Letter 2/18/45

Guess what yesterday was...go on, guess!  And no, it wasn't Hump Day (that Geico commercial needs to go away).

IT WAS MY GRANDFATHER'S BIRTHDAY!

I wish I had the chance to post on his actual birthday, but I was on my way across the state in my car, and it's a little hard to blog when you're behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.  So please accept my deepest apologizes for this post coming a day late.

Anyway, my grandpa is 91 years young now, I can't believe that.  Sometimes your grandparents and parents seem immortal, because they've been a part of your life since the beginning.  At 91, though, I know I should be thankful for each day my grandfather has, and on his birthday I really am appreciative that he's still around for me to have a relationship with.

I thought I'd share the next letter with you, since it's a Saturday and we all need something to celebrate on the weekend.  Enjoy, and I'll be back to update soon!

Mr. A. Kumasaka

287 Main St.

Keansburg N.J.

U.S.A.

T/5 A. Kumasaka

ASN 32609377

Hq Btry 863 FA Bn

APO 410 c/o P.M.

N.Y. N.Y. 18 Feb

Hello Folks,

     I received your V mail letters of Feb 8 & 9 today.  9 days is fast service, isn't it?  I've also received 2 air mail letters written before those dates, and 2 V letters from Vi.  So that about brings you up to date with me, doesn't it?  I hope my mail has been reaching home promptly too.

     I went to church this morning.  No, it wasn't like the services back home, but I still got a lot out of it, about 5 guys from the wire section and I were the only ones to attend the service, which was held on the second floor of a nearby building.  The windows had been previously blown out, but it was warm outside, and we were comfortable.  When we first entered the room, the air was filled with smoke, which came from a low stove pipe downstairs.  The chaplain took care of it, though, and soon had the room cleared.  We had a small portable organ to accompany us, and the alter he set up provided the proper atmosphere.  By the way, I received the Lenten book Vi sent me and am reading it daily.

     I've taken some pictures with the camera, and if I can get them printed and censored I'll send them to you.  Nothing else to report at this time.  Hope every-thing is all right at home.

Love,

Archie

Racism During WWII

I'm lucky to have lived in a country for the past twenty-seven years where racism, and prejudices based on skin color are in a decided minority.  I'm not saying they don't exist, because I know that evil like that exists everywhere, no matter what we do to eradicate it, but it is such a rarity that when it does happen, it tends to make front page news, and fires people up.

I'm also not naive enough to know that cultural acceptance of race has not always been the norm.  Hello, we fought a civil war rooted deeply in our beliefs of race.  My parents generation saw on their black and white television sets as National Guard forces were sent into school districts to help desegregate schools.  A country that was founded on freedoms, had, at one point, limited voting and citizenship rights to white men.  I'm not going to try to sugar coat the problems of our nations past, because I know they've existed.

For my generation, though, much of what has happened in our nation's history with slavery, segregation, and race limitations has been limited to text books, made-for-television movies, and history classes in the public education system.  We understand what happened, but don't understand what it truly felt like to live in that moment, because we were not alive when it happened.  I feel someday our children will ask us what it was  like to witness the terrorist attacks of 9/11 firsthand, and thought they may study it, they'll never truly understand the raw emotions we felt in those first moments, the disbelief that something like that could happen.

My search to uncover my grandfather's past deals a lot with his letters, and his journey throughout the war.  But it also has to do with looking at how a Japanese-American young man dealt with being what many considered to be an enemy minority during a world war.  It was hard enough for young men to leave their homes and families to go across seas and fight a war they knew they may never return from; to do so with the added weight of being a Japanese-American, well, I can't imagine how that must have felt.

Years ago I read a story in Life Magazine from 1941, and I remember my 20 year old self being shocked at the publication of the article.  Again, growing up in the generation I did, I cannot imagine anything like this ever being published in a major news source today.  Yet there it was, plain as day: How To Tell Japs From Chinese.

Wow.

Could you imagine if you turned on CNN today and they had a report like this?  Could you imagine the back lash they would have to deal with?  All the rights groups, all the citizens, all the advertising that would be lost because of something like that being run.  I can't even imagine the fall out of today's media pulling a stunt like that.  Yet there it was, plain as day, a two page spread complete with pictures:

The first page of the article breaks down the facial features of a Japanese-American, and noticeable characteristics of their face and bone structure, while the second page comments about how Japanese-American often have longer torsos and shorter legs (I KNEW I had super short legs for a reason!)  If you were so inclined, this Life magazine was giving you the opportunity and power to stereotype, segregate, and ostracize a person based solely on this magazine article.  

