Howard Yoshihiko Miyake

Able Company, 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate)

 

Early Life

Born on October 16, 1918, in Haleʻiwa, Oʻahu, Howard Yoshihiko Miyake was the seventh of nine children in a family deeply rooted in Japanese cultural traditions. His parents, Kan Noburu Miyake and Tei Yamamoto, were immigrants from Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. Miyake explained that his father, a third son who immigrated to Hawaiʻi to establish a new life, spoke fluent English and worked as a bookkeeper at a company store in Haleʻiwa rather than in the cane fields, where many immigrants labored.

Miyake later recalled that his father descended from 26 generations of Shinto priests and instilled in his children the values of service, justice, and responsibility to others. Though a Shintoist himself, Noburu, sent his children to attend the Liliʻuokalani Protestant (Congregational) Church in Haleʻiwa, reflecting his belief that his children should learn to bridge cultures in Hawaiʻi’s diverse society. Miyake later recalled, “He figured that if we were to live in Hawaii, we’d better learn to mix with the other racial groups. So at church we sang hymns and recited Bible verses in Hawaiian and English.” The Miyakes were one of only three Japanese families attending the Hawaiian church.

His father died in 1929, when Miyake was ten years old.

Miyake began his education at Waialua Elementary School before attending Andrew E. Cox Junior High School (later Waialua High School) and then Leilehua High School, which at the time was located at Schofield Barracks. Because the school primarily served military families and was attended mostly by Caucasian students, Miyake believed the experience strengthened his command of English.

That skill would shape much of his future. After graduating from Leilehua High School in 1935 at the age of 16, Miyake continued working in the pineapple fields of Dole’s Waimea plantation, where he had labored during summers. Earning only 16-cents an hour, he realized it would take years to save enough money for college tuition.

Hoping for better opportunities, he walked into the lobby of the The Royal Hawaiian and asked the bell captain for a job. Impressed by Miyake’s polished English, the bell captain assumed he must have attended Roosevelt High School, then considered one of Honolulu’s leading English-standard schools. Miyake later laughed while recalling that he never corrected the assumption because he feared he might not be hired.

Working at the Royal Hawaiian proved transformative. Miyake earned substantial tips, saved carefully, and after a year had accumulated enough money to pay for four years of tuition at the University of Hawaiʻi. Determined to continue supporting himself, he worked year-round throughout college, holding full-time university jobs when school was out and laboring at the cannery during summers.

At the University of Hawaiʻi, Miyake majored in business and economics with a minor in English. His command of language and public speaking led him to participate in Theater Guild productions, where he won diction awards for his performances in “The Quest of Shimosaka” and Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus.” He was also active in Student Council, Hakuba-kai, and the Commerce Club. Upon graduating in 1940, he was one of only three students to receive the university’s prestigious “Real Dean” award, recognizing all-around excellence.

Military Service

Just two years later in 1942, Miyake became one of the original members of the newly activated 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate), the first combat unit of Americans of Japanese ancestry (AJA) in U.S. Army history. He sailed from Honolulu Harbor on June 5, 1942, for training on the mainland before eventually deploying to Italy in September 1943 with the 34th Infantry Division of the Allied Fifth Army.

Miyake fought in some of the fiercest battles of the Italian campaign. By June 1944, he was a second lieutenant and executive officer of Company A. During the Allied advance toward Rome in June 1944, the 100th served as the lead battalion in a major assault force. Amid intense combat and confusion caused in part by friendly artillery fire, Miyake was critically wounded by an exploding mortar shell. He later recalled the moment vividly:

“I heard the round coming: Sh-h-h-sh! Mortar shell! I threw myself forward. It exploded right behind me. I could see dust flying all around me. Fortunately, I was so close to the explosion that most of the fragments went over me but nevertheless I got caught from my neck down to my toes.”

Miyake also remembered what he later jokingly called his “double protection”:

“And the funny thing. I had an ‘omamori’ (talisman) my mother had given me, in my left breast pocket. And a New Testament in my right pocket. So I got wounded all over my back! None in front!”

Laughing years later, Miyake added, “I was playing both sides!” He noted that he still possessed the omamori, a small paper talisman his mother had obtained from a Shinto shrine.

Evacuated from the battlefield and not expected to survive, Miyake resolved to fight for his life after overhearing a surgeon describe him as “another hopeless case.”

“At that moment I made up my mind to live,” he later recalled. “I’m going to fool you, man. I’m going to show you.”

For several long moments, no one moved him. Miyake later learned that his wounds were so severe that the medics did not know where they could safely place their hands without causing further damage. Then, at last, he felt two pairs of hands turn him over so his wounds could be treated rather than abandoned. Years later, he discovered those hands belonged to Chaplain Yost and Captain Kometani. The act stayed with him for the rest of his life — a moment when others refused to give up on him even as death seemed certain.

Miyake ultimately spent more than three and a half years recovering in military hospitals across the United States before returning home to Hawaiʻi in November 1947 with the rank of captain.

During his long recovery, Miyake endured severe pain from nerve damage in his left leg. Multiple graft surgeries failed to fully repair the injury, and doctors eventually severed sensory nerves in an attempt to reduce the agony. One day, a neurosurgeon offered a procedure that might eliminate the pain entirely — but warned that it could permanently prevent him from having children.

