Richard Masao Aburamen served as a Private First Class in Company F, 2nd Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
The oldest of seven children, Masao was born August 14, 1919, in Hilo, Hawaii, to Kanichi and Hatsuno (Mukai) Aburamen. Kanichi was from Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Hatsuno was born in Olaa, Hawaii, and her father was from Hiroshima Prefecture.
Prior to the war, Aburamen was a salesman for his father’s wholesale and retail egg and bottle business. He signed his WWII Draft Registration card in Hilo on October 26, 1940. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on March 18, 1943. Although details of his service are not available, he would have trained at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, then deployed to Italy in 1944. There is no record of his being wounded in the war. During his service, he fought in Italy and France and earned the Combat Infantryman Badge. He arrived back in Hawaii from the war on January 23, 1946, on the U.S. Army Transport ship U.S. Grant.
Following the war, Aburamen married Yaeko Shigeoka of Hilo and they had three children. He worked as a construction company purchasing agent until his retirement around 1980. He died May 27, 1989 in Hilo and is buried in East Hawaii Veterans Cemetery No. 2, Plot B-17-02, next to his wife.
Brother Yuichi served in Company M, 3rd Battalion, and brother Hiroshi served in the Anti-Tank Company of the 442nd.