Category: Videos

June Morimatsu and Milton Kaneshiro
THE GENERAL’S MESSENGER
Written by June Morimatsu
Daughter of 442nd RCT veteran, Ralph Tomei of M Company

We graduated from Farrington High School in 1971, during the era of the war in Vietnam.  For some of the boys in our graduating class the future held the very real prospect of being drafted into the military.
When my friend, Milton Kaneshiro, was faced with the dilemma of a low lottery number and waiting for the inevitable draft notice, or, enlisting and choosing where he would be stationed, Milton chose to enlist and was guaranteed eighteen months at the Army base in Stuttgart, Germany.  As the center for the European high command, Stuttgart Army Base had more than twenty generals.
Now, this 20 year old Kalihi boy was by no means a model soldier.  By Milton’s own admission, he was a “rebel” in uniform and for that reason he wasn’t well-liked by his superiors.  One of the sticking points was Milton’s refusal to take down a sign he posted at the entrance to the barracks he shared with three other soldiers.  The sign read:  “Please Remove Footwear Before Entering”
The roommate sharing half of the barracks with Milton complied with the sign, but Milton’s other two roommates and his superiors simply ignored it and labeled him a “troublemaker”.  Although Milton’s superiors kept chiding him to take his sign down, he held his ground, saying that they were going to do whatever they wanted to do, regardless of the sign; he was only asking that they respect his Japanese culture; and, if they wanted it taken down, they would have to take it down themselves.  For some reason no one bothered to take the sign down, and so it remained posted.

The barracks at Stuttgart were routinely inspected by generals with an entourage of note-taking subordinates in tow, so it wasn’t a surprise when a Four-Star General came to inspect Milton’s barracks.
Milton and his roommates stood stiffly at attention as the General stood in the doorway, reading:  “Please Remove Footwear Before Entering”.  As the General bent over, about to remove his shoes, he saw Milton and spoke directly to him, “Where you from, Soldier?”  Because Milton was unable to respond while standing at attention, the General ordered Milton to stand at ease.
“Hawaii, Sir,” Milton replied.
“I know Hawaii, but where in Hawaii?” the General asked.
“Kalihi, Sir.”
“So, what generation are you, Soldier?  What’s the Japanese term?” the General asked.
“I’m Sansei, third generation, Sir” Milton answered.
While the General conversed casually with Milton, his three roommates remained standing stiffly at attention and Milton’s Captain and the General’s entourage listened intently to their conversation.
“Ever hear of the 442nd?” the General continued.
“We saw a film about the 442 in school; they were the Japanese-American soldiers who fought in World War II,” Milton responded.
“They were the bravest fighting unit I have ever seen” the General said as he extended his right hand to Milton.
Politely shaking the General’s hand, Milton said, “I don’t deserve this kind of recognition, Sir; I didn’t do anything in the war.”
“Son, you don’t understand,” the General said.  “The 442nd is The Best fighting unit the United States Army has ever seen, I know because I was a young lieutenant in World War II, and then I fought in Korea and Viet Nam.  You’re Sansei; you come from ‘good stock’.”
As he was leaving, the General pointed to Milton and told his Captain, “Make sure you take care of this man, he comes from good stock.”
After the General left with his entourage, Milton’s roommates were anxious to know what the General was talking about; why did he shake his hand; and what was this about the Hawaii connection?  As he told the story of the 442, Milton saw that people were eager to learn more; and, with sad realization, he chastised himself for being a Sansei that had not been truly grateful for the sacrifices made by the 442 for his own generation.
In 1974, while he was still stationed in Germany, Milton was drawn to attend the 442’s 30thAnniversary of the liberation of Bruyeres, France.  As a young Sansei soldier, Milton witnessed the dedication of a monument to the 442 where a flower lei was draped while a solo trumpet played “Taps”.  The pain and sadness was thick in the air.  It was the first time that he had seen Nisei men cry.  Tears flowed freely from every man that he saw; he cried, too.  They cried for the men who never made it Home.
On January 22, 2006, Milton stood before an audience of aging 442 M Chapter veterans, one of them, Barney Hajiro, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, their wives and guests.  He told them his heartwarming story about meeting the General and they laughed at his candor and honesty and nodded in humble acceptance of the General’s praise.
When Milton spoke of the pain and sadness he witnessed in Bruyeres, the room went completely silent and it took a moment before he could compose himself and find the right words to express his personal gratitude to the 442 veterans for their bravery and sacrifice for our generation and future generations to come.
Over thirty years ago, a General shook the hand of a Sansei soldier, and conveyed his utmost respect and appreciation for the Nisei of the 442.  The General must have known that some day, somehow, his message would reach the very men he praised – maybe the General knew this because he entrusted his powerful message to someone who came from “good stock.”

