Late in life, Ben explained that many Americans saw him as an enemy, because the Japanese became enemies after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. “And I knew I was different,” he said. He made up his mind to prove it in the most dramatic and dangerous possible way.
Ben was widely celebrated late in life for his willingness to be different, to risk everything for his country, for his convictions. He came to terms, however uncomfortably, with the fact that the same country he defended rounded up and imprisoned Japanese Americans. “Oh, I didn’t think for a minute that it was fair, the way they got locked up or the tremendous losses that they suffered,” he said. He applauded those who stood by their principles and resisted the draft, calling them “very, very brave.”
Ben was more than qualified in making that assessment. When we speak of great lives, we ought to speak of moral character, something our leaders today often fail to supply. Ben Kuroki believed in living honorably. He believed that the fate of the free world rested on good character. He wasn’t perfect, but he lived life with purpose, courage, and a steady moral compass. Anyone who does that can claim to have lived a great life.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I wrote my first book thirty-five years ago, I fell in love with the challenge of weaving interviews and historical research into a compelling narrative. I also fell in love with the journey—the knowledge acquired and interesting people encountered along the way.
Such was the case with this book.
Bill Kubota is a longtime journalist and documentary filmmaker in Detroit, Michigan, and he spent the better part of a decade shaping hundreds of hours of interviews into a compelling hour-long documentary on Ben Kuroki’s life. When I first reached out to Bill to seek his guidance for a biography of Ben, he took a couple of hours out of his Sunday morning to brief me. Bill also generously shared hundreds of hours of interviews and transcripts. I deeply admire Bill’s work, and I am forever in his debt.
Interviewing Arthur Hansen, the acclaimed California State University, Fullerton, history professor emeritus, was a highlight of this project. Before we talked, Art emailed me the one-hundred-page transcript of his 1994 interview with Ben—a document that is a testament to Art Hansen’s skill as an interviewer and historian. During our interview, Art shared with me his vivid memories of the day he spent with Ben. His insights and his interview greatly informed this book.
I was introduced to Art by the prodigiously talented journalist, writer, historian, playwright, and actor Frank Abe. Working with project partner Frank Chin in 1998, Frank Abe conducted an extraordinary interview with Ben that became an important component of his powerful 2000 documentary film Conscience and the Constitution. The film greatly informed my understanding of the situation Ben encountered on the ground at the Heart Mountain incarceration camp when he arrived there on a War Department recruiting mission in April 1944. Although besieged by deadlines, Frank took time to offer valuable guidance and introductions.
Carroll (Cal) Stewart was a 93rd Bomb Group publicist and journalist during World War II who became one of Ben’s early advocates. In the 1990s, I corresponded with Cal and spoke with him by phone as I investigated the saga of my uncle who had been killed in action with the 93rd in 1943. I’ve consulted Cal’s work on the 93rd and Ben throughout this project. His son, Scott Stewart, shared several documents, including a booklet-length biography that his father wrote about Ben.
Thanks as well to Joe Avendano Duran, nephew of a 93rd Bomb Group pilot killed in England in January 1944, for his many kindnesses. Joe possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of 93rd history from his years of attending 93rd Bomb Group Association reunions. Joe has also done extraordinary research on the wartime service and death of his uncle, and that led him to a long friendship with Ben. I’m grateful to Joe for sharing his recollections of Ben and for reading the manuscript to make sure my account remained true to the history of the 93rd.
In Nebraska, Job Vigil, a reporter for the North Platte Telegraph newspaper, kindly introduced me to his golfing buddy Reed Kuroki, son of Ben’s oldest brother, George. Reed still lives in Hershey, Nebraska, and he shared memories of his Uncle Ben and other insights and recollections. I’m grateful to him for his assistance. Thanks as well to James Griffin, director and curator of the outstanding Lincoln County Historical Museum in North Platte, Nebraska, and curator of an excellent exhibition on the local Japanese American community.