The possibility stunned Miyake. Years later, he laughingly recalled blurting out his answer without hesitation: “Doc! I’ll take the pain! I’ll take the pain!” Even the ward nurse, standing nearby with her charts, was startled by his outburst.

Despite the humor with which he later told the story, Miyake said he never regretted the decision. Through his second marriage, he became a father at age 57 when his son Mark was born on July 4, 1976. Miyake spoke about his son with unmistakable joy and pride, affectionately calling Mark his “Bicentennial baby.”

Life after the War

During his recovery at Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco, Miyake met Juanita Carmencita Arnez, whom he married in 1948. Their marriage endured years of Juanita’s chronic illness with remarkable tenderness and devotion, but their happiness was shadowed by the sarcoidosis that had taken root in her lungs decades earlier. She died in 1972, leaving him with a blessing — and a warning — not to spend his life alone.

Following her death, Miyake experienced a series of deeply personal encounters involving butterflies that he came to view as symbols of remembrance, love, and spiritual continuity. “I never believed in reincarnation till all these things happened,” he admitted.

After returning to Hawaiʻi, Miyake worked for Castle & Cooke, where fellow 100th veteran Mitsuyoshi “Mits” Fukuda — his former Company A commander who later commanded the 100th Infantry Battalion — was already employed in industrial relations. After nearly four years with the company, Miyake decided to pursue a legal career and enrolled at the University of Colorado School of Law in 1951. He graduated in 1954, returned home to Hawaiʻi, passed the bar examination, and opened his law practice the following year.

Miyake soon entered public service during a transformative era in Hawaiʻi politics. While he was attending law school, the Democratic Revolution of 1954 reshaped the islands’ political landscape, ending decades of Republican dominance and elevating many returning AJA veterans into leadership roles.

Elected to the Territorial House of Representatives in 1958 and reelected after statehood, Miyake served for more than a decade as House Majority Leader and chairman of the House Policy Committee. He played a major role in expanding public education, strengthening anti-trust legislation, advancing land-use reform, and supporting the development of the University of Hawaiʻi system.

Throughout his career, Miyake said he carried with him his father’s teachings about leadership and responsibility. His father had warned that if he ever gained power or authority, he must use it for the good of the people rather than for selfish purposes, or it would ultimately harm both himself and his family. He also taught Howard to confront injustice wherever he encountered it and to protect those who could not protect themselves — especially women, children, and the less fortunate.

Miyake later served as legal counsel for the Japan-America Institute of Management Science (JAIMS), an institution dedicated to fostering international understanding through business education and cross-cultural exchange, during its formative years. He later served as its president. Through his leadership, teaching, and writing — including his Japanese-language autobiography “Bridge Across the Pacific (Taiheiyou no Kakehashi: Hawaii no aru Nikkei Nisei no Kiroku)” — Miyake sought to build understanding between Hawaiʻi, Japan, and the United States.

During one of his early trips to Japan on behalf of JAIMS, Miyake met Harumi Yajima of Tokyo, a graduate of Ferris College in Yokohama who spoke Japanese, English, Spanish, and Norwegian. Before her death in 1972, Miyake’s first wife, Juanita, had encouraged him not to spend the rest of his life alone. Howard later recalled her telling him, “Don’t remain a widower very long. Find someone nice and get married to her.” She jokingly added, “If you don’t take good care of your second wife, I’m going to come back and haunt you!”

Miyake shared those words with Harumi, who had been cautioned by classmates against marrying a widower out of fear she would be “competing with memories of the first wife.” Instead, the story reassured her and became part of the foundation of their relationship. Howard noted that Harumi accompanied him each month to visit Juanita’s grave.

Miyake and Harumi married in 1973 in a ceremony held on the beach at ʻĀina Haina, and through this marriage he became a father for the first time when their son Mark was born in 1976.

The butterfly experiences that began immediately after Juanita’s death remained deeply meaningful to Miyake for years afterward. The final incident occurred in 1979, when Mark was three years old. The president of Fujitsu had sent the boy large paper carp streamers for Boys’ Day, and the family gathered outside while Miyake prepared bamboo poles to display them. As Howard, Harumi, and Mark rested together on a concrete bench, a butterfly descended and landed gently on Miyake’s finger. “How do you explain a butterfly coming to rest on a person’s finger?” he later reflected. “That was the last time we saw the butterfly.”

Miyake came to believe the butterfly symbolized Juanita’s continuing love and approval — a quiet reassurance that she was at peace with the life he had rebuilt. He shared the stories with his young son, who seemed to understand their emotional meaning. Howard fondly recalled that when Mark said his prayers, thanking God for “the sunshine, the rain, the green trees, the singing birds…” he always remembered to also give thanks “for the butterflies.”

Miyake understood the quiet bridge his past had built toward his future.

A veteran, legislator, scholar, and storyteller, Howard Miyake lived as the embodiment of his autobiography’s title, “Bridge Across the Pacific.” His life proved that influence is earned through one’s actions — and that sometimes, messages of love return on delicate wings.

Read “Doc, I’ll keep the pain” Article (Puka Puka Parade, December 1981, Vol. 35 No. 6) by Ben Tamashiro

Read “Butterflies are for Real: Howard Y. Miyake” Article – Part 1 (The Hawaii Herald, May 17, 1985) by Ben Tamashiro

Read “Butterflies are for Real: Howard Y. Miyake” Article – Part 2 (The Hawaii Herald, June 21, 1985) by Ben Tamashiro