Enlistment from Canada

Nineteen of the enlistees signed up in Canada. Mitsukoshi Arikado, Masao Kawanami, and Joe Yasuhiro Takashima had previously served in the Second World War (Ito, 1984, p. 303; Ito, 1994, p. 473; Kawamoto and Reid, 2010).  Two were brothers (Masao and Takao Irizawa).  At least one volunteer was the son of a Second World War veteran: Robert Cato (Kato), son of Shigeo Tony Kato, who had served in the European and Pacific theatres.

Enlistment from Japan

Thirty Japanese Canadians who had enlisted to serve in the Korean War had signed up in Japan.  All were nisei who had been interned in Canada during the Second World War, then deported to Japan with their families in 1946.  Most had never been to Japan before deportation.  They did not expect conditions in Japan to be so poor.  “For everyone, issei and nisei, Japan was a shock.  There was the terrible destruction of the bombing raids, the despair on the faces of the people.  There was no special reception.  The returning Japanese were another unwanted problem for the authorities (Ito, 1994, p. 402)”. In addition to being unwelcome in Japan, the deportees from Canada faced post-war food shortages, inflation, unemployment, poverty, malnutrition, and diseases made worse by lack of sanitation and medical supplies.  Japanese soldiers were returning to the country at the same time as deportees from Canada arrived. The nisei who arrived in Japan did not speak Japanese well and they faced constant bullying in school, if they were able to go to school.  They were strangers in a foreign land.  Some nisei found work with the American occupation force; others joined the Canadian Army, signing up to participate in the Korean War as a means to return to Canada.  “Most of the families lost their possessions in Canada, which contributed to their inability to purchase fares to return to Canada. By joining the Army, they were well paid, well fed, and could return to Canada with their units (Kawamoto and Reid, 2020)”. They trained at the Canadian base in Kure, Japan (Kirk, 2018). Many of the Japanese Canadians who signed up in Japan were brothers: Akira and Shigeru Fujino; Minoru and Shigeru Fukushima; George and Shoji Katsumi; Fred and Karl Konishi; Kiyoshi and Mutsumi Uyeyama.  Kiyoshi Kawanami enlisted in Japan after his brother Masao had enlisted in Canada. Four sons of First World War veteran Ryoichi Kobayashi signed up:  Yutaka, Hiroshi, Isamu and Takashi Kobayashi (Yesaki, 2007, The New Canadian, 1953).  Ryoichi himself attempted to enlist again but was rejected because of his age (Bramham, 2014).

Hiroshi Ohori, born in Canada, was stranded in Japan during the Second World War.  He participated in the Second World War as a Japanese soldier but became ill and returned to Japan before the end of the war.  He was the final Japanese Canadian to sign up for the Korean War (Kawamoto and Reid, 2010).