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[ Somber orchestral music playing ]
-A date which will live in infamy.
-Daddy, I hate Pearl Harbor Day.
I'm the only Japanese in the whole class,
and the other kids stare.
The boys say mean things like,
"Your dad fought for Japan during the war."
-I'm so sorry, Beverly.
I guess it's about time I told you about World War II
and how thousands of Japanese-Americans
fought to free Europe from the Germans and Italians.
[ Somber orchestral music playing ]
I volunteered
out of the Minidoka, Idaho, concentration camp
to fight with the all-Japanese-American
442nd Combat Team
and the 100th Battalion from Hawaii.
We wanted to prove our loyalty to America.
Little did we know
we would become heroes.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-We will never serve a country
that keeps our families and us captive.
-Yes, we will prove our loyalty
and fight for America.
[ Marching footsteps ]
-I became a sergeant in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Our motto was the Hawaiian dice players' saying --
"Go for broke!"
[ Whistling, explosions ]
[ Music continues ]
[ Men shouting indistinctly ]
The army gave us many dangerous missions.
Leading a scouting mission in Italy,
I learned what it meant to be responsible
for all my men.
On that day,
my squad was almost wiped out.
[ Music continues ]
I yelled at the colonel because he didn't tell us
it was a suicide mission.
To this day, I still see the faces of my men.
I regret that bloody mission and will never forget it
and them.
[ Music continues ]
I wept for those I could not save.
I felt sorry for their families,
who were in American concentration camps
when they received the news.
In October 1944,
our next assignment was to save the Texas Lost Battalion,
which was surrounded by Germans for over a week
in the mountains of Eastern France.
The Texans were taking heavy casualties
and running out of food and ammo.
All rescue attempts failed,
so they called in the 442nd and 100th,
even though we were exhausted
and other troops were rested.
[ Dramatic orchestral music plays ]
[ Whistling, explosions ]
The German artillery blasted trees
as we were crawling up the hill.
I heard a loud crack and thud.
A huge limb fell next to me,
which broke my buddy's neck.
[ Music continues ]
I led the charge against a German machine-gun nest
that had us pinned down.
Bullets were flying all around me,
and, luckily, I was not hit.
All I could think about was my men, your mom,
and my family and Minidoka.
Everyone was counting on me.
[ Whistling, explosions ]
[ Dramatic music plays ]
-American troops of Japanese descent,
men who have distinguished themselves repeatedly
in the European War,
move out to rescue the battalion.
[ Music continues ]
-Oh, it was a bloody battle in the rain and mud.
But we finally freed the 212 Texans.
The 442nd and 100th
suffered more casualties than troops saved.
We were so exhausted.
We hardly celebrated. We had lost so many friends.
-Although the Lost Battalion's situation seemed hopeless,
these men kept their... -After,
I heard we made the Movietone News
at the theaters back home.
They called us heroes for rescuing the Texans.
-These American-born troops of Japanese ancestry
received decorations from General Dahlquist
for their work in rescuing their comrades in arms.
[ Heroic orchestral music plays ]
[ Slow orchestral music plays ]
-Later, we were able to get some rest and relaxation in town.
[ Mid-tempo orchestral music playing ]
One of the Hawaii boys got into an argument
and punched a white American officer at a French tavern.
[ Men shouting indistinctly ]
The military police broke it up, and four of us were handcuffed.
[ Shouting continues ]
[ Music continues ]
[ Fabric tears ]
I was busted to the rank of private
and thrown in the army stockade with three other guys.
I felt guilty because the rest of my buddies
went back into battle without us.
They needed squad leaders on the line,
so they let us out of the stockade.
I was happy to get out of jail and rejoin my troops.
[ Slow orchestral music plays ]
[ Mid-tempo orchestral music playing ]
in April 1945,
the 442nd and 100th
broke the German Gothic line of defense,
something the white Americans could not do.
We risked our lives in full combat gear,
scaling a 3,000-foot cliff of granite at night.
The enemy was waiting,
but we surprised the Germans from the rear,
and they surrendered quickly.
It took the 442nd only a few hours
to break the famous Gothic line.
[ Somber orchestral music playing ]
But the climb was very dangerous.
Those that fell did so in silence.
Otherwise, there would have been 5,000 dead Buddha-heads
at the bottom of the cliff.
Any loud sound would have alerted the Germans,
and we would have been sitting ducks.
[ Mid-tempo orchestral music playing ]
We had just enough time to grab a hot meal
before we got orders to head out again to the front.
[ Music continues ]
I received a letter from my friend Ichido
in the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion.
They shot a lock off one of the Dachau death camps
and found prisoners who looked like walking skeletons.
[ Music continues ]
When I read Ichiro's letter,
I said a prayer for the prisoners in Europe.
Then I remembered that your mom and my family
were safe, not starving, in Minidoka.
[ Music continues ]
[ People cheering ]
Victory in Europe Day,
or VE Day,
was May 2, 1945.
On May 10, 1945,
I was summoned to appear at my court-martial trial
about the tavern fight.
No one represented me as legal counsel,
so I was found guilty.
[ Music continues ]
The judge gave me six months in the stockade,
which included the loss of six months' pay.
My sentence was reduced, however,
because I served time in the stockade in France
and fought to break the Gothic Line.
[ Men shouting indistinctly ]
[ Explosion ]
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
ended the war with Japan.
