Nisei Impact: Ohana recalls family member as true American who fought heroically in World War II

Editor’s note: Nisei Impact is a youth storytelling project led by the Honolulu Star-­Advertiser and the nonprofit Nisei Veterans Legacy. Each day this week, we will publish a story, written by a high school student, about the nisei veterans in our families and communities.

——

A month and a half before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a much lower-­stakes matchup was about to occur. The championship game of the Honolulu Barefoot Football league took place on Oct. 22, 1941. In the lineup for the Diamond packers of Kalihi was Pvt. 1st Class Gerome Mitsuo Hirata, who played defensive end.

Eileen Hirota, Hirata’s niece, described how his team had barreled its way to the championship, winning game after game and in four straight wins not allowing any other team to score against it. The championship game was to be played against the Aiea Rams, another strong team, but the Packers were favored and Hirata was ready.

>> RELATED: Nisei Impact: Honolulu Star-Advertiser youth storytelling project honors Hawaii’s Japanese American World War II veterans

A bona-fide all-American boy, Hirata was a 1938 graduate of McKinley High School where he was the class treasurer. Although his brothers had been sent to Japan for a formal education, Hirata thought of himself as a true American and refused to go. Instead, he stayed in Hawaii, participating in typical “American” pastimes such as playing defense for the Packers, who beat the Aiea Rams and became the 1941 champions of the Barefoot Football League.

Like so many others, this young football star’s desire for a normal life changed when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Hirata had joined the Army in March 1941, but Pearl Harbor propelled him toward active combat.

Although there were risks to enlisting, Hirata’s family felt pride in the bravery of their golden boy and didn’t do anything to prevent him from joining up. According to Harris Hirata, the veteran’s nephew, “His parents’ feelings were mixed between pride and fear. I don’t think anyone, including the old folks, objected.”

Hirata left Hawaii for Camp McCoy in Wisconsin in June 1942. The soldier spent nearly a year at McCoy with the 100th Infantry Battalion, the famed unit that fought heroically in World War II. Temperatures there went down below freezing, making it cold for island boys who had known nothing but Hawaii before the war. A single photo of Hirata exists from his time at Camp McCoy, laughing and huddling around a makeshift fire with other soldiers.

Letters sent home to Hawaii before Hirata and the 100th left the United States in August 1943 detailed his experiences during his first time away from home. Eileen Hirota said that one of her uncle’s letters described a final view of the Statue of Liberty as the soldiers’ boat left New York harbor. Letters and a few photos are the only traces left of Hirata. These mementos of a true American hero are cherished by family members and provide a link for younger generations.

Landing first in Algeria, the 100th struggled with the strong winds that blew sand into tents and food and jammed up rifle parts. Hirata’s letters described sand fleas and sluggish brown drinking water.

Hirata’s convoy eventually left Algeria and on Sept. 22 arrived in Salerno, Italy, at the mouth of the Sele River.

Shortly after midnight on Nov. 3, the 100th crossed the Volturno River and began to trudge through minefields and booby-trapped areas, making their way slowly against German fire.

As the troops neared the hills, Hirata’s company was halted by machine pistols firing from across the road. The captains of the company went to assess. They ordered their platoon to “fix bayonets” and charge across the road, which startled their enemy into fleeing.

The men progressed, and on the morning of Nov. 6, a second counterattack took place. An advance was attempted up between two hills, but despite their preparatory barrage, the group was fired upon by German soldiers on the ridge, which resulted in heavy casualties. Hirata, the football player, the all-American boy who wanted to go to war to support the country that he loved, was killed.

The anguish of Hirata’s death was compounded by the irony of his parents and younger brothers having relocated to Japan, the country that forced the U.S. into war and Hirata into active duty.

Both brothers were drafted into the Japanese army. “I have often wondered what kind of thoughts they might have secretly harbored,” Harris Hirata said. “They were born in America and loyal to this country, even though they returned to Japan (shortly before Pearl Harbor). The death of their brother surely hit them hard.”

The U.S. military, in correspondence with the fallen soldier’s family, asked what to do with his remains. His father, Shotaro Hirata, who was living in Fukuoka at the time, asked that Hirata’s brother James make all of the decisions regarding Hirata’s final resting place. He was temporarily interred at the Carano Cemetery in Italy until it was determined his remains would be repatriated and buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. Hirata, who was awarded the Purple Heart and the World War II Victory medal/ribbon, was buried at Punchbowl on Aug. 15, 1949, six years after he was killed.

Hirata’s family has long held onto the few memories they have of their brother. Robyn Garner, his grandniece, said that her grandmother Naoye Kamasaki recalls running barefoot around Waikiki and eating mochi with her older brother when they were children. Naoye’s “American” name was Evelyn, which was given to her by Hirata. “He loved America,” Garner said, “and wanted his little sister to have a piece of America with her. At family gatherings she was Naoye, but in public everyone called her Evelyn.”

Gracie Matsuo, Hirata’s niece, said that as a child she remembers Hirata’s military pension being sent to her father every month.

“My father would take this money and mail it to his parents in Japan,” she said. “I remember my mother thinking we could really use the money ourselves, but my father always sent it to his parents.”

Eileen Hirota, Matsuo’s sister, said that sending the money to his parents is what Hirata would have wanted.

“I didn’t get a chance to know him,” she said. “But everyone in the family said he was the kindest, nicest person. He just wanted to do what was right.”

L. Kensington Ono is a sophomore at Punahou School. She is the great-grandniece of Gerome Mitsuo Hirata.