Thomas Tsubota

Baker Company, 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) and Military Intelligence Service (MIS)

 
Thomas Kiyoshi “Kewpie” Tsubota was born in 1915 in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. As a young man, he was an avid bicycle racer and won many trophies. He qualified for the 1932 Olympic trials in Los Angeles, but his parents could not afford to send him and he did not have a sponsor. Tsubota went on to attend Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, graduating with a degree in economics. He then obtained another degree from Meiji University, also in Tokyo.

After he returned to Hawaiʻi, he was drafted into the U.S. Army in June 1941 and assigned to Company G of the 298th Infantry Regiment, then camped at Waimānalo on Oʻahu. On the morning of December 7, 1941, while on maneuvers, he and his unit saw smoke rising from Kāneʻohe Air Base. Moments later, a plane marked with a red hinomaru emblem passed overhead. At first, they thought it was an exercise — until machine gun fire erupted near Bellows Field. The war had reached Hawaiʻi.

Orders came immediately to dig gun pits and foxholes along the shore in preparation for a Japanese invasion. The next day, Tsubota’s blanket was used to cover a dead crewman from a Japanese midget submarine that had run aground at Waimānalo. The captured Japanese naval officer, Lieutenant Kazuo Sakamaki, told a guard in English, “I am cold,” but refused to say more.

Tsubota married Miyoko in April 1942, then the following month, the Army recalled all Japanese American soldiers of the 298th to Schofield Barracks and organized them into a Hawaiian Provisional Infantry Battalion — the unit that would become the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate). An original member of the 100th, Tsubota sailed with the battalion in June 1942 for Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, for combat training. Tsubota was promoted to platoon sergeant.

Not long after, the War Department began recruiting bilingual soldiers for the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). Because Tsubota had studied at Makiki Japanese School and graduated from both Waseda and Meiji Universities in Japan, he was immediately selected because of his fluency in Japanese and educational background. Although he initially wished to remain with the 100th, he was ordered to attend MISLS. At Camp Savage, Minnesota, he excelled — graduating from Section 6 with the “Best Soldier” award.

Around August 1943 after Tsubota had undergone training at MISLS, he volunteered for what has been described as a secret, high-risk mission with less than a 50 percent chance of survival. This mission turned out to be the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), later known as Merrill’s Marauders. Under the command of General Joseph Stilwell, the Marauders were the only American infantry force in the Burma campaign, tasked with long-range jungle warfare against the Japanese 14th Army.

In February 1944, Tsubota and his team — led by Lieutenant William Laffin and including several other Nisei linguists — marched 750 miles through dense, mountainous jungle from Ledo, India, toward Myitkyina, Burma. Their first battle came at Walawbum in March, where Tsubota was ordered to eavesdrop on Japanese positions across a river. Soon after, he developed a severe hernia during the grueling march and was evacuated to Ledo for surgery, where he also interrogated Japanese prisoners and Korean “comfort women.”

He returned to Burma in May to rejoin the Marauders for the battle of Myitkyina, where the unit — exhausted and ravaged by disease — fought for over three months. Tsubota endured 11 attacks of malaria but continued to translate captured documents, intercept communications, and interrogate prisoners to assist U.S. and Chinese forces.

By the end of the campaign, Myitkyina had fallen and the Marauders had suffered over 75 percent casualties. Although all 14 Nisei survived, many were hospitalized, and Tsubota returned to base camp in India, where he, too, was treated for malaria. With enough points, he was among the earliest to be rotated back to the United States for discharge. After leaving Burma, he took a two-week leave in Egypt, where he rode camels and visited the pyramids. From there, he traveled by plane through Iran and North Africa before arriving in Italy, then continued by ship to Boston and on to Camp Beale in Sacramento, California, before finally returning home to Honolulu.

Read Thomas Tsubota’s Memoir