A group of World War II vets sit around a table recalling the pressures of both the battlefront... and the home front.
Vet #1: When you left home, your parents all told you, 'Don't embarrass the family.' Right?
Vet #2: Everybody went and did their share. Otherwise you would be called 'slacker'.
Roy Ebihara's eyes get a little watery as he watches this recorded exchange on a TV set in his Oberlin home.
Roy Ebihara: That's a typical attitude, that 'I've got to put my best foot forward. I'm going to do what it takes to prove I'm loyal. I'm honorable.'
Roy Ebihara is an American - born and raised in Clovis, New Mexico. But, his facial features speak of his Japanese ancestry. That ancestry led to Ebihara's stay in a West Coast internment camp as a child. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, many Japanese-Americans were rounded up and held in such camps in the name of national security.
Roy Ebihara: We never said that we were second-class citizens. You just accepted whatever the authorities said for you to do.
A veteran of the Korean War, Ebihara regularly gives talks for school and other community groups about the experiences of the men who were recruited from the internment camps to fight in the U.S. Army during World War II.
Roy Ebihara: In 1944, I heard so many stories about parents and loved ones being pinned with the Purple Heart or the Distinguished Service Cross, while they were being held in concentration camps, while their sons were fighting for the freedom of our country.
The irony of fighting for the freedom of others on a distant battlefield without knowing that freedom for yourself isn't lost on Arthur Saunders. As a young man in 1941, he aspired to be a combat pilot, but that dream was brought back down to earth by a family member who had served in the Army with a famed all-black regiment.
Arthur Saunders: My step-dad was a Buffalo Soldier. He was a member of the 10th Calvary. And he told me clearly, 'The Army does not want any black pilots.' So, I understood that, but I still wanted to fly.
So, Art Saunders joined the Army Air Corps as a technical officer, hoping that he could eventually become a pilot. He worked his way up to the rank of 1st Lieutenant in the 477th Bomber Group, as part of the African American unit known as the Tuskegee Airmen. But, Saunders says he and his fellow officers were battling with Army brass for their own self- respect. He has vivid memories of the time when they tried to integrate an officer's club.
Arthur Saunders: And upon doing that, the commanding general of the 8th Air Force had all the black commissioned officers gather in an auditorium, and he walked in and said 'You're black! You're not white! You're not going into the white officer's club! Now, get on with your training.'
Roy Ebihara notes that it was a Japanese-American unit that liberated Germany's Dachau concentration camp, but for decades they never talked about it.
Roy Ebihara: I think it's in the nature of Japanese-Americans. You know, you always hear that term about the Japanese - that you can't really look in their faces. Inscrutable. In a way it's true. The Japanese don't like to talk about themselves. When we were kids, we're always told never to stick out like a sore thumb. It's not a good thing to put yourself above others.
Roy Ebihara is hopeful that the reluctant Japanese-American veterans will start to tell their stories now, thanks to a new effort to preserve that history. It's called "hanashi" which means "to speak out". The Tuskegee Airmen have been speaking out for years, and recently received a Congressional Gold Medal. Upon reflection, Art Saunders says there were some benefits in the discrimination that he, and many others, faced in the military.
Arthur Saunders: It taught me how to overcome problems in civilian life. Understanding that I'm not going to be given an equal opportunity, and that we can't give up. And that's been the attitude of the Tuskegee Airmen - don't give up, continue to fight.
David C. Barnett, 90.3.