Again, can we just take a minute to say WOW!

This article was published seventy-two years ago, when my grandfather was 20 years old.  I have a hard time looking at it now, I don't know how he or his family could have seen this on newsstands in 1941 and not felt ashamed for who they were.  

I told you in one of the very first entries on this blog that my grandfather bears no ill-will towards the discrimination he faced as a child and young man growing up as a Japanese-American.  I can partially understand his stance on this, he served in the military during the war and then continued to work for the US Government until he retired.  His career was not based on his race, but on his skills as an engineer.  I know he finds himself truly blessed for the life he has lived.

It's just hard for me to wrap my head around that idea of such a blinding forgiveness, though.  And maybe that's the difference between my grandfather's generation and mine: my grandfather was raised on the belief that he was owed nothing in life, and what he made of his life was determined solely on his ability to work for it.  My generation, as thousands of you Baby Boomers have pointed out, has been raised on the idea that the world "owes us", and we shouldn't have to work hard for things that should just be handed to us.  What a generational mind shift in a half a century.

I guess if this article shows us anything, it's about the powerful force of forgiveness.  My grandfather is not an angry man, in fact, he's one of the most happy-go-lucky people I've ever had the pleasure to know.  Yet after seeing articles like this, I don't know if I'd fault him if he was a little bitter at the world.  He's not, though.  His main concerns are about a small store he now runs in his senior center, and his yearly WWII reunion that is slowly dwindling in numbers.  He's a genius of a man, with too big of a heart, and it really helps to put my life in perspective when I get annoyed that someone cut me off on the road.  We are all blessed with the life we have, and if this article shows us anything it's that we don't often take the time to appreciate it.

I'll leave you with that thought, and ask you to do a simple thing this week: let something go.  Maybe it's a huge fight you've been holding onto for years.  Maybe you, like me, hate when someone cuts you off on the road.  Whatever that thing is, let it go.  It's not worth it.  There are so many bigger problems in this world, and we are the only ones who have the ability to solve them.

Have a wonderful week, friends!

Letter 2/4/45

Happy weekend everyone!

Please, can someone, somewhere, invent a 4 day weekend?  Week ends are wonderful, but they seem to pass us by so quickly!  One minute it's Friday night, and the next we're trying to figure out what we're wearing to work on Monday.  Give us more weekends!

I skipped updating yesterday because I was out enjoying my last day of summer, and the wonderful weather.  Today, then, has become catch up/laundry/dishes day, so I'm also updating everyone on here too while the dryer rumbles on the other side of the wall.  It's an exciting day, haha!

We're officially into February 1945 with our letters, and we're starting to really see some movement going on in my pop's letters.  I've been researching exactly where he was during all of this, and later this week I hope to give you an awesome play-by-play on what was going on while he's writing these letters.

For now, enjoy the rest of your weekend, and the next letter in the series.  

E

Mr. A Kumasaka

287 Main St.

Keansburg, N.J.

U.S.A.

T/5 A. Kumasaka

ASN 32609377

Hq Btry 863 FA Bn

APO 410 c/o P.M.

New York, N.Y.

4 Feb 45

Hello Folks,

     Just a few lines to let you know that I'm O.K., since I haven't written to you in a few days.  The reason I haven't written, of course, was because I have changed my station, and am now at the front.  We are attached to the Seventh Army and are located in the Alsatian Sector.

    At present, I'm stationed comfortably in a house, enjoying a heated room which I didn't have even back in the states.  It is so different from the pup tents we had back at Marseilles, that it hardly seems possible that we are closer to the conditions of combat.  The food is good, and we get two full meals a day; so I've nothing much to complain about, except that I could use a shower.

     Hope everything is O.K. at home, I received a letter from Catherine today, dated the 30 of Dec.  So long for now, will write as often as often as possible at present, the weather is mild; it's raining outside.

Love,

Archie

Letter 1/28/45

Happy Friday folks!!  A weekend's in front of us, and I couldn't be happier.  Fall weather, baseball games, baking (for those of you who don't know, I own a bakery.  I like to blog, so if you're done with these posts, head on over and check out the sillier side of my life).

Today's letter sheds a bit of light onto another side of my grandfather's life, his spiritual/religious side.  My grandfather has always been the strong/silent type of person in my life, and I don't know if he's always been this way, but for most of the time I've known him he's much more content to sit and listen (unless we're having a political debate).  This may be because I'm his granddaughter, and he's interested to hear more about me, and my active life, than what he's doing in his 4th decade of retirement.

