Gary Kazuo Sekiguchi
Staff Sergeant
442nd Regimental Combat Team
3rd Battalion, L Company
Gary Kazuo Sekiguchi was born on January 1, 1923, in Waialua, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii. His parents were Chusaku and Mitsu (Shishido) Sekiguchi. Chusaku had emigrated from the town of Shinobu, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, in 1908. Mother Mitsu arrived on the Tenyo Maru on July 12, 1913, from the village of Mizuko in Fukushima Prefecture. She and Chusaku were married a few days after her arrival, on July 16 at a Shinto church in Honolulu. Chusaku worked for the Waialua Agricultural Company, Ltd, and they lived in one of the plantation camps in the Kawailoa area of Waialua. There were eight children in the family: sons Thomas Tadashi, Gary Kazuo, Masami, Harold Susumu, and Nobuo; and daughters Masae, Tomie, and Haruko.
Kazuo attended the local schools in Waialua. In his teen years, he was a member of the Sea Scouts. They had an annual dance and in 1938, he was on the general committee for the dance, which was held at the school gymnasium. The next year, 1939, he was attending Mid-Pacific Institute in Honolulu, where he served as co-chairman of the Halloween party. In 1940, the family was living in Waialua Mill Town at Mill Camp No. 5. Chusaku was still a laborer on the sugar plantation. Among the children, the two eldest were working and Kazuo was listed as “absent,” as he was a senior at Farrington High School in Honolulu.
Gary Kazuo Sekiguchi signed his draft card on June 30, 1942, at Local Board No. 11 at the Waialua Fire Station. He was living with his family at Mill Camp 5 in Waialua, and employed by Hawaiian Constructors of Schofield Barracks, although working at Wheeler Airfield. His point of contact was a friend in Waialua, Takami Sato. Gary was 5’8-1/2” tall and weighed 135 pounds.
The following year Sekiguchi was in the first group of volunteers for the newly activated 442nd. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on March 23, 1943. His civilian occupation was listed as “Carpenter.” At the time, his younger brother Masami felt that he was the better qualified of the Sekiguchi brothers to serve, as he had worked on ships for Matson Navigation Company. Typically, only one son per family would volunteer to serve in the Army. However, at Masami’s farewell party, Gary arrived late and said that he had already been to the fire station and “done it,” so it was he who would be going to war. Masami feared for his brother, who was “just a country boy,” and warned him: “This is not going to be a picnic. You could get killed.”
Gary was sent with other inductees to Schofield Barracks where he was in the “tent city” nicknamed Boom Town with the other new soldiers who would be part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. After a farewell aloha ceremony at Iolani Palace on March 28, they sailed on April 4 on the S.S. Lurline to Oakland, California. Following a train trip across the US, they arrived at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. Gary was assigned to the 1st Battalion, B Company.
In May, the many months of basic, unit, and combat training and field maneuvers began. In early 1944, the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) – composed of Americans of Japanese ancestry from Hawaii who were already fighting in Italy – was below combat strength due to the very high casualties incurred in the Naples-Foggia Campaign. Consequently, the 442nd sent three waves of replacement officers and men to replenish the ranks of the 100th. Most of the soldiers sent from the 442nd were from its 1st Battalion. Many of that battalion’s remaining soldiers were then transferred to other units of the 442nd.
When the 442nd left Camp Shelby on April 22 for shipment to the Theater of War, the soldiers who were left in the 1st Battalion stayed at Camp Shelby to serve as a training cadre for more incoming soldiers for the Combat Team. Gary Sekiguchi was among this group.
On August 10, the 1st Battalion training cadre was renamed the 171st Infantry Regiment (Separate). Their mission was to train new soldiers and prepare them to be sent to the Combat Team as needed.
In October 1944, Gary and several others from the 171st left Camp Shelby to rejoin the Combat Team, who were then in France. Below is a photo taken at the farewell dinner that Sekiguchi attended before he and the other 171st men left for France.
Above: October 1944 at Jules Landry’s, a French restaurant in Hattiesburg; Sekiguchi is 5th from the front on the right side of the photo
Sekiguchi left the US on November 3, 1944, and arrived in Europe on November 9, 1944. He was one of 382 replacements who arrived to the 442nd located in various rest areas near Bruyères, France, on November 18. The next day they were all loaded onto trucks and departed for the south of France. The 442nd was at about half-strength due to the extensive casualties that occurred in the Vosges fighting. They were sent to take up positions in a mostly defensive line along the France-Italian border to guard against German incursion from Italy in the region. This was the Rhineland-Maritime Alps Campaign, which the men nicknamed the “Champagne Campaign” as they were able to receive frequent day-passes to enjoy the bars of Nice and Menton. Gary Sekiguchi was there with the 442nd during these months in southern France.
The 442nd was in the Nice area from November 23, 1944, until March 15, 1945, when they were relieved and ordered to return to Italy. On March 20-22, the 442nd (without its 522nd Field Artillery Battalion who were sent to fight in Germany) left France to fight in the Po Valley Campaign for the final push to defeat the Nazis in Italy. They arrived at the Peninsular Base Section in Pisa on March 25 and were assigned to Fifth Army.
