“Thoroughly Mad” at Japs, Pvt. Itagaki Joined Army

A thirty-six-year-old father with a wife and a 15-year-old son volunteered for combat duty with the Japanese Americans in training at Camp Shelby because he saw the Japs shoot down his friends at Schofield Barracks on that memorable Sunday in 1941.

Pvt. Joseph R. Itagaki was manager of the Kemoo coffee shop and restaurant which he opened fifteen years ago just outside the main gates of Schofield Barracks.

Itagaki was leaving for an early round of golf on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. He saw the planes dive towards Schofield Barracks, which are outside Honolulu. Like so many others that day he thought at first it was our planes on maneuvers. Then the crack of machine-guns startled him as the planes straightened out of their power dives.

Make Out Emblem

“I could begin to make out the sun emblem on their bellies,” he said, and then, “incredibly it struck me with full force that those planes were Jap planes. I couldn’t move. I stood there in complete bafflement and watched them strafe the field, killing so many of my friends. And the detonations from the bombs at nearby Wheeler Field shook my house and shop like they were Jelly. It was a hell of an experience. I was thoroughly mad, and that is why I volunteered.”

Itakaki’s wife is a school teacher. His mother, as well as his son is dependent upon him but his mother concurred in his decision. She told him, he said that he ought to fight for his country.

Volunteered

Two days later Itakaki volunteered for the Hawaiian Territorial Guard. He was then a member of the Oahu emergency feeding committee. He served as mess sergeant for the Second Battalion until it was inactivated late in January, 1942. He returned to his coffee shop but months later when opportunity came for him to enlist in the Japanese American Combat Team Itagaki was among the first to volunteer. He gave up his home and his flourishing business because he was still mad at the Japs and wanted to do his bit to avenge his friends and customers who were killed by them.

Pvt. Itagaki formerly was a steward at the Officers Club at Schofield and it was then that he became so well acquainted with the army personnel there.