#131: Tales from Punchbowl, Part V

Ghosts of Arlington Podcast

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Ken Otagaki grew up poor on a sugar cane plantation on Hawaii's Big Island, but after seeing how oppressed his father was by the overseers, he vowed that he would make his own way in the world and, despite cultural and familial expectations, he would not follow in his father's footsteps.
In his early teens he moved by himself to Oahu, put himself through high school and the University of Hawaii, and more-or-less laid the foundations for the life of his dreams. That all came crashing down, first with the arrival of his draft notice when he should have been exempt due to his job in the agriculture industry, and second when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor thrusting the United States into war and making Otagaki - and all Nisei - personae non gratae in their own homes.
Transferred to the 100th Infantry Battalion, Otagaki had to deal with being an infantry soldier and a stretcher bearer when he had absolutely no desire to be in the military at all.