Editor’s Scratchpad

Tuesday, April 24, 2001

‘Mr. Lovell’ left
a lasting impression

When I read that James W. Lovell had died at the age of 94, I was touched. Jimmy Lovell was a good man and a good football, basketball and track coach. A native of Nebraska, he had left Roosevelt High before I got there but I was one of his boys at the University of Hawaii in the early 1950s when he coached field events and I was a high and long jumper.

Mr. Lovell -- we always called him Mr. Lovell -- told me about his wartime experiences with the 100th Infantry Battalion. He was second in command of the outfit made up of mostly Japanese-American young men from Hawaii who wanted to prove their loyalty to America. He told me about being wounded twice and emphasized one point: "If the 100th Battalion had not made good, there never would have been a 442nd Regimental Combat Team."

Some of the U.S. military brass had doubts about how the Japanese Americans would do in battle when Japan was an enemy. But the men of the 100th Battalion distinguished themselves, winning many decorations for bravery. That ensured the go-ahead for the 442nd, whose men also distinguished themselves. Mr. Lovell was proud of them, and they of him.

--Ben Wood

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