May 15, 2024 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Major General James Mukoyama rose from his blue collar Chicago neighborhood to become the first Asian-American to command a US Army division. General “Mook” is the author of Faith, Family & Flag: Memoirs of an Unlikely American Samurai Crusader. Here he is to tell the story of the Japanese who fought for the United States in WWII.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Major General James
Mukayama rose from his blue collar Chicago neighborhood to become
the first Asian American to command a US Army division.
General mook As he's known as the author of Faith, Family,
and Flag Memoirs of an Unlikely American Samurai Crusader. Here
(00:33):
he is to tell the story of the Japanese who
fought for the United States in World War Two.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I have a daily standard mantra, which is every day
is a great day. I have my faith, my family,
and live in the finest country in the world. I
say that every day every chance I get. But although
I am extremely positive and grateful having been born in
(01:01):
the United States, I tell people when I was born here,
I hit the lotto. So when I say that mantra,
sometimes I get pushback about the finest country in the
world part and I say, listen, I've been around the
block a few times. You know, it does help to
be around about eight decades, And so I tell them,
(01:23):
you know, when I joined the military, there had never
been an Asian American admiral or general in our armed forces.
Now I was not the first. That was about the
third or fourth. The club isn't real large. Now. Has
our country made mistakes, obviously, but I'll tell you what
(01:47):
number one. We're the only country that I know of
that had a civil war to abolish slavery, costing over
half a million lives to settle that situation. And our
president who ran on that platform was assassinated. He gave
up his life, Abraham Lincoln, knowing full well the risk
(02:10):
he was taking. The military is a perfect example. President
Truman in nineteen forty eight integrated our military services. Prior
to that, we had segregated units, the black units. And
World War Two we had the Japanese American unit, which
(02:30):
I might add was the one hundredth Battalion, four hundred
and forty second Regimental Combat Team, which fought in Europe.
To this stay, it's the most highly decorated infantry unit
of its size in late of service. It was a
unit that everybody wanted them, a sign to them because
(02:52):
of their bravery. By the way, the combat unit the
theater operation like the European theater of operation. We had
nine million guys who served in that area during the war,
and the reputation of good units spreads like wildfire in
combat zones as well as the bad units and the
(03:16):
for forty second, their reputation was crazy. In fact, there
was a back in the late nineties the Army selected
the ten most important battles in the history of the
United States Army, and one of them was the one
in which the four forty second saved a Texas Army
(03:41):
National Guard battalion in the mountains of France. The Germans
had surrounded them. It was called the Lost Battalion. Hitler
had ordered the annihilation of that unit, and they were
in a very wooded area surrounded, and so they tried
(04:03):
to send units in to rescue that battalion, but nobody
could break through. The one hundred four to forty second
had just come off of that operation, and normally when
you have a major operation, you're given a little rest
time to reconstitute and get replacements and things like that.
(04:24):
But the one hundred four to forty second was ordered
to go save the lost Battalion or rescue the lost Battalion.
They succeeded, but in doing so, they saved I think
two hundred soldiers from that battalion who were remaining, who
(04:48):
were still alive. In so doing, the battalion took eight
hundred casualties in order to get through. So when that happened,
you know, the words spread like crazy. It was here
in this back in the States too. But you know,
so the veterans after World War Two, when they came
back and they heard people bad mouthing Americans of Japanese ancestry,
(05:13):
i e. Japanese Americans, the veterans would say stop saying
that these people are loyal Americans, you know. And President
Truman uh honored them at the White House with the
with the parade, why awarded their seventh presidential unicitation to them,
(05:34):
and he said, you know, you guys fought to two
fights against fascism but also against racism, and uh so
that I'm very proud to tell you that I had
an uncle who was in that I had relatives who served.
(05:56):
And we had Japanese American soldiers who fought in the
Pace Pacific, which was very Nobody knows a lot about them.
Was called the Military Intelligence Service, and they were translators
and interpreters and they actually went forward with the Marines
(06:17):
and the army soldiers into battle. They were at Iwo Jima,
they're at Guam. You know they fought in the Jungles
or the Pacific, and they helped break the Japanese code,
the Imperial Code, which led to our victory at Midway
(06:41):
and turned the tide in the Pacific. In fact, General
MacArthur's chief of intelligence basically said after the war that
the breaking that code shortened the war by two years.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
And you've been listening to major general names Mukayama and
General muk and he's the author of Faith, Family and
Flag Memoirs of an Unlikely Samurai Crusader. And what a
story he tells about Japanese service during World War II,
The story of the American Japanese who fought against the
Japanese in World War II. Here on Our American Stories.