Over 250,000 people were killed.
They were women, children,
old people, and invalids,
not soldiers.
I worried about my cousins in Hiroshima.
Later, we found out that a few of them had survived the blast.
After the war was ending,
prisoners in Minidoka and other camps
were able to return home.
Some had nowhere to go
but had to leave anyway.
The government gave them $25 each
and a train ticket.
[ Air horn blows ]
I returned on a troop ship that docked in New York.
The Statue of Liberty welcomed us all.
It -- It was like a --
It was like a whole new world opened up in an instant.
Immediately, I caught a train back to Chicago
to meet your mother.
[ Music continues ]
The 442nd and 100th
were called The Purple Heart Battalion
because so many of us were wounded.
We became the most decorated unit in American history
for its size.
President Truman said that we fought the enemy and won
and we fought prejudice and won.
The ceremony lifted my spirits,
and all I could think about was going back home.
I couldn't wait to see your mom.
[ Music continues ]
In 1945, four years after Pearl Harbor,
your mother and I were married in Minneapolis.
Our new life was beginning
as we packed and returned to Seattle.
[ Baby crying ]
I worked several different jobs after returning to Seattle.
I was at Tashiro Hardware a short while
and then moved on to Smith-Gandy Automotive for 20 years.
Finally, I sold cars for Bill Pierre Motors
in Lake City for 24 years.
[ Music continues ]
So, Beverly, that is my story.
I should have told you sooner.
We fought for liberty and justice,
even though our families were in American concentration camps.
We became American heroes fighting for freedom
and gave our blood for this country.
So never be ashamed on Pearl Harbor Day again.
Be proud.
We proved our loyalty.
Every Pearl Harbor Day,
I still think about my men who did not make it.
I wish I could have done more.
[ Music continues ]
-I would have never made it back
if it weren't for Shiro's bravery.
-I would have never been born if it weren't for Shiro.
[ Music continues ]
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-In 1983, at the 442nd/100th reunion in Hawaii,
the veterans decided to seek justice for Shiro --
start a campaign to overturn the court-martial decision
and restore Shiro's rank to Sergeant.
They said that it was just another battle
like the old days, fighting against the odds.
-Thank you to all my friends and family
for your efforts to restore my rank.
-The Army responded to the appeal
in 1997.
General Walter B. Huffman,
Major General U.S. Army,
the Judge Advocate General
sent a letter that came on December 9, 1997,
six months after Shiro's death.
The letter states,
"Sergeant Shiro Kashino is a hero
and should always be remembered as such.
His rank has been reinstated."
[ Music continues ]
Shiro's stripes are restored.
[ Music continues ]
Shiro passes away before the letter is received.
In 2012, members of the 442nd
were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
[ Music continues ]
Many of the 442nd/100th paid with their lives
at the same time
their Japanese-American friends and relatives
were in American concentration camps.
The 442nd/100th never lost a battle,
never retreated,
and never left a comrade on the field of battle
as they held their "Go for broke" banner high.
[ Music continues ]
[ Slow orchestral music playing ]
Shiro Kashino was born in Seattle, Washington,
on January 19, 1922,
to as the sixth child of Bujinosuke Kashino
and Hatsune Oda.
Shiro enjoyed sports throughout his life.
From Leschi Elementary and Garfield High School,
he participated in baseball, soccer,
basketball, and football.
At Garfield, he prided himself on making
the All-City championship football team in 1938.
He played quarterback
and later, due to injuries, played guard.
He was offered a football scholarship
to Willamette University in Oregon
but delayed his studies to earn money
before commencing his college education.
[ Dramatic orchestral music plays ]
-These planes are headed for the Hawaiian Islands...
Pearl Harbor.
-His plans were disrupted
with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941,
and the subsequent forced incarceration
of Japanese and Japanese-Americans.
-When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,
our West Coast became a potential combat zone.
Living in that zone were more than 100,000 persons
of Japanese ancestry.
We knew that some among them were potentially dangerous.
Military authorities therefore determined
that all of them, citizens and aliens alike,
would have to move.
The many loyal among them felt that this was a sacrifice
they could make in behalf of America's war effort.
[ Somber piano music playing ]
-Shiro was incarcerated at the Puyallup Assembly Center,
a temporary detention center,
and later at Minidoka War Relocation Center,
a concentration camp
near Twin Falls, Idaho.
In 1943,
when the opportunity to serve in the U.S. Army opened,
he volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
-They volunteered to fight for the land of their birth,
the adopted land of their parents.
These boys look like tough fighters.
Aren't you glad they're on our side?
[ Somber orchestral music playing ]
[ Explosions ]
[ Music continues ]
-He fought in all the major battles
of the European campaigns with the 442nd.
Shiro was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal,
six Purple Hearts,
two Bronze Stars,
and one Silver Star,
along with other miscellaneous commendations.
Shiro was active in the Nisei Veterans Committee in Seattle
and was its commander in 1947-'48.
He was also very proud of his work
on the Nisei War Memorial Monument
at Lakeview Cemetery in Seattle,
which was dedicated in 1949.
He was an active member until his death in 1997 from cancer.
Every Memorial Day, the Kashino family gathers
to honor Japanese-American soldiers.
His granddaughter Shina also joins them
because it is a tradition
that has taught her about the 442nd legacy
which opened opportunities for future generations.
[ Music continues ]
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