(This is Part 2 of “The Oda Boys”)

V-mails (Victory mail) slowly made their way to barrack 4-5-E in Topaz from my mother’s foster brother Harry in the 442 in Italy:

 

June 30, 1944
To Eddie (Harry’s brother), 4-5-D, Topaz, Utah
From: Harry, Co. L, 442

I haven’t heard from you in so long I’m starting to worry…

My clothes are so dirty they seem like they may mold…

So far I have taken two Jerries prisoner... I’m telling you I was more scared I bet then they were…

Give my regards to the Takahashis and tell them everything is all right with me, so don’t worry…

 

Jan. 2, 1945
To my mother, 4-5-D, Topaz, Utah
From Harry

Thanks for the package…

About all the fellas I know have either been wounded or killed…

 

Feb. 1, 1945
To my mother, 4-5-E, Topaz, Utah
From Harry

Oh, quit mentioning “osushi” and “oyako domburi” to me. Every time I even think of it my mouth starts to water…

When I do get back boy “food” watch out!

 

Feb. 12, 1945
To Eddie, 4-5-D, Topaz, Utah
From Harry

Thought I’d drop you a line since I haven’t heard from you in a long while…

I got your package a few days ago. That hair oil, shaving lotion was really something I was hurting for…

 

Mail to the European front was even more erratic. My mother’s telegram to Harry with news of Eddie’s death from tuberculosis in the Topaz Hospital never arrived. A subsequent letter was delayed; but he received it before the one informing him that Eddie’s condition was worsening.

Despite support from his commanding officer, Harry was denied leave to attend the funeral.

 

March 14, 1945
To my mother, 4-5-E, Topaz, Utah
From Harry

Tomi, I don’t know how to thank you and and the folks for all you did for ed and I. I don’t know what we would have done without you. Thanks ever so much…

 

These were the kinds of stories that were withheld, only to come out many years later, or sometimes, not at all. Some stories survive only because the letters did.

 

Eddie’s funeral, Feb. 21, 1945, Topaz, Utah

 

In May of 1945, my mother received a last v-mail from Harry:

The miracle has happened! I’m being sent back to the States. Right now I’m in a depot in Naples waiting to catch a boat or airplane back to the States. There’s about 65 of us from the 100th and 442nd being transferred to Military Intelligence School at Camp Ritchie, Maryland…

After leaving the army, Harry spent some time in Chicago, where he met his future wife. Her family was living in Los Angeles, and they eventually moved back to the West Coast and raised three children. So Harry lost his entire family at a young age; but in a display of resilience characteristic of so many Nisei of his generation, survived to create his own.

Suisun to Los Angeles, via San Francisco, Italy, and Chicago: the trajectory of a life shaped by fate, a random act of kindness, racial discrimination, and wartime.

 

Image © R. A. Sasaki. All rights reserved.