Born in Gaithersburg, Nebraska, to Japanese immigrant farmers, Mr. Kuroki said, "I had to fight like hell for the right to fight for my own country." The Army Air Corps tried to keep him out of action because of his heritage.
He was shipped to England with his unit and was a clerk but applied for the post of aerial gunner and got it.
After serving in the European Theater, he was sent back to the United States and was one of the first ethnic Japanese allowed to enter the Pacific Theater of the war. He was sent to internment camps to persuade Nisei to join the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Then, he wanted to actually serve in the fighting in the Pacific Theater, but there was a ban against Japanese-Americans serving there. Friends of the Commonwealth Club lobbied for his getting to serve and he got the job.
Most of his missions in the Pacific involved the bombing of Japan.
--GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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