Four From Same Home In Combat Team

Not many homes can fly four-star service flags, but Mrs. Earl T. Kubo has one in the window of 2203 Coyne street, Honolulu — and she's only 31 years old. It all comes of the fact that when there's a war on the Kubos and the Ishiis get busy and join up.

Here's the picture: Mr. And Mrs. Earl T. Kubo bought a new home at 2203 Coyne street and with them went to live with Kubo's brother Ralph, and Mrs. Kubo's two brothers, Harry and Teiji Ishii. When opportunity came for the Americans of Japanese ancestry to enlist for the Combat Team at Camp Shelby, Earl and Ralph Kubo and Harry and Teiji Ishii promptly volunteered. The father of Earl and Ralph served in the American army in the First World War, and a third brother of Mrs. Kubo already was in the 100th Infantry. By a stretch of imagination, Mrs. Kubo might fly a five-star service flag, except for the fact that the oldest brother, Coogan, didn't live with the Kubos when he enlisted.

So Mrs. Kubo is living alone now, with her two children, a son six years old and a daughter 3, while the four men of the family go out to fight a war that came very close to them on December 7, 1941, when the Japs attacked.

Earl Kubo then was a member of the Honolulu Police Department's detective force.

At police headquarters excitement was intense. A steady stream of phone calls was coming in. Hysterical women were calling in that they had seen parachutists land in the hills. Some were certain that the invaders had landed an army. The Police Department was gathering what substantial reports it could from the Army and Navy. Night patrols were coming in to report and dash out again.

Tireless duty

Detective Kubo went on duty and for eight days worked 24 hours a day with only brief snatches of sleep. He went five days without taking off his clothes, living on black coffee and pressed ham. And as time went on and the enormity of the disaster began to be known at police headquarters, Detective Kubo's anger increased to the hard resolution that if he ever had the opportunity he would get in the fight — next time on the pitching end rather than the receiving.

A little over a year later came the announcement that a Japanese-American Combat Team would be formed.

“I was giving blood transfusions and buying war bonds and working all hours on the police force,” said Kubo, “but I felt I still wasn't doing enough. My father had volunteered in the First World War, and I figured I would be letting him down as well as my country if I didn't volunteer in this war. I didn't know I would be taking so many with me, that I would be leaving that new home on Coyne street so short of manpower, but when I joined up I found my brother and my wife's two brothers going with me. They felt as I did.”

Here Before

This was not Kubo's first trip to the mainland. In 1938 he brought two prisoners to California for trial, one for forgery and one for embezzlement. The trip was without incident. Kubo didn't even put handcuffs on them. “I was in pretty good condition,” he explained. “and I wouldn't have minded if they had started something. I was really looking for exercise after being cramped up on ship.”

Kubo had been a member of the Honolulu police force for nine years, the last six in the detective division. He spent nine weeks visiting police departments on the West Coast during the trip, studying their methods and explaining that he wasn't Charlie Chan. Pvt. Kubo wants to go back to Honolulu force after the war. He's proud of its competency and believes detective work in Honolulu, crossroads of the world, is more interesting than anywhere else. Of a total of some 400 employees, about 50 were Japanese-Americans another 50 Caucasian and the rest divided amongst Chinese, Portuguese- Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian. Six Koreans are also serving on the force. The chief is W. A. Gabrielson, formerly of Berkeley, Cal.

Five other members of the Honolulu police force are in the Japanese-American Combat Team, including private Kubo’s brother, Ralph, and Lt. K. Nanazawa, also a former detective. Pvt. Ralph Kubo recently went to the hospital for minor repairs after practicing too whole-heartedly with a hand grenade, throwing his shoulder out of place. “Ralph always did have a trick shoulder,” said brother Earl.

The four from the Kubo household, the two Kubos and the two Ishiis, are all in separate companies, but they see each other frequently and compare notes on the letters that go back to 2203 Coyne street.