Updated 12/26/14
Excerpts from the Ryukyu Shimpo, 12/7/14: “Former US soldiers of Okinawan descent; war destroys all.”
“[Yoshinobu Oshiro, 86] who was born and raised in Hawaii, experienced the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941. He was enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1946 after the end of the war. When he was assigned as an interpreter-soldier of the CIC in Japan under U.S. military occupation, he undertook interrogation of former Japanese soldiers who had returned from Siberia.”
“[Takejiro Higa, 91,] was raised in Kitanakagusuku Village, the home of his parents, after he was born in Hawaii. He returned to Hawaii in 1939, avoiding enlistment into the Volunteer Pioneer Youth Army of Manchuria and Mongolia. When he was stationed in Leyte Island, the Philippines, in 1944, he was shocked to see a photograph of Okinawa just after the U.S. military carried out air strikes on October 10. About 90 percent of buildings in Naha City, the capital of Okinawa, were lost to fire and abandonment.”
Read the full article, with photo, here.
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Related article from Ryukyu Shimpo:
Okinawan American veteran used Uchinaguchi to save local residents during the Battle of Okinawa
OPG to interview Okinawan Americans who worked for the U.S. military during the Battle of Okinawa
