Ibid., pp. 234–35.
2
Russell DeMont, author interview, October 6, 1991.
3
Miller, Masters of the Air, p. 234.
4
Stewart, Ted’s Travelling Circus, p. 252.
5
Ben Kuroki and Homer Moran recalled Ben’s near-death experience on the November 5, 1943, Münster raid in their interviews with Bill Kubota. Ben Kuroki interview with Bill Kubota, August 26–27, 1998, and Homer Moran interview with Bill Kubota, September 5, 1998, Most Honorable Son documentary, unedited footage.
6
Homer Moran interview with Bill Kubota, September 5, 1998, unedited footage.
7
Moran’s account of the incident was more expansive than Ben’s. Moran said he heard the top turret guns firing “when it shouldn’t have been firing,” and so he ordered a crewman to “take a look up there to see what was happening.” Moran’s memory on this particular detail may have been faulty, as there is some question as to whether Ben’s guns would have continued firing after he lost consciousness. In any event, Moran said his order resulted in Ben being discovered unconscious, his oxygen mask torn from his face. Homer Moran interview with Bill Kubota, September 5, 1998, unedited footage.
8
Martin, Boy from Nebraska, p. 152.
9
Martin, Boy from Nebraska, pp. 152–53.
10
Ibid., p. 153.
11
Ben Kuroki interview with Bill Kubota, August 26–27, 1998.
12
Ben’s later recollections about his passage from England to America are sparse. In a February 4, 1944, speech before the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Ben said he left England on December 1, 1943, and reached New York City on December 7. Ralph G. Martin offers no details of Ben’s return in his 1946 biography, Boy from Nebraska. Ben said this about his return from England in his lengthy interview with Bill Kubota: “Unfortunately I didn’t get to fly home. I had to come home by boat. It took me six, seven days to get back.” Preservation of World War II convoy records has been spotty, and I couldn’t find any documents that definitively established the date of Ben’s departure from England or his arrival in New York City. But a telegram I came across in Ben’s papers at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History supports the timetable that Ben recalled in his Commonwealth Club speech. The timestamp on the telegram that Ben sent to his brother George in Hershey, Nebraska, was “Dec 8, 1227 PM.” Ben’s telegram read as follows: “Near New York will visit Chicago probably week before arrive home—Ben Kuroki.”
CHAPTER 35: HOMECOMING
1
Martin, Boy from Nebraska, p. 154.
2
Ibid. Ben’s quote is drawn from his August 26–27, 1998, interview with Bill Kubota.
3
“Warren Sees Sabotage Peril in Freeing Evacuees,” United Press dispatch in the Fresno (California) Bee, June 21, 1943, p. 2.
4
Ibid.
5
Ben Kuroki interview with Bill Kubota, August 26–27, 1998.
6
See “Kuroki Here,” North Platte (Nebraska) Tribune, December 23, 1943, p. 1; “Ben Kuroki Is Home After War Services,” North Platte Telegraph, December 17, 1943, p. 2.
7
Martin, Boy from Nebraska, p. 155.
8
Blaine Runner’s heroics were recounted in numerous local newspaper articles at the time. See “Fire Sweeps South Part of County,” North Platte Telegraph, March 31, 1910, p. 5, and “Blaine Runner Receives Medal,” North Platte Semi-Weekly Tribune, January 30, 1912, p. 4. His height (six-foot-two) and other physical characteristics are drawn from his World War II draft registration card. Runner’s visit to Ben and gift is recounted in Martin, Boy from Nebraska, p. 155.
