Was up for three nights and days and my nerves are completely shaken. Nothing I can say or write will even describe the horror of war and the intense fear that grips one all the time one is on the front lines." "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 have wives and families in relocation camps. There is nothing we could do for them except to advise them. Our island boys having been free from such experiences do not have problems of that sort." The Rev. Hiro Higuchi