Was The Only Japanese-American To Fly Over Japan During WWII

Ben Kuroki had to overcome a lot of obstacles to fly for the U.S. during WWII ... not least among them was his Japanese heritage.

Kuroki passed away last Tuesday at his home in Camarillo, CA at the age of 98, according to the Associated Press.

Kuroki was the son of Japanese immigrants and raised on a farm in Hershey, NE. He and his brother had volunteered for service in the U.S. military following the attack on Pearl Harbor, but was initially turned away by recruiters who questioned his loyalty to the U.S. The two drove to another recruiting station 150 miles away, and they were allowed to join.

He later had to overcome the Army's policy that barred soldiers of Japanese ancestry from flying, and eventually earned a spot on a bomber crew, flying 58 missions over Europe, North Africa, and Japan.

On one mission, his plane exhausted its fuel over Morocco and he was captured, but he and others in his crew escaped to England.

He became the only Japanese-American to serve on a bomber crew that flew over Japan during the war. That required repeated requests and a special exemption from Secretary of War Henry Stimson due to his exemplary service record.

At a time when tens of thousands of Japanese-American were being held in internment camps, Kuroki was honored as a hero and a patriot. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and later, in 2005, received the U.S. Army Distinguished Service Medal.

Following the war, Kuroki became a journalist, retiring from the Ventura (CA) Star-Free Press in 1984 as a news editor.

(Image licensed under fair use via Wikipedia)

FMI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Kuroki