Teruo Goma served as a Tec/4 in Medical Company, 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd RCT. He was born September 22, 1918, in Kamuela (Waimea), Hawaii. He signed his WWII Draft Registration card on October 26, 1940, in Honokaa. At the time, Teruo was 5’3”, 134 lbs. and was living in Honokaa and employed as a deliveryman for his brother Matsuo Yoshikami’s bakery. His mother Sato Yoshikami had immigrated in 1901 from Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan.
Goma was inducted into the U.S. Army on March 23, 1940, his 21st birthday. He began basic training in March 1941 at Schofield Barracks, and on June 24 was among the draftees to be assigned duties on Hawaii island.
Teruo served throughout the war in Italy and France. On April 17, 1944, Corporal Goma was listed as “recovering” in the Mediterranean area. He had been wounded and he received the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster. He was also awarded the Combat Medical Badge.
In June 1945, a month after VE Day, he was back in the U.S. and hospitalized for acute tonsillitis at Camp Beale, California, north of Sacramento.
After the war, Teruo Goma returned to Honokaa. In 1957 he opened his business, the Uptown Barber Shop. He married Hayame Nakamoto and they had two sons and one daughter. He was a member of the Honokaa American Legion Post 33. In 1949 he served as second vice president and in 1950 the historian. Goma was active in the Honokaa Hongwanji Mission.
Goma died March 2, 2012. He was survived by his wife and three children.