(07:29):
This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories, the
show where America is the star and the American people,
and we do it all from the heart of the
South Oxford, Mississippi. But we truly can't do this show
without you. Our shows will always be free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, consider making a tax deductible donation to Our
(07:50):
American Stories. Go to Our American Stories dot com. Give
a little, give a lot. That's our American Stories dot
com
And we continue with our American stories. Major General James
Mukayama rose from his blue collar Chicago neighborhood to become
the first Asian American to command a US Army division.
General mook As he's known as the author of Faith, Family,
and Flag Memoirs of an Unlikely American Samurai Crusader. Here
(00:33):
he is to tell the story of the Japanese who
fought for the United States in World War Two.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I have a daily standard mantra, which is every day
is a great day. I have my faith, my family,
and live in the finest country in the world. I
say that every day every chance I get. But although
I am extremely positive and grateful having been born in
(01:01):
the United States, I tell people when I was born here,
I hit the lotto. So when I say that mantra,
sometimes I get pushback about the finest country in the
world part and I say, listen, I've been around the
block a few times. You know, it does help to
be around about eight decades, And so I tell them,
(01:23):
you know, when I joined the military, there had never
been an Asian American admiral or general in our armed forces.
Now I was not the first. That was about the
third or fourth. The club isn't real large. Now. Has
our country made mistakes, obviously, but I'll tell you what
(01:47):
number one. We're the only country that I know of
that had a civil war to abolish slavery, costing over
half a million lives to settle that situation. And our
president who ran on that platform was assassinated. He gave
up his life, Abraham Lincoln, knowing full well the risk
(02:10):
he was taking. The military is a perfect example. President
Truman in nineteen forty eight integrated our military services. Prior
to that, we had segregated units, the black units. And
World War Two we had the Japanese American unit, which
(02:30):
I might add was the one hundredth Battalion, four hundred
and forty second Regimental Combat Team, which fought in Europe.
To this stay, it's the most highly decorated infantry unit
of its size in late of service. It was a
unit that everybody wanted them, a sign to them because
(02:52):
of their bravery. By the way, the combat unit the
theater operation like the European theater of operation. We had
nine million guys who served in that area during the war,
and the reputation of good units spreads like wildfire in
combat zones as well as the bad units and the
(03:16):
for forty second, their reputation was crazy. In fact, there
was a back in the late nineties the Army selected
the ten most important battles in the history of the
United States Army, and one of them was the one
in which the four forty second saved a Texas Army
(03:41):
National Guard battalion in the mountains of France. The Germans
had surrounded them. It was called the Lost Battalion. Hitler
had ordered the annihilation of that unit, and they were
in a very wooded area surrounded, and so they tried
(04:03):
to send units in to rescue that battalion, but nobody
could break through. The one hundred four to forty second
had just come off of that operation, and normally when
you have a major operation, you're given a little rest
time to reconstitute and get replacements and things like that.
(04:24):
But the one hundred four to forty second was ordered
to go save the lost Battalion or rescue the lost Battalion.
They succeeded, but in doing so, they saved I think
two hundred soldiers from that battalion who were remaining, who
(04:48):
were still alive. In so doing, the battalion took eight
hundred casualties in order to get through. So when that happened,
you know, the words spread like crazy. It was here
in this back in the States too. But you know,
so the veterans after World War Two, when they came
back and they heard people bad mouthing Americans of Japanese ancestry,
(05:13):
i e. Japanese Americans, the veterans would say stop saying
that these people are loyal Americans, you know. And President
Truman uh honored them at the White House with the
with the parade, why awarded their seventh presidential unicitation to them,
(05:34):
and he said, you know, you guys fought to two
fights against fascism but also against racism, and uh so
that I'm very proud to tell you that I had
an uncle who was in that I had relatives who served.
(05:56):
And we had Japanese American soldiers who fought in the
Pace Pacific, which was very Nobody knows a lot about them.
Was called the Military Intelligence Service, and they were translators
and interpreters and they actually went forward with the Marines
(06:17):
and the army soldiers into battle. They were at Iwo Jima,
they're at Guam. You know they fought in the Jungles
or the Pacific, and they helped break the Japanese code,
the Imperial Code, which led to our victory at Midway
(06:41):
and turned the tide in the Pacific. In fact, General
MacArthur's chief of intelligence basically said after the war that
the breaking that code shortened the war by two years.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
And you've been listening to major general names Mukayama and
General muk and he's the author of Faith, Family and
Flag Memoirs of an Unlikely Samurai Crusader. And what a
story he tells about Japanese service during World War II,
The story of the American Japanese who fought against the
Japanese in World War II. Here on Our American Stories.
(07:29):
This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories, the
show where America is the star and the American people,
and we do it all from the heart of the
South Oxford, Mississippi. But we truly can't do this show
without you. Our shows will always be free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, consider making a tax deductible donation to Our
(07:50):
American Stories. Go to Our American Stories dot com. Give
a little, give a lot. That's our American Stories dot
com
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