Ben Kuroki interview with Bill Kubota, August 26–27, 1998.
11
Frank Abe, narration for Conscience and the Constitution documentary.
CHAPTER 41: A TURNING POINT
1
Brian Nilya, “James Sakoda,” Densho Encylopedia entry, accessed at https://encyclopedia.densho.org/James_Sakoda/.
2
Ibid.
3
James Sakoda interview with Bill Kubota, March 4, 2000.
4
Ibid.
5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
7
“Kuroki Arrives in Topaz,” Topaz (Utah) Times, May 20, 1944, p. 1; “He’s Human Too, He Keeps a Charm, Likes Steak, Played Center Field,” Topaz (Utah) Times, May 19, 1944, p. 3.
8
“Sgt. Kuroki: Foremost An American,” Topaz (Utah) Times, May 19, 1944, p. 2.
9
“Sgt. Kuroki: Foremost An American,” Topaz (Utah) Times, May 19, 1944, p. 2.
10
“Residents Give Rousing Send-Off to Sgt. Kuroki,” Topaz (Utah) Times, May 24, 1944, p. 1.
11
Ibid.
12
Dorothea Lange to My dear Mrs. Kuroki, handwritten letter dated February 7, 1944, Ben Kuroki collection, Military History, Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
13
“Angelenos Polled on Postwar Views,” Los Angeles Times, January 16, 1944, Part II (City News), pp. 1 and 3.
14
Ruth Kingman, February 1971 interviews, “Japanese American Relocation Reviewed, Volume II: The Internment,” Earl Warren Oral History Project, University of California, accessed at https://oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=ft1290031s&brand=default&doc.vi ew=entire_text.
CHAPTER 42: HONORABLE SAD SAKI
1
Gordon (Gordy) Jorgenson was killed in action on Biak Island on June 7, 1944, and the news was published in local newspapers later in the month. See “Two Lincoln County Boys Killed in Action,” Sutherland (Nebraska) Courier, June 29, 1944, p. 2. Details of Gordy Jorgenson’s death and the Hershey memorial service that followed can be found in “Hershey News,” Lincoln County (Nebraska) Tribune, July 13, 1944, p. 4.
2
Ben told the story of the 1944 taxi incident a number of times over the years. With the passage of time, he sometimes recalled the incident as occurring in Salt Lake City rather than Denver. Ben’s first recollection of the incident that I could find was published in a United Press dispatch in November 1945 and it fixed the location as Denver, so that’s what I have used. The United Press dispatch was published as “Nisei Veteran Forbidden Taxi Ride in Denver,” Portage (Wisconsin) Daily Register and Democrat, November 7, 1945, p. 8. In an essay for a 1985 book—Chester Marshall’s The Global Twentieth: An Anthology of the 20th AF in WW II—Ben was quoted describing the incident as having occurred in Salt Lake City.
3
Carroll “Cal” Stewart, Ben Kuroki: The Most Honorable Son, short biography of Ben Kuroki, self-published and undated, p. 20.
4
