Willie Goo

Charlie Company, 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate)

Born on July 27, 1911, in ʻOlowalu, Maui, Willie Goo grew up one of seven children — six boys and one girl — on his family’s small farm. His father, born on the island of Hawaiʻi to Chinese immigrants, ran a local grocery store in ʻOlowalu and fell in love with Misao Kimura, a Japanese customer. At a time when mixed marriages were often discouraged by both Japanese and Chinese immigrant families, their relationship faced resistance — particularly from Misao’s parents. Goo later recalled his father’s simple but powerful response to them: “Even though we are different blood, you cut your finger, there’s only one color — red.” In time, they relented, and Goo’s parents built a life together, farming vegetables while his father also worked as a butcher at Ah Fook Grocery.

After graduating from Maui High School in 1938, Goo found work as a groundskeeper at the local golf course. A year later, Goo enlisted in the 299th Infantry Regiment alongside two close friends: Ed Nishihara (Co. D), who was Portuguese Japanese, and Jesse Oba (Co. C), a towering Hawaiian-Japanese man who stood six inches taller and weighed more than 100 pounds more than Willie. Differences in ethnic background didn’t matter in the unit. “We never thought about race,” Goo would later say. “We were all fighting for our country.”

Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the American soldiers of Japanese ancestry (AJA) in his unit were being sent from Maui to Oʻahu. By his surname, Goo was considered Chinese, so he wasn’t assigned to go with the AJA. Goo later recalled that his company commander knew his mother was Japanese, so he asked if he could join them. “Up to you,” the commander replied. “I gotta go,” Goo said, determined to stay with his friends. He boarded the ship at the last minute.

In June 1942, he was shipped with the Hawaiian Provisional Infantry Battalion, which was soon renamed the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate), to California. From there, he was transported to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, and later to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, where he trained with the 100th for combat.

When the battalion landed in Italy in September 1943, he and his fellow soldiers faced the harsh realities of war. “Don’t believe ’em if they tell you they not scared,” he recalled years later. “Everybody was scared.”

At Monte Cassino, Goo remembered the thunder of hundreds of artillery guns as the Allies launched one of their desperate offensives. “The bombs were bursting in the air,” he said. “I was thinking of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ It was all lit up.” After the battle in Cassino, the 100th pushed on toward Anzio.

There, during an assault on a German machine-gun nest, a mine exploded near Goo. “I heard a ‘pop-pop’ and then the explosion,” he said. His arm was nearly severed, and his leg was badly wounded. German prisoners, forced into service as stretcher bearers, carried him down the hill — but not gently. “They’d drop me every time they wanted to rest,” he recalled.

Doctors saved his arm after multiple surgeries, and after a year on the mainland, he returned home in 1945. When his parents met him at the dock, “they didn’t say anything,” he remembered softly. “They just cried.”

Back on Maui, Goo resumed work as a groundskeeper before joining Matson Navigation Company as a shipping clerk. There he met a young office worker, Janet Yoshida — who, as fate would have it, was the sister of his wartime friend, Rudy Yoshida (Co. C). Like his father before him, Goo faced resistance from her traditional Japanese parents because of his Chinese heritage. But Rudy spoke up for him and love prevailed. The couple married and raised three children, all of whom later married Japanese spouses.

Goo worked for 15 years at Matson before being laid off when the company mechanized many of its operations. He returned to groundskeeping for Maui County until his retirement. He remained deeply connected to his brothers-in-arms from the 100th Infantry Battalion, attending memorials and honoring the fallen.

At age 95, Goo reflected on the war and his life with characteristic humility. And of his service, he added simply: “We were scared, but we fought. We were all on the same side.”