Seiko Chinen

Easy and Dog Companies, 100th Infantry Battalion

Seiko Chinen (later Wallace “Wally” Seiko Chinen) was born in 1915 in Old Kailua, Maui. He was the eldest of eight children born to pineapple farmers who had immigrated to Hawaii from Okinawa, Japan. Growing up during hard economic times, Chinen was forced to quit school after the eighth grade to help support his large family.

He worked on the Haleakalā Highway project, doing hard labor such as “cracking” rocks for gravel, and driving trucks loaded with pineapple along Maui’s northern coast —supporting Hawaiʻi’s agricultural economy and growing infrastructure through his quiet strength.

When the U.S. Army began drafting neighbor island men for the 299th Infantry Regiment of the Hawaii National Guard, at age 25, Chinen became the first man from Libby Camp in Haʻikū, Maui to get the call. It was his first time to leave the island of Maui. Following his induction, he was stationed at the Līhuʻe Armory on Kauaʻi.

Chinen completed his one-year term and was scheduled for discharge on December 8, 1941 — but Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor the previous day changed everything.

Following the attack, American soldiers of Japanese ancestry from Oʻahu and the neighbor islands were reorganized into the Hawaiian Provisional Infantry Battalion, later redesignated the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate).

Private First Class Chinen was initially assigned to Easy (E) Company and later transferred to Dog (D) Company as casualties mounted — as the 100th suffered heavy losses, men were reassigned across companies to fill the gaps. As a result, Companies E and F were severely depleted and ultimately inactivated in December 1943.

Serving in the motor pool, he drove through treacherous mountain roads and muddy supply routes across Italy. He vividly remembered the 100th’s effort to take Monte Cassino in Italy.

Except for suffering some hearing loss, Chinen made it through the war unscathed and returned to his wife Kiyoko “Kay,” whom he had married less than three months before the Pearl Harbor attack. They settled in Honolulu and began their family, raising four children — three daughters and one son.

After returning to civilian life, Chinen worked at Times Supermarket as a meatcutter for 25 years, and for many years as a meat department manager. He remained active in Club 100’s Dog Chapter, attending meetings, chapter social gatherings, and Honolulu and neighbor island reunions with his family.

After retiring, he and his wife and youngest daughter joined a group of Dog Chapter members and their wives on a trip to Reno and San Francisco, enjoying the camaraderie forged decades earlier in Europe’s battlefields. Thanks to Club 100’s Green Thumbs Club, he became an avid orchid grower and displayed his blossoms at the club’s annual shows at the clubhouse.

Wally Chinen passed away in 2002 at the age of 87. He was always proud and happy that the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl would be the final resting place for himself and his wife — back again with their 100th Battalion friends.