I’m indebted to a legion of archivists, curators, and staff at various libraries and archives. Special thanks to Jennifer L. Jones at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History for warmly facilitating my visit to examine the untapped collection of Ben Kuroki’s papers, photographs, correspondence, and World War II-related memorabilia. My thanks as well to the staffs of the Manuscript Division and the Main Reading Room at the Library of Congress and the staffs of the Still Photography and Textual Records Collections of the National Archives and Records Administration facility at College Park, Maryland. I’m also grateful to the staff of the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, where I began doing research on the 93rd Bomb Group in the early 1990s. More recently, I’m grateful to AFHRA Research Team supervisor Patrick J. Charles for providing me with digitized microfilm rolls that allowed me to peruse thousands of pages of records from the convenience of my home. These records allowed me to nail down some loose ends regarding Ben’s European service and to discover some new information about Ben’s Pacific service.
Early in the project, I tried without success to track down Ben Kuroki’s youngest daughter, Julie, in California. We were finally connected through Jennifer L. Jones, and it was my good fortune to be able to listen to some of Julie’s memories of her remarkable father. Julie also shared with me the wonderful photograph of Ben and his daughters and procured the signatures needed to publish this image.
It was a thrill to meet and speak with Gail Kuromiya at Heart Mountain National Historic Landmark, and Gail and her sister, Suzi, shared photographs of their father, the artist, activist, and principled draft resister Yosh Kuromiya. Gail also took the time to read through the portions of the manuscript where I tell a piece of her father’s story.
In Wyoming, I’m grateful to the staff of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation and the Heart Mountain National Historic Landmark for their noble work to preserve this tragic place that figured so prominently in Ben’s story. Although foundation executive director Aura Sunada Newlin was swamped with Pilgrimage Weekend duties when I visited, I had the chance to view the extraordinary exhibits and speak with other staff members. My thanks to director of interpretation and preservation Cally Steussy for our impromptu interview and to executive assistant to the chair Eva Petersen for introducing me to some of the scholars and family members in attendance at the 2023 Pilgrimage. Thanks as well to director of communications and strategy Ray Locker for his generous offer of assistance.
Several people read early drafts of the manuscript. My thanks to my brother Steve Jones for his feedback and encouragement. Thanks as well to Air Force University historian Brian Laslie. Seth Mydans has been my friend and mentor since I was a freelance journalist in the Philippines in the 1980s, and he has read all of my manuscripts and offered invaluable feedback over the decades. Once again, Seth was generous with his time and encouragement. Joey Reaves, a longtime friend, accomplished journalist, author, and former Los Angeles Dodgers executive, devoted many hours to a careful edit of my second draft that proved tremendously helpful. My friend John Reinan offered valuable feedback. Trevor McIntyre has my gratitude for his sharp eye on technical matters and Pacific War history. The Nebraska-born, globe-trotting photographer Mike Theiler accompanied me on an epic road trip through Nebraska and Wyoming, during which he provided good company and captured superb images.
Deepest thanks to authors Jonathan Eig and James M. Scott for their encouragement and counsel during a long dry spell in my writing life. My thanks as well to Doug Swanson for his friendship over the years. I’m also grateful to Patrick O’Donnell for his counsel at a crucial moment. Tracy Frish has been a treasured source of friendship during good times and bad.
This book grew out of the decades I spent investigating the disappearance of my uncle’s B-24 crew during a 1943 raid on the German Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter factory at Wiener Neustadt, Austria. In the process, I learned how to do archival research and how to write a historical narrative, and I deepened my knowledge of the first year of the American bombing campaign against Nazi Germany. All of this proved invaluable when I set out to tell Ben’s story.
In 2015–16, Beverly Rogers and Carol C. Harter provided generous financial support through the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. A BMI-Kluge Fellowship allowed me to spend four months at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. During this time, I explored every thread of my uncle’s story and that informed my understanding of what Ben and his 93rd Bomb Group comrades endured in those first sixteen months of almost suicidal unescorted raids into Nazi-occupied Europe. Throughout my time at the Kluge Center, I was inspired by brilliant colleagues. My thanks to you all: Kluge Center intern Katie Rose Turlik; research fellows Adrian Browne, Ivan Chaar-Lopez, Elia Corazza, Andrew Devereux, Mary Dudziak, Eliana Hadjisavvas, Bruce Jentleson, Rhian Keyse, Charlotte Lerg, Katherine Luongo, Dara Orenstein, Mathilde Pavis, Anna Browne Ribeiro, Dan Rood, Lucy Taylor, Joe Thorogood, and Julia Young; Kluge Center staff Mary Lou Reker, Dan Turello, and Jason Steinhauer; and Megan Harris of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
At the back end of the fellowship, I spent five months at the Black Mountain Institute, writing and discussing storytelling. Among the highlights of my time at BMI was my introduction to Sally Denton and her amazing family. The author of several outstanding books, Sally facilitated my fellowship and then arranged for me to live rent-free in the basement of her family home in Boulder City. My upstairs host was the extraordinary Sara Denton, Sally’s mother, a vibrant ninety-eight years of age as I write this. Thanks also to esteemed Nevada journalist John Smith, former BMI director Joshua Wolf Shenk, BMI staffers Joseph Langdon and Cynthia Reed, and BMI fellows Hossein Mortezaeian Abkenar, John Garth, Walter Kirn, and Okey Ndibe.
The Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies awarded me a grant that allowed me to spend three weeks in Austria in 2017, nailing down facts about the loss of my uncle’s crew and deepening my understanding of the impact of the American bombing campaign on Austrian civilians. I’m especially grateful to Dr. Siegfried Beer, renowned Austrian historian and Botstiber board member, and the Botstiber Institute’s Valerie Grupp Arapis. In Austria, I’m grateful for the friendship and hospitality of Franz Haüsler, his wife Elizabeth Unterberger Haüsler, and the extended Haüsler-Unterberger families—Opa, Oma, Hansi, Anna Lisie, Angelika, Veronika, and Hubert. Thanks as well to Austrian historians Markus Reisner and Georg Hoffmann for sharing their knowledge on the American bombing of Austria.
Special thanks to the writer and Khe Sanh veteran Michael Archer for his friendship, counsel, and encouragement. Thanks as well to friends Pat Benic, Alan Berlow, Chris Billing, Jay Branegan, Bill Branigin, John Garth, Candy Gourlay, Dale Maharidge, Tod Robberson, David Timberman, Matthew Westfall, and Cris Yabes.
Teaching journalism and storytelling to students at Greenhill School in Addison, Texas, has sharpened my skills over the past six years. I’m especially grateful to 2022 graduates Saara Bidiwala, Jothi Gupta, and Cam Kettles and 2023 graduates Khushi Chhaya, Ivy Stitt, Ava Iwasko, and Emma Nguyen for their exceptional brilliance and passion. Special thanks to bosses Lee Hark, Tom Perryman, and Trevor Worcester and a long list of valued colleagues.
I will be forever grateful to my literary agent Andrew Stuart and editorial consultant Paul Starobin for their support and hard work. James Abbate, my editor at Kensington Publishing, has been a wonderfully kind and energetic partner. My thanks to Seth Lerner and the Kensington art team for designing a powerful cover and to Ann Pryor and the publicity team for all their efforts to share Most Honorable Son with a larger audience.
Don and Bonny Edmonds have been cherished friends and mentors since we met shortly after I began my newspaper career in Virginia in 1981. Steve LeVine has been an amazing friend for nearly forty years, and our relationship has been enriched by the ladies in his life: Nurilda (Nuri) Nur-lybayeva, Alisha and Ilana, and Dolores. Steve set in motion the events that are now culminating with the publication of this book.
Ali, my wife of nearly forty years, and our son, Chris, are the sun and moon and stars of my world. Ali is an award-winning elementary special education teacher in the third act of her professional life. Chris is a world-class metal guitarist whose national and international tours of the past two years are a testament to his talent and hard work. It’s a joy to share the highs and lows of our respective artistic journeys. Ali would tell you I work too much on my book projects. All I can say in my defense is that some force compels me to keep trying to create written works of lasting value. Aided by the generosity and kindness of the aforementioned people, I think this book meets that standard.
Shosuke and Naka Kuroki pose with eight of their ten children circa 1931. Ben, standing second from left, was fourteen or fifteen when this photo was taken.
Military Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Ben was a shy child who gradually found self-confidence as a teenager at tiny Hershey High School. He played baseball and basketball and was elected vice president of his graduating class of twelve students.
Military Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
In the years before Pearl Harbor, Ben played baseball for an area Japanese American team in the summer when he wasn’t driving a long-haul produce truck or working on the farm. Ben is seated second from right.
Military Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
In the weeks following the Pearl Harbor attack, Ben completed his hellish Army Air Forces basic training in Texas in early 1942 and was assigned to clerical school in Fort Logan, Colorado.
Military Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
