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Mike Masaoka arranged for me and two other men from the 442nd to spend a weekend with a family in Aiokpanchi, Mississippi. We were hosted by the Tolmans, who had originally come from Concord, Massachusetts. After a delicious steak dinner, we looked at her first editions of Walden Pond. We had long discussions and great food. We three soldiers embraced the Tolmans in gratitude for a visit we would never forget. After that visit, I corresponded with the Tolmans, who wrote to my wife Kuni, inviting her and our son Jon to leave camp and stay with them. Kuni thanked them but said since her father- and mother-in-law were in Topaz, she couldn’t leave them. Years after the war, the Tolmans were honored at the first 442nd Reunion and I was able to host them.
It was back to the war in April 1944. We boarded a troop train to Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia, where we were given a last physical before boarding Liberty ships bound for Italy.
1 Daniel Inouye would go on to serve almost 50 years as U.S. Senator from Hawaii.
This is part 2 of Jon Yatabe’s adapted excerpt from his father’s memoir, Letters to His Grandsons by Takeshi Yatabe. To read Part 1, see Volunteer by Jon Yatabe.
About the contributor: Takeshi Yatabe was born in San Francisco in 1907, the son of a shoemaker. His family moved to Berkeley when Tak was in high school, so he began commuting to his school by ferry, where he met his future wife, Kuni. After graduating from U.C. Berkeley in 1930, Tak worked as a manager in growers’ associations. He, Kuni, and son Jon were living in Redwood City, CA at the time of the forced removal. Tak volunteered from Topaz and joined the 442nd RCT. He served in Europe, and was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. After the War he served as the manager of the California Flower Market until retirement. He passed away in 1989.
Copyright 1993, the Yatabe family.