That being said, he's always had this aura around him, an aura that gives you this sense of security and calm.  I've never seen him freak out ever, even when he's driving in rush hour New Jersey traffic (how do you people drive there all the time), and I can count on my one hand the number of times he's yelled at me.[1] 

I always thought that his calm attitude was due to years of life he had managed to rack up by the time I entered his life, years of dealing with wars, work, family matters, and children.  Reflecting on who my grandfather is now, I'd say that definitely is a large part of his identity, but his faith is also a huge part of who he is.  Like most of his personality, it's not something that's obvious at first, and not something that he parades about at will.  But his faith is always there, just under the surface, and I feel it shapes his character just as much as his life experiences have.

I've read through all of his letters, and he talks about devotionals and attending church services several times throughout his writings home.  It's something that he's eager to share with his family, because it's something that greatly shaped who he was and had become by 1945.  Yet there's more to it than that, in my opinion: my grandfather excels in stable, predictable environments, and the war was anything but that.  As we've already seen from his early letters, there is a lot of unpredictability, a lot of moving around, and a lot of different roles he needs to fill as a soldier.  Through all this chaos, then, his faith, and the worship he participated in weekly with fellow soldiers, gave him the chance to relax in a familiar atmosphere that reminded him both of home, and of bigger things outside the theater of war.

I'm rambling a bit, and I apologize, but this blog is more than just posting letters and hitting "Publish".  I want to unravel the mysteries of my grandfather, and sometimes letters like this one give me the opportunity to do so.

Have a wonderful weekend, readers.  I'll be back soon with more updates.

E

Mr. and Mrs. A. Kumasaka
287 Main St.
Keansburg, N.J.
U.S.A.

T/5 A. Kumasaka #32609377
Hq Btry 863 FA Bn
APO 410 c/o P.M.
New York, N.Y.

28 Jan 45

Hello Folks,

     I have just attended the Protestant Services over at the Red Cross building for officers.  At the 9 o'clock service there was only one other buddy besides my-self who attended but we got just as much out of the meeting as if all the seats were filled.
     After the service I had a talk with the chaplain and was surprised to learn that he was an assis-tant to the minister of the Central Presbyterian Church in Montclair.  His name is Derivan.  I asked him then, if he knew Grandmother, and he said the name was familiar.  He asked me to have Grandma talk with Mrs. John Freeman, whom he knows very well and who would be glad to learn a bit of news like this about him.  As I have just recently written to Grandma, will you relay this on to her?
     I am now writing this letter in the Enlisted Men's Red Cross building.  Outside it is quite cold and there is a very strong wind blowing. I'll have to b____ this wind eventually to return to the battery area.
     I'm getting along O.K. to date.  At night I have a sleeping bag, which I crawl into, and get as warm as toast.  I'll close for now.  Hope everything is O.K. at home.

Love,
Archie


Notes:
[1]One of those times might have involved his very expensive pool liner.  Pop, I'm sorry, my 5 year old self did not understand the value of money in 1991 and failed to understand why you didn't want me to break the liner.  Now that I'm $30,000 in debt from college I understand, and promise I'll never step on another pool liner again!

Reporting for Basics

So I've been doing some thinking these past few days...

...as wonderful as my grandfather's letters are (once we can decipher the scrawling handwriting), and they are an absolute treasure, there's only so much his letters can tell us.  I mean, it's not like he could actually talk about what he was doing in Europe.  From the sounds of some of his letters, he sounds like he was on a nice little international vacation.

I'll admit, even though I'm a history major, my background on military history is somewhat weak.  You're only as strong as those who taught and encouraged your education, and I've never really had anyone in my life who was a huge military history lover.  I've always viewed the military and its history as part of a bigger picture.  It's not that I'm not interested in learning more, I have just never had a reason to.  Now I do.

Looking over his letters, I realized I didn't even understand everything that was in his address line.  I mean, look at this:

That looks like coding for some super secret society.  I realized I didn't even know what half of it meant...

So that's where the investigating came in.  For those of you with a solid background in military history, I apologize, you're going to probably be bored with this post.  For the 98% of you who are not well-versed in your USMH, you better pay attention, because there's a quiz at the end!

The first thing I looked at with my research was the top line, "T-5 Archie Kumasaka".  What did T-5 mean?  Was that even a 5?  Was it an S?

