Military Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
After his discharge from military service in February 1946, Ben launched what he called his 59th Mission Tour, delivering speeches on racial intolerance and prejudice and highlighting the issue in interviews.
Military Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Ben’s 59th Mission Tour coincided with the release of a biography written by war correspondent Ralph G. Martin. Shortly after the release of the book in October 1946, Ben stopped in a Brentano’s in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to sign copies and greet customers.
Military Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
During his 59th Mission Tour, Ben addressed scores of civic and school groups. He enjoyed posing for photographs and signing autographs. One of the Armonk, New York, students in this photograph renewed her correspondence with Ben in 2002 after he became the subject of news stories recalling his World War II service.
Military Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Ben received a warm welcome from University of Nebraska chancellor Reuben G. Gustavson after beginning work on his journalism degree at Nebraska’s flagship university in June 1947. Gustavson, who worked on the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago during World War II, had racially integrated the university’s dormitories the year before Ben’s arrival.
Military Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
By the late 1950s, Ben and Shige owned two weekly newspapers in Michigan and were the proud parents of three daughters. From left: Kristyn, Julie, Kerry.
Julie Kuroki.
In a 1995 visit to Heart Mountain, Yosh Kuromiya posed with his watercolor of the haunting peak that called to him from beyond the perimeter of barbed wire and armed guards. “I thought it was a thing of beauty and that maybe it was the only sanity that I was experiencing at the time,” he said.
Irene Kuromiya.
In 2006, Ben and Shige and their youngest daughter, Julie, far left, were guests of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush at a White House state dinner for Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Military Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Ben and Shige returned to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2007 to attend the premiere of a documentary film about his life. The documentary aired nationally on PBS later that fall.
Military Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
President George W. Bush honored Ben at a 2008 White House ceremony attended by Nisei war veterans as part of the annual celebration of Asian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Ben acknowledged the President’s personal tribute with a salute. Afterward, President Bush warmly greeted the first Nisei war hero of World War II as Ben fought back tears.
Military Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
The farm where Ben grew up outside Hershey, Nebraska, remained largely unchanged as of 2023.
Mike Theiler.
The flow of the North Platte River near Ben’s childhood home experiences dramatic fluctuations these days because of upstream dams and diversions for crop irrigation. On a hot summer’s day in 2023, children splashed in the river where Ben had swum and fished and was saved by his best friend Gordy Jorgenson after falling through the ice during a winter duck hunt. Mike Theiler.
The former incarceration camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming, is now a national historic landmark. Camp survivors, family members, and scholars converge on Heart Mountain each summer in an annual pilgrimage. Exhibits, lectures, and a documentary film recall President Franklin Roosevelt’s unjust decision to incarcerate West Coast inhabitants of Japanese descent. Mike Theiler.
NOTE ON SOURCES
Ben Kuroki was interviewed dozens of times by newspaper, magazine, and radio reporters during World War II, and these interviews illuminated Ben’s wartime thoughts and experiences. Ben also delivered dozens of speeches during and after the war—some crafted by professional writers with Ben’s input, and others, after the war, written by Ben. These speeches—most of which are preserved in Ben Kuroki’s papers at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC—also provided valuable insights into Ben’s journey.
