ROTC squad's role after attack recalled

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

On Dec. 7, 1941, with ships still burning in Pearl Harbor, members of the University of Hawai'i ROTC unit were called to action, and young men who had never fired their rifles were asked to defend against a possible invasion.

But their real test came weeks later when the U.S. government questioned their loyalty, visitors and veterans at the USS Arizona Memorial heard yesterday, as the National Park Service continued its commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the attack.

Yoshiaki Fujitani, a UH Army ROTC member in 1941, delivered remarks prepared by Ted Tsukiyama, a fellow ROTC cadet who lost his voice because of illness yesterday morning.

Fujitani said the 600-member ROTC regiment was hastily called to duty that Sunday morning. They arrived at the Manoa campus to find their advisers placing the firing pins into their Springfield rifles and handing each of them a clip with five bullets.

That day, and over the course of several weeks, they would guard harbors and utilities, and were known as the Hawai'i Territorial Guard. But the enemy never came back. They had served for six weeks when their world exploded.

Officials in Washington, D.C., were upset that Japanese Americans were guarding the Islands, and they forced Japanese Americans to leave the organization, although the Hawai'i Territorial Guard remained active throughout World War II.

"If they had dropped a bomb in our midst, we would not have been more devastated," Fujitani said. "Being rejected by your country was far worse than Pearl Harbor itself."

But the students formed a labor battalion and called themselves the Varsity Victory Volunteers. They built roads and buildings and dug ammunition pits.

When the Army formed the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in 1943, many of the volunteers signed up, proving their loyalty in bloody European battles.

Part of yesterday's brief ceremony paid tribute to the Army. Arizona Memorial officials displayed war-era vehicles and several kinds of weapons in use in 1941. A dozen men wore historic Army uniforms and vintage gear, looking as if they had stepped out of a history book.

Correction: The Hawai'i Territorial Guard remained active throughout World War II, though federal authorities forced Japanese Americans to leave the organization. An previous version of this story contained incorrect information.