Wyman, Mrs. Charles [Jessie] Hutchens, Mrs. Ted [Edna] Neid and Mrs. Vern [Opal] Smith, all of whom are on the board, with well-filled plates of sandwiches, a familiar sight to all service men who visit the Canteen. The story gives Miss Rae Wilson well-deserved credit for her part in the organization and work of the Canteen until she left for California. Telegraph | May 10, 1943 The men of the Gothenburg American Legion post, 40 strong, arrived early Sunday at the North Platte Canteen with several well-filled boxes of food supplies that they dispensed during the day. In one of the largest group donations that have been turned in at the Canteen in some time, the men furnished food including 150 home baked cakes, 3,000 cookies, hundreds of sandwiches, 55 dozen hard boiled eggs, potato chips, popcorn balls, cream, butter, coffee and 172 decks of playing cards. The men had a big day doing the serving and working on the platform, and the ladies in charge want to say “thank you.” As German-Americans had been persecuted dur- ing World War I — even when their sons, brothers and husbands fought loyally on the Allied side — so did the Japanese-American “Nisei” often find their adopted homeland turned against them in World War II. Nebraska had no Nisei internment camps, but Lincoln County witnessed both the arrest of
country, America, land of liberty and justice, we are more than willing to die for you. “Yes, we are of Japanese extraction [and] our fathers and mothers have come from Japan. BUT our hearts are all for America. We have been through Pearl Harbor on December 7th. Some of us lost our good friends and even broth- ers and sisters and dear Mom and Dad on that faithful day. Yes, we remember, and we are here to see that [Prime Minister Gen. Hideki] Tojo and his stooges are put just where they belong. “Maybe some of you have your doubts about our sincerity. For this, we do not blame you folks. America has given us our chance to show our loyalty by asking for volunteers to form a combat team composed of Japanese Americans. We of Hawaii have taken advantage of Uncle Sam’s generosity, and a good 9,000 or more of us volunteered. However, only a few, nearly 3,000 of us fortunate ones were picked. “Yes, we are here — here to show the world that race or creed makes no difference — that any man would be willing to die for freedom and justice. In closing I say (in Hawaiian) Mahola, the best of luck to you all.” The letter was signed by Pvt. Larry T. Mizumoto. Nearly 350,000 U.S. women served at home and abroad during the war. Military nurses were among the Canteen’s earliest visitors, but troop trains by mid-1943 were carrying more and more WACs, WAVEs and other servicewomen.
Father Hiram Hisanori Kano — taken after leading worship at North Platte’s Episcopal Church of Our Savior the day of the Pearl Harbor attack — and the dogged heroism of “Most Honorable Son” Ben Kuroki of Hershey, who faced down open preju- dice while flying 58 combat missions in Europe and the Pacific. Kuroki, who belatedly received the Army’s Distinguished Service Medal in 2005, died in 2015 at age 98. The following letter, one of many received from members and relatives of the writer’s unit, re- flects the Nisei experience. Telegraph | May 21, 1943 “To the good people of North Platte: “Greetings and Aloha from Camp Shelby [Mississippi]. … “I am one of the fortunate ones who passed through North Platte on the way to Camp Shelby from Hawaii and have really appreciated the kind hospitality and warm-hearted spirit you good people have shown. I join my bud- dies in congratulating you good people for your wide-awake and hustling spirit. “Your hospitality has touched a lot of us, and we wrote back home telling the people of Hawaii about you good folks of North Platte. … “We of the 442nd Combat team are all volunteers who will be sent overseas in about a year. We realize that a lot of us won’t be com- ing home when it’s over, over there. But as long as there are such people like you folks in this
56 CANTEEN: AS IT HAPPENED
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