The objective of the 442nd was to execute a surprise diversionary attack on the western anchor of the German Gothic Line. This elaborate system of fortifications had been attacked in the fall of 1944, but no one had yet been able to pry the Germans loose from the western end. The Gothic Line in this area was hewn out of solid rock, reinforced with concrete, and constructed to give all-around protection and observation. The Germans were dug into mountain peaks rising almost sheer from the coastal plain, bare of vegetation save for scanty scrub growth.
The Combat Team, including Sekiguchi, left their initial staging area in Pisa and moved to a bivouac at San Martino, near the walled city of Lucca. Starting on April 3, the 442nd conducted a surprise attack on the Germans at Mount Folgorito.
After these successful battles, the 442nd moved farther north, finally taking Aulla on April 25, penetrating as far north as Torino. The 442nd’s diversionary attack was relentlessly pursued by the Combat Team, resulting in a complete breakthrough of the Gothic Line in the west. Despite orders from Hitler to fight on, the German forces in Italy surrendered on May 2, 1945, a week before the rest of the German forces in Europe surrendered. Staff Sergeant Sekiguchi was wounded at some point during the Po Valley Campaign.
After the surrender, the 442nd was in occupation at Ghedi Airport guarding and processing German prisoners, then to Lecco, and finally to the Livorno/Pisa/Florence area on July 12 for guard duty. Our research has not revealed how long S/Sgt. Sekiguchi was in hospital recovering from his wound and when he rejoined his unit.
On November 12, 1945, Gary left Europe for the US. He finally arrived home to Honolulu on December 17 with about 500 other returning war veterans aboard the USAT Aconcagua, at Pier 26 at 9:30 a.m. Several thousand family and friends had waited patiently at the pier with lei and gifts to greet them; however, the soldiers were immediately put on busses and taken to the Army separation center at Fort Kamehameha. They were processed and told to return several days later. Sekiguchi was discharged from the U.S. Army on December 23, 1945. According to his obituary many years later, he had a partial unspecified disability from his war wound.
For his military service in World War II, Staff Sergeant Gary Kazuo Sekiguchi was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with oak leaf cluster, Purple Heart Medal, Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two bronze stars, World War II Victory Medal, Army of Occupation Medal, Distinguished Unit Badge, and Combat Infantryman Badge. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on October 5, 2010, along with the other veterans of the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team. This is the highest Congressional Civilian Medal.
Soon after his discharge in late 1945, on February 21, 1946, Sekiguchi left on the S.S. Matsonia for San Francisco and then on to college in Wisconsin. In 1950, he was one of three boarders with the family of Leo Morgan at 150 Jackson Street, Madison, while a student at the University of Wisconsin in town. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology before returning home to Hawaii. By 1951, Garry had married Grace Nobuye Sasaki, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fumio Sasaki of Honolulu They lived at 1733-E Young Street. Grace was a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Music. She was a private piano teacher at her own business – Sasaki Piano Studio at 1742 South King Street. After a few years of marriage, Gary and Grace divorced. [Grace died on March 21, 1994, and was buried with her parents in Nuuanu Memorial Park.]
Gary was active in the 442nd Veterans Club, serving as L Chapter Treasurer in 1953 and President in 1956, and L Company Director on the Club’s Board of Directors in 1957.
He initially worked for Trans-Ocean Importers for a while. He then began work for Parkview-GEM Department Stores. He held positions there from department manager to store manager at all three stores in Kapalama, Ala Moana, and Waipahu, to Assistant Vice President in 1977, before retiring as Vice President after many years in their employ. The president of GEM, Glenn Kaya, later said of Sekiguchi: “He was the kind of good friend I can count on the fingers of one hand. He was a man of no malice, no negativity.”
Right: 1964, while employed by Parkview-GEM stores
In 1964, Sekiguchi was among a group of Honolulu businessmen who completed a special non-credit course in managerial accounting offered by the Small Business Management Program of the College of Business Administration at the University of Hawaii.
In 1978, he married Aiko Tsumura, who was born in Osaka, Japan, on July 27, 1935. She worked as a vocal instructor and professional singer who performed locally and also toured on the mainland. They settled at 98-1059 Kahapili Street in Aiea, a suburb of Honolulu.
Left: Sekiguchi in 1972
Gary Sekiguchi passed away on January 23, 1990, at home in Aiea after an illness of several months. He was survived by his wife, Aiko, brothers Thomas, Harold, and Noboru, and sisters Mrs. Masae Takamiya, Mrs. Tomie Ishimoto, and Mrs. Haruko Tanaka. His memorial service was held on January 30 at Hosoi Garden Mortuary Chapel. Burial with full military honors was the next day at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, Section G, Site 89. Aiko died on August 28, 2014, and was buried with her husband.
Researched and written by the Sons & Daughters of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in 2024, with assistance by his nephew, who is a member.