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Last month I wrote about John Wayne owning The Forbidden City, originally on the corner of Ala Moana Boulevard and Ward Avenue.
Wayne bought it for his mistress. They rendezvoused on his boat, docked across the street at Kewalo Basin. When Wayne’s wife, Pilar Pallete, found out, he gave the restaurant to Jack Cione and Francis Tom and moved the mistress to the mainland.
Mark Norman Olds Jr. called to tell me he attended Wayne and Pallete’s wedding in Kona on Nov. 1, 1954. He was a child at the time. His dad, a state senator and district judge, performed the ceremony.
The sunset wedding was held at the home of Sen. William “Doc” Hill at Keauhou Bay. Golfer Francis I‘i Brown was the best man, and his girlfriend, Winona Love, also attended. Brown said he met the actor at Pebble Beach, Calif., where he had a home, and they became friends.
Olds said a party of about 150 was in progress, with music playing, when he arrived. “It was the first wedding I had been to where the reception started before the ceremony,” the judge chuckled.
He was also surprised to learn the actor’s real name. The marriage certificate read, “Marion Michael Morrison.”
The vows did not include the word “obey,” the judge said. The idea of an obedient wife was on its way out in the 1950s. The ceremony took only about 90 seconds.
Wayne was on the Big Island filming “Sea Chase,” which co-starred Lana Turner. The director, John Farrow, gave the bride away.
Wayne and Pallete had three children. Wayne died in 1979. Pallete is 92 and lives in California.
The strangest wedding
Two weeks ago I wrote about another wedding. This one was between a captured World War II Japanese officer and an Okinawan nurse.
The Japanese officer agreed to tell the Americans everything he knew, if he was allowed to marry the woman he loved. Gen. Hodge gave it his blessing.
The bride managed to find a kimono in which to be wed. A GI played the wedding march on an accordion. A Mormon chaplain was quickly found to lead the ceremony.
An AJA interpreter acted as best man, while Doris Ishikawa of Maui, who was a refugee on Okinawa, was bridesmaid.
Army Intelligence officer Paul Tognetti said the officer did cooperate, and his information saved hundreds of American lives. After that the newlyweds passed into obscurity. Their names and fate remain unknown to me.
But I did hear from Ishikawa’s daughter, Carol Nitta, last week, and she had a photograph of the wedding. It clearly shows her mom, on the right, the bride and groom in the middle and the minister at left.
Nitta said her mom barely talked about the wedding and had no new details to provide.
Found in Okinawan cave
In the same article, I shared with readers that, long ago, I heard a story about an American GI from Hawaii coming upon a woman in an Okinawan cave and recognizing her as a schoolmate. I asked whether any reader knew more.
Richard Ito replied that he knew a variation of the story. It involved U.S. Sgt. Takejiro Higa, part of the Military Intelligence Service during World War II.
Following the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, Higa interrogated two men in threadbare clothes who were found by U.S. servicemen in an Okinawan cave. They both feared they would be executed by the Americans.
Higa was born in Hawaii but grew up on Okinawa. His family returned to Hawaii in 1939.
He asked them basic questions about their age, where they lived and where they went to school. “Kishaba Shogakko,” they said.
Did they know Nakandakari sensei? The two were shocked. How would an American GI know about a teacher there?
By now Higa recognized the two. “Do you remember one of your classmates named Takejiro Higa from Shimabuku?” They replied that he had gone back to Hawaii.
“I looked them straight in the face and in the Okinawan dialect said, ‘Don’t you recognize your own classmate?’”
They began crying in relief. “The three of us grabbed each other’s shoulders, huddled together and wept aloud,” Higa recalled.
Higa also was tasked with interrogating a man in a civilian relief center. “I recognized him instantly, because he was my teacher for the seventh and eighth grades.
“Sensei,” Higa said.
The teacher turned and recognized Higa, “Ah, kimi ka” (“Oh, it’s you”). They were both choked up, Higa said. He made sure all three were treated well.
Joel Yoshiyuki Fujita
My summer series on the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II prompted Cynthia Fujita, whose father was in the 442nd, to write me. How he got in was an interesting story, she said.
“He volunteered because he initially got a draft notice. He told his boss off at work when he quit his job, and his co-workers threw him a going-away party and bought him a beautiful leather jacket.”
Shortly thereafter he received a letter from the government to disregard the draft notice, Cynthia said.
He said, “I felt I had no choice but to volunteer, ’cause no can go back work after telling my boss off and my co-workers giving me a nice gift.”
He and his nephew, Mitsuyuki (Mitz) Fujita, volunteered for the 442nd and were shipped off to Camp Shelby, Miss.
“My dad liked to tell us the story of what happened to them while in Hattiesburg, Miss. He and his buddies had a pass for the evening and got on the bus heading into town, but they noticed that the bus driver drove right past an elderly African American lady with bags of groceries who was waiting at the bus stop.
“They were surprised, as the bus was half empty. When they spoke up to the driver, he ignored them. So when the bus pulled up to the next stop, one of my dad’s friends, ‘Wacky,’ threw the driver off the bus, commandeered it and drove back to the previous bus stop to pick up the elderly woman.
“When she boarded the bus, they told her the ride was free for her and everybody else who was riding the bus to town. When they returned to camp, they knew that they most likely would be punished for what they did.
“The commanding officer learned about the incident and called them in to hear their side of the story. He did ‘lecture’ them about their behavior but did not punish them. He said he understood why they did what they did, but unfortunately, segregation and discrimination was still rampant in the South.”
After the war Fujita returned to Honolulu, got married and worked at different jobs using his artistic talent as a sign maker for the state of Hawaii, painting and designing the logos of the public school signs. He retired in 1985.
In November 2019, Fujita received the French Chevalier Legion of Honor medal for his contribution in the liberation of France during WWII.
Joel Fujita died in June at 100 years of age.
The Rearview Mirror Insider is Bob Sigall’s now twice-weekly free email newsletter that gives readers behind-the-scenes background, stories that wouldn’t fit in the column, and lots of interesting details. Join in and be an Insider at RearviewMirrorInsider.com. Mahalo!
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