Thankfully, the internet had the answer.  It was a 5, and T-5 stood for my grandfather's ranking.  I hate Wikipedia (HATE IT!) but someone with too much time on their hands created a pretty awesome chart that explains where and what a T-5 ranked as during WWII:

If you'd like to see the entire article (you nerdy person you!) you can click here to have a history moment.

So to sum it up, a T-5 is a technical Fifth Grade, which is the same ranking as Corporal.  They were identified by the "T" marking under their Chevron-style bars.  They were also classified into the 5th grade pay scale, that's 5th from the top, 5th highest.  They obviously earned the same as any Corporal would.

That led us to the next question, then (we're falling down a worm hole here)....what would a Corporal in WWII make?  How much were these young men getting paid to fight for their country overseas?  

Thankfully, Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly published a great report on April 24, 1944 charting how much a single or married serviceman could expect to make while overseas.  Since my grandfather wasn't married at the time, I figured it's best to use the Single Man's Chart.  They do not use pay grades to list the different pays in the military, so I highlighted the one my grandfather would receive:

[1]

Not too shabby, gramps!  You'd be making what amounts to four thousand dollars a year after income tax, why that must be worth...well, how much would it be worth?

I'm so glad the U.S. government has put some of my tax dollars to work and found a way to provide inflation answers for me before I even realized I needed them...

[2]

Big money big money!!!  He was earning overseas what most middle class people earn today.  At least he was able to leave the war with a little money in his pocket, after everything was said and done.

Next I took a look at the second line of his address, "ASN 32609377".  Again, Google is our best friend, because we typed that in and found that ASN stood for Army Serial Number.  Makes sense, the government had to figure out a good way to take track you, not only to figure out who was where, but to determine pay, communications, just about everything.

The really interesting thing I found while I was searching for this is that you can bring up a ton of information dealing with Army Serial Numbers on the internet.  Again, I'm glad the government has been forward thinking in all of this, saving me many hours of frustrated hunting.  The National Archives have a fantastic search option that lets you look up anyone you may know who has a military background.  An ASN is the most surefire way to get an exact hit, but they also allow you to search by name, or even place.  Click here if you're curious and want to play around with the system.  Be warned, there are some errors in the system that time will never help to repair: if an application form was illegible, or left blank on accident, a "#" will be placed in the answer area showing no information was able to be gathered from the form.  The originals have been destroyed, which means anything we might have been able to gleam off of them today is null and void...they've gone to the great big recycling bin in the sky.

The next line is a complete jumble of letters, and it's what initially led me to start looking into this return address: "Hq Btry 863 FA Bn".  Hq Btry is short for Headquarter Battery, or as we call it today, simply headquarters.  You know, where you're reporting back to, and, more importantly, where your mail is going in and out of.  This is important for the people who need to send letters back to him.  863 FA Bn is stating what division and group my grandfather was in.  FA Bn stands for Field Artillery Battalion (more on that in another post), which lists not only what he was doing in the war, but where he was located.

To sum it up, if you were sending mail to my grandfather, you were sending it to the headquarters of the 863 Field Artillery Battalion.  Wherever that happened to be on that particular day.

The last line is fairly easy, "APO 410 c/o PM N.Y. N.Y."  APO is short for Army Post Office, and you were to reply to the Postmaster in New York City.  Seems silly, since NYC is a few thousand miles away from France and Germany where my grandfather was stationed, but it was a way for the military to keep everything organized.  You can't have my grandfather's return address reading "Paris France, north side, gonna push these Nazi's back!"  

Whew!  You still with me?  That's a LOT of history talk right there!  I hope you hung in there, because the more I dive into this, the more I want to know.  I've definitely been digging up some more information, but I'll leave that for another post.

As the hunt for my grandfather's life continues, I hope this inspires you a little bit to find out more about your relatives lives.  I know I'm blessed that my grandfather is still alive, that I can talk to him and ask him questions, but even if you do not have that opportunity anymore, don't let that deter you.  The internet is a great tool, and you'd be amazed at what you can find with a simple search.

That's all for now, gonna take a break from my research for the evening.  Have a wonderful day!  Before you know it the weekend will be here.

E

Notes

[1] Army-Navy Pay Tops Most Civilian's Unmarried Private's Income Equivalent to $3,600 Salary. American Merchant Marine at War. September 4, 2013. http://www.usmm.org/barrons.html
[2] CPI  Inflation Calculator. US Dept of Labor. http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm