UH ROTC and the Hawaii Territorial Guard
Shortly after the Japanese began bombing on the morning of December 7, 1941, all servicemen were ordered to immediately report to their posts. The leadership at the UH ROTC Program also ordered their 370 cadets to report to the campus. They issued the cadets Springfield rifles and a clip of ammunition in order for them to find, fix, and fight the enemy paratroopers who were said to have landed on St. Louis Heights. It turned out to be a rumor and there were no Japanese paratroopers. But later that day, all of the UH ROTC cadets, which included over 150 Japanese-Americans, had joined the Hawaii Territorial Guard (HTG), now known as the Hawaii Army National Guard. They were assigned to guard the damaged military installations throughout the island of Oahu. However, military leaders as well as the politicians in Washington DC were fearful of the Japanese-Americans and questioned their loyalty. This quickly led to President Roosevelt signing Executive Order 9066 which caused the imprisonment of more than 110,00 Japanese-Americans, two-thirds of whom were native born Americans. This edict also required the over 5,000 Japanese-Americans who were already serving in the United States military to be summarily discharged. This affected the 317 Japanese-American serving in the HTG who were relieved of their duties on January 19, 1942. Those serving on Oahu were called in between 3-4 a.m., and without explanation, abruptly informed that their service was no longer needed and that they were dismissed. Years later, Ted Tsukiyama, one of the discharged guardsmen and former First Sergeant of Bravo Company, made an observation that day from the dismissal:
“When we parted, our officers cried. Our fellow Guardsmen, our classmates and friends for many years cried. And of course, we cried. That blow, to us, was actually worse than Pearl Harbor. We could accept that fact, by then, that Japan was our treacherous enemy. But to have our own country, in its most extreme time of need and danger, repudiate us, that was more than we could take. There was no depth to which our emotions sank. The very bottom had dropped out of our existence.”
“When we parted, our officers cried. Our fellow Guardsmen, our classmates and friends for many years cried. And of course, we cried. That blow, to us, was actually worse than Pearl Harbor. We could accept that fact, by then, that Japan was our treacherous enemy. But to have our own country, in its most extreme time of need and danger, repudiate us, that was more than we could take. There was no depth to which our emotions sank. The very bottom had dropped out of our existence.”