Ralph Yempuku: Promoter and war hero
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
Ralph Yempuku never saw an event he couldn't promote, whether it was the roller derby, circus, a musical act, boxing or sumo. Yempuku brought professional sports and top rock 'n' roll acts to Hawai'i, created the Aloha Classic college basketball all-star games, and helped to promote world champion boxers in the Islands.
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But promotion was Yempuku's second career. During World War II he served with military intelligence's Office of Strategic Services as a translator and parachuted behind enemy lines in Burma to organize guerrilla troops.
Ralph Yempuku was "one of the heroes of World War II," said a friend who served with him in military intelligence.
For service to his country Yempuku was honored in 1997 with the Legion of Merit citation.
Attorney Ted Tsukiyama, who served with Yempuku during the war, called Yempuku one of the bravest men he's ever known.
"I consider him one of the heroes of World War II," Tsukiyama said.
Yempuku died yesterday in Honolulu at age 88.
He was born on a plantation in Papa'ikou on the Big Island, but the family moved to Kahuku when he was a child. Yempuku graduated from McKinley High and the University of Hawai'i, where he joined the ROTC.
He volunteered with the Territorial Guard when World War II broke out, but soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Yempuku and his fellow Nisei guard members were classified "enemy alien" and their services were no longer needed.
Rather than retreat, the Nisei convinced the Army to allow them to serve as volunteers at Schofield Barracks. The group — which became known as the Varsity Victory Volunteers — was led by Yempuku.
The Triple V disbanded in 1943 when the Army began taking Nisei volunteers for active duty. Many of the men joined the famed 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, but Yempuku volunteered with the Office of Strategic Services.
He was a member of the "Merrill's Mauraders" that sneaked behind enemy lines in Burma to destroy the Japanese supply lines and communications and to play havoc with the enemy forces. He later parachuted onto Hainan Island to liberate Australian and Dutch prisoners of war.
"You got to be brave to be willing to operate behind the Japanese lines," Tsukiyama said. "If you got caught, you would have been tortured and even executed. That was a high risk. You can't get any braver than that."
Following the war, Yempuku returned to Hawai'i and began his long career as a promoter.
Yempuku was vice president and co-owner of Boxing Enterprises, along with the late boxing Hall of Fame promoter Sad Sam Ichinose.
