Kaoru Suzuki

Able Company, 100th Infantry Battalion

 
Kaoru Suzuki was born on September 5, 1918, on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, to Katsumi and Fuyo (Sasayama) Suzuki, rice farmers from Fukushima, Japan, who had immigrated to Hawaiʻi. He was the second of four brothers—Katsuo, Yasuo, and Hiroshi. His father worked on trains that hauled sugarcane, while his mother came to Hawaiʻi in 1912 as a “picture bride.”

At age six, Kaoru returned with his family to Japan, where they lived a simple life in a humble home, hand-built with the help of neighbors. The family farmed rice and relied on fishing and preserved foods to survive, while Kaoru worked from a young age in farming, road labor, deliveries, and later as a dental assistant. After years of hard work and limited opportunity, he left Japan in 1939 to rejoin his father in Hawaiʻi, seeking a better future.

In September 1941, just months before Pearl Harbor, Kaoru was drafted into the U.S. Army. Though his boss tried to delay his service because of his limited English, Kaoru passed his physical and joined the Hawaii National Guard’s 298th Infantry Regiment, a group made up of men from many ethnic backgrounds. Life at Schofield Barracks was simple — eight men to a tent, $35 a month in pay, and plenty of mashed potatoes but no rice. He remembered payday dinners of pork and beans and the pungent lamb curry that soldiers tried to eat “without breathing.”

Kaoru was on a short leave on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Awakened by the explosions, he rushed back to Schofield Barracks to retrieve his rifle — one he had not yet learned to use — and stayed awake for two nights, on guard. His unit was sent to the Windward side of Oʻahu, in Kāneʻohe and Waimānalo and for six months, they dug trenches, strung barbed wire, and worked to protect the coastline against potential invasion. In late May 1942, he returned to Schofield, where all Japanese American soldiers were reorganized into a newly formed battalion, soon to be named the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate).

In June 1942, Kaoru and his fellow American soldiers of Japanese ancestry sailed to the mainland, then traveled by train to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, for training. They moved to Camp Shelby, Mississippi in January 1943, where they trained under tougher conditions — live ammunition, rain, mud, and cold winters — preparing for combat.

Kaoru’s combat journey began in September 1943 when the 100th landed at Salerno, Italy. From there, he experienced the relentless advance through Italy and France that made the 100th Battalion legendary. He survived night marches, artillery bombardments, and near misses. He carried wounded comrades from battle, witnessed the chaos of war firsthand, and suffered trench foot so severe he was eventually evacuated to a hospital.

After months in hospitals in Italy and Illinois, Kaoru slowly recovered. He finally returned to Hawaiʻi after four years and three months of training and combat, having given the full measure of sacrifice to a country that had once doubted his loyalty.

Read Kaoru Suzuki’s Memoir