Honoring Yugo Okubo!
Letter sent to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald & West Hawaii Today
Honoring Yugo “Pluto” Okubo
A WWII Varsity Victory Volunteer!
From Hero to Un-American in less than 5 years!
The HTH article of Aug. 21, 2022, about the 100th Infantry Battalion military training at Pohakuloa, prompted me to write this letter. The military is trying to get a State lease renewal of 23,000 acres at Pohakuloa to bomb conservation land, so it’s doing a lot of PR work.
A hero and mentor of mine is the late Yugo Okubo, of the original 100th Battalion of the 442nd Infantry Regiment who fought in WWII. Yugo was a freshman at UH Manoa who dropped out of school following the bombing of Pearl Harbor to enlist in the US Army. Like many others, it was a way of trying to prove he was “An American.” Yugo was sent behind German lines in a glider. Yugo said his claim to fame was going from hero to un-American in less than 5 years. Following the war Yugo was jailed as an “Un-American” –one of the “Hawaii 39” along with Yasu Arakaki and others for union organizing under the McCarthy era anti-communist witch hunts. Yugo was then working as a printer for The Honolulu Record newspaper. Journalists Beware! You too could end up like Yugo and Julian Assange if you don’t do PR work and instead begin to criticize the US Empire’s war machine.
In 1981, Yugo heard from his sister, Setsu, that I was starting an all-volunteer peace farm – Malu ‘Aina, in Kurtistown and he came to help. I had known Setsu who taught many years at Roosevelt High School in Honolulu but originally taught school in Kurtistown. Setsu came to visit and introduced us to many long-time Kurtistown residents.
I learned a lot from Yugo in the 7 years he lived at Malu ‘Aina. I learned about Hawaii’s history and the illegal overthrow and occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the US. I learned about racism, militarism, and economic injustice. Yugo’s life was a strong message: Don’t glorify war! War is not the answer. Live a life of solidarity with the least among us. Redirect military funding to meet human needs. Yugo was a committed peace activist who joined in protests at Hilo Harbor against visiting nuclear warships and at Pohakuloa to Stop the Bombing and return the land to the Hawaiian people. There is a photo of Yugo on our Malu Aina kitchen wall, behind where he sat at the kitchen table. It is Yugo standing with a sign on the Hilo docks protesting a visiting nuclear warship. His homemade sign says “Nuclear Never! Hawaii Forever!” And behind Yugo are several stocks of bananas we took as goodwill gifts from our farm to the ship’s crew. We wanted to show that it was not the sailors who we opposed but the nuclear warships coming in violation of Hawaii County’s historic Nuclear-Free zone law, the first nuclear-free law passed by any municipality in the US in 1981.
Yugo died peacefully in his sleep of heart failure in 1988. Yugo –we will never forget you! Mahalo for your service! I urge others to join the Yugo Okubo “One-Puka-Puka” peace ohana. No More bombing and shelling of Hawaii or anywhere! No More War!
Jim Albertini
Jim Albertini Malu 'Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola'a (Kurtistown) Hawai'i 96760 Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org Visit us on the web at www.malu-aina.org
Aug. 23, 2022
PS 1956 Article from The Honolulu Record sent to me by Paka Harp. It names a lot of names of the witch hunters and the hunted. http://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/HonoluluRecord/articles/v9n19/Bouslog%20Nails%20Eastland%20Shibai%20Union%20Offer%20to%20Answer%2064%20Question%20Ignored.html <http://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/HonoluluRecord/articles/v9n19/Bouslog%20Nails%20Eastland%20Shibai%20Union%20Offer%20to%20Answer%2064%20Question%20Ignored.html>
