June Morimatsu and Milton Kaneshiro
THE GENERAL’S MESSENGER
Written by June Morimatsu
Daughter of 442nd RCT veteran, Ralph Tomei of M Company
We graduated from Farrington High School in 1971, during the era of the war in Vietnam. For some of the boys in our graduating class the future held the very real prospect of being drafted into the military.
When my friend, Milton Kaneshiro, was faced with the dilemma of a low lottery number and waiting for the inevitable draft notice, or, enlisting and choosing where he would be stationed, Milton chose to enlist and was guaranteed eighteen months at the Army base in Stuttgart, Germany. As the center for the European high command, Stuttgart Army Base had more than twenty generals.
Now, this 20 year old Kalihi boy was by no means a model soldier. By Milton’s own admission, he was a “rebel” in uniform and for that reason he wasn’t well-liked by his superiors. One of the sticking points was Milton’s refusal to take down a sign he posted at the entrance to the barracks he shared with three other soldiers. The sign read: “Please Remove Footwear Before Entering”
The roommate sharing half of the barracks with Milton complied with the sign, but Milton’s other two roommates and his superiors simply ignored it and labeled him a “troublemaker”. Although Milton’s superiors kept chiding him to take his sign down, he held his ground, saying that they were going to do whatever they wanted to do, regardless of the sign; he was only asking that they respect his Japanese culture; and, if they wanted it taken down, they would have to take it down themselves. For some reason no one bothered to take the sign down, and so it remained posted.
?> ?>
