90 Boys In Combat Team Once Worked For Pvt. Oka

He's only a private in the Japanese American combat team but 90 soldiers formerly employed by the Hawaii Pineapple Company still think of Sam Oka as “the boss.”

In 13 years of service with the pineapple company Oka rose to the position of foreman of the cased goods storage department. During the pack season he had about 300 men and women working under him and Sam Oka was content to spend the rest of his working days as a big-time foreman.

Then came Pearl Harbor.

“I was swimming that Sunday morning at Kalihi Basin, only about 3 miles from Pearl Harbor,” Oka relates. “I looked up and saw planes coming over. I thought it was maneuvers until shells and bombs began to explode in the waters just ahead of me. I made for the beach, and my car. I learned about the Pearl Harbor attack. It was the dirtiest thing I'd ever heard of.”

Volunteered

As a provincial policeman oka reported to the Honolulu police headquarters for emergency duty. For the next 10 days he was on duty 15 hours a day. When Honolulu papers months afterwards announced prospective formation of a Japanese American combat team, Oka's mind was made-up. On his first day off he went before his draft board and volunteered for the army.

Oka, it turned out, was setting an example. Ninety regular employees of the pineapple company also joined up. “The boss” is mighty proud of his men. And so is the pineapple company. Not long after they arrived at Camp Shelby, 98 large giftbox showed up addressed “To Hawaiian Pine Boys from Hawaiian Pineapple Co., Ltd. Attn —Sam Oka.” The gift boxes contained cigarettes, candies, chewing gum, playing cards and assortments of cookies.

32 and single

The men were called together and Oka had the honor of distributing the boxes. There was a lot of cheering and backslapping and “the boss” smiled his appreciation and put in a good word for the company. The ex-pineapple workers in the combat team are mostly from the Lanai and Wahiawa plantations and from the Honolulu cannery of the company.

Oka is 32 years old. He is unmarried but he has a favorite nephew and niece for whom he is fighting, he says, in addition to the allegiance he feels for Hawaii and the Hawaii Pineapple Company. Oka was born in Honolulu and is a graduate of McKinley high school. Besides his ex-employees Oka has a number of in-laws in the Nisei Combat Team. His brother's wife has two brothers in service here, and his sister's husband also sent a brother. Oka calls them all his brothers-in-law.