FEATURED VETERAN
Thomas Takemoto, 1399th Engineering Construction Battalion
How Thomas Takeichi Takemoto ended up in the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion was one of war's random ironies.
Drafted in June 1944, Takemoto was en route to sign up with the Military Intelligence Service Language School when he stopped to see his good friend, Ken Kawamoto.
"Hey, Ken, let's go MIS," Takemoto said. But Kawamoto declined. "He said no, I want to go to Europe. I tried to convince him to go to MIS, but he said no, no, no, he really wanted to go to Europe. So I said, well, if I'm going to die, I'm going to die with him. Going to school is not important."
Fortunately, neither man lost his life in the war, but neither did they serve together. Kawamoto was sent to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team on the mainland; Takemoto was assigned to the newly formed 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion on his home island of Oahu.
The non-combat 1399th Battalion based at Schofield Barracks was the only Japanese American unit to serve together as a group in the Pacific. For three years it worked on more than 54 defense projects, including ammunition storage pits, jungle training villages, auxiliary mountain roads, waterways, warehouses, a million-gallon water tank and a Flying Fortress (B-17) airfield.
With major command centers for the Army, Navy, and Marines situated on the island, infrastructure needs abounded, and the 1399th always met those needs on or ahead of schedule. When General Douglas MacArthur petitioned the War Department for the 1399th "chowhounds" (as they were nicknamed for their legendary appetites), he was refused. They were just too vital to the nation's defense.
At war's end the 1399th received a Meritorious Service plaque, which showed to Takemoto not only that the "top level" was very satisfied with their outfit, but that despite doubts about their trustworthiness, the Niseis had come through.
Not that all wrongs were righted. Takemoto tells of civil engineer Tatsuki Yoshida who was picked up by the FBI on December 7, 1941 under suspicion of being a spy because he owned a shortwave radio. Two weeks of interrogation uncovered no evidence, so he was released, but anti-Japanese sentiment and an FBI record cost him his job at Pearl Harbor.
Unable to find employment for almost a year, Yoshida asked to be drafted and was assigned to the 1399th.
"He practically ran most of the jobs," Takemoto said.
Yoshida's outstanding work earned him a Bronze Star recommendation by the captain. But it was denied. Takemoto asked to read the file and discovered a disturbing fact that may have influenced the denial.
"The second page, on the top, it says 'prisoner of war,'" Takemoto said. "Prisoner of war? No wonder! He was picked up on December 7 [by] the FBI [and] that was the only form they had. They used that form and his name shows on it. I said, 'gee, if I was an attorney and I see a form like that, I'd probably say why should we honor with a Bronze Star a prisoner of war.'"
With precious little written about the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion, perhaps no better description can be found than in something Takemoto once said in response to a disrespectful officer.
"You know, lieutenant," he had said, "we go to town and they read the paper – the glorious 442nd, the 100th, they see all these glorious things for the war effort. But for us, what? They look at us, 'You guys are nothing but a labor battalion.' That's not right. I helped build water tanks. We built airfields. We built the jungle training camp. This is important work. It's not only the men in the front that win the war. It takes everybody to win the war. You don't understand – for every man on the front, there are seven guys in the back. And we're one of them."
