NikkeiWest--Northern California Japanese American Newspaper

By John Sammon—The three men pose in uniform in a picture taken long ago during a time of upheaval, and though we can’t tell what’s on their minds, it might have been thoughts of doing patriotic duty to get the war over with so they could return home to resume the joys of civilian life.

Now, 67 years later, a San Jose man is hoping the publication of this picture will bring one of the soldiers in the picture forward, or at least his relatives if he’s dead.

“If this guy in the picture has relatives, I bet they would like to have a copy of the picture,” explained Harold Kubo.

Kubo, 84, a retired grocery retailer, is also seen in the photo as a 16-year-old during a visit by the three soldiers on the Hawaiian island of Maui in the summer of 1944. The three soldiers standing with Kubo’s family are Jack Tanimoto, Bob Kubo, Harold’s older brother, and Tom Mori. Tanimoto and Bob Kubo survived the war and both are deceased. That leaves Mori’s status unknown.

“These soldiers had been in the middle of Pacific Campaign battles,” Harold Kubo said. “They had been sent to Maui, and I don’t know whether it was for rest and recreation, or to re-group and re-fit for the next battle. My brother and I and my family lived on Maui, and he brought his two buddies to our home for a brief visit.

I want to find out if Mori is still alive and if so where he lives,” Kubo added. “I would like him to contact me.”

Also seen in the photo is Kubo’s mother Yoshi, his younger brother Edwin, sister Margaret, and an older brother, Wallace.

Tanimoto won the Silver Star Medal during the war and Bob Kubo the Distinguished Service Cross.

“I would like to hear from Mori’s relatives or someone who knew him or if he had any siblings or relatives,” Kubo said.

All three men were Americans of Japanese ancestry defending their country in the Pacific Theater during a time when thousands of their fellow citizens on the Mainland were interned in camps because they shared the same ancestry. Many of the approximate 110,000 internees lost their jobs and livelihoods. It wasn’t until the 1980s that the U.S. government admitted that what it had done was wrong and provided monetary reparations for the surviving victims.

Kubo related that life in the Hawaiian Islands during World War II was very different than that on the Mainland. Ironically, though it was closer to the Pacific fighting, a smaller percentage of Japanese Americans living in Hawaii were interned than on the Mainland.

“All the Japanese in Hawaii didn’t get interned,” Kubo noted. “There were a lot of Japanese Americans in Hawaii, and if they had interned them all Hawaii would have come to a stop. They did take some of the older people who were leaders, like those in the Buddhist Church, ministers and teachers. But maybe it was because Hawaii had more people of different colors. Color wasn’t as much of an issue in Hawaii.”

Kubo said mandatory blackouts were required in case of bombing attack.

“The blackouts happened after six p.m.,” he said. “The windows on houses were painted black. If it was a car, the headlights were painted black. It didn’t matter much because there was very little gas to drive a car anyway.”

Kubo’s family made their living working in the sugar plantations on the island and his mother was a tailor and dress-maker.

“We lived about seven miles west of the capital at Lahaina, at Kaanapali,” Kubo said. “Back in those days, there was a long wide beach with nobody on it. You owned the beach.”

There was only one principal hotel on Maui at the time, the Pioneer Hotel near the waterfront and close to the big banyan tree that still stands in the center of Lahaina today, Kubo said.

He added that life on the island was pleasant for a boy growing up.

“Everybody knew each other and when there was a party, everybody went,” he said. “It was a good place to come from.”

However, there was no disguising the grim purpose of the approximate 40,000 U.S. Marines from the First, Third and Fourth divisions added to the island’s population of 20,000, readying themselves for battles that would enter the history book, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

“The Marines were training,” Kubo said. “Maui had jungles where they could practice jungle warfare, and beaches to train for amphibious landings.”

When Bob Kubo brought his two soldier buddies home for a brief visit the war was going into its last year. The three were already veterans of the fighting on the Marshall and Gilbert islands. They would go on to fight in Saipan, Okinawa and others.

Harold Kubo said not knowing the fate of Mori led him to send the photo to NikkeiWest in an attempt to locate the man or his surviving relatives so they could have this little photographic piece of history.

“I would like them to have a copy of the picture,” he said. “It shows the three men taking a momentary break from the hell of war. It must have seemed like heaven to them. You can imagine how they would feel.”

Anyone who recognizes Mori in the picture or has information about him may contact NikkeiWest by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call (408) 998-0920.