Five Sinai Islamists killed in first encounter in Egypt’s Nile Delta 

WWII RARE COLOR FILM – YouTube

An amazing collection of  WWII videos!

> Most Americans are unaware of the fact that over two hundred years ago,
> the
> United States had declared war on Islam, and Thomas Jefferson led the
> charge!  At the height of the eighteenth century, Muslim pirates were the
> terror of the Mediterranean and a large area of the North Atlantic .  They
> attacked every ship in sight, and held the crews for exorbitant ransoms.
> Those taken hostage were subjected to barbaric treatment and wrote heart
> breaking letters home, begging their government and family members to pay
> whatever their Mohammedan captors demanded.

> These extortionists of the high seas represented the Islamic nations of
> Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers – collectively referred to as the
> Barbary Coast – and presented a dangerous and unprovoked threat to the new
> American Republic .

> Before the Revolution ary War , U.S. merchant ships had been under the
> protection of Great Britain .  When the U.S. declared its independence and
> entered into war, the ships of the United States were protected by
> France.  However, once the war was won, America had to protect its own
> fleets.  Thus, the birth of the U.S. Navy.

> Beginning in1784, seventeen years before he would become president, Thomas
> Jefferson became America ’s Minister to France.  That same year the U.S.
> Congress sought to appease its Muslim adversaries by following in the
> footsteps of European nations who paid bribes to the Barbary States rather
> than engaging them in war.

> In July of 1785, Algerian pirates captured American ships and the Dey of
> Algiers demanded an unheard-of ransom of $60,000.  It was a plain and
> simple case of extortion and Thomas Jefferson was vehement ly opposed to
> any
> further payments.  Instead, he proposed to Congress the formation of a
> coalition of allied nations who together could force the Islamic states
> into peace.  A disinterested Congress decided to pay the ransom.

> In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams met with Tripoli ’s ambassador to
> Great Britain to ask by what right his nation attacked American ships and
> enslaved American citizens, and why Muslims held so much hostility towards
> America, a nation with which they had no previous contacts.

> The two future presidents reported that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman
> Adja had answered that Islam “was founded on the Laws of their Prophet,
> that
> it was written in their Quran, that all nations who should not have
> acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and
> duty
> to make war upon the m wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of
> all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who
> should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.”
>
 Despite this stunning admission of premeditated violence on non-Muslim
> nations, as well as the objections of many notable American leaders,
> including George Washington, who warned that caving in was both wrong and
> would only further embolden the enemy, for the following fifteen years,
> the
> American government paid the Muslims millions of dollars for the safe
> passage of American ships or the return of American hostages. The payments
> in ransom and tribute amounted to over twenty percent of the United States
> government annual revenues in 1800.

Jefferson was disgusted.  Shortly after his being sworn in as the third
> President of the United States in 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli sent him a
> note demanding the immediate payment of $225,000 plus $25,000 a year for
> every year forthcoming.  That changed everything.

>Jefferson let the Pasha know, in no uncertain terms what he could do with
> his demand.  The Pasha responded by cutting down the flagpole at the
> American consulate and declared war on the United States.  Tunis, Morocco
> , and Algiers immediately followed suit.  Jefferson, until now, had been
> against America raising a naval force for anything beyond coastal defense,
> but having watched his nation be cowed by Islamic thuggery for long
> enough,
> decided that it was
> finally time to meet force with force.

> He dispatched a squadron of frigates to the Mediterranean and taught the
> Muslim nations of the Barbary Coast a lesson he hoped they would never
> for get.  Congress authorized Jefferson to empower U.S. ships to seize all
> vessels and goods of the Pasha of Tripoli and to “cause to be done all
> other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war would justify”.

> When Algiers and Tunis , who were both accustomed to American cowardice
> and
> acquiescence, saw the newly independent United States had both the will
> and
> the might to strike back, they quickly abandoned their allegiance to
> Tripoli.  The war with Tripoli lasted for four more years, and raged up
> again in 1815.  The bravery of the U.S. Marine Corps in these wars led to
> the line “to the shores of Tripoli” in the Marine Hymn, They would forever
> be known as “leathernecks” for the leather collars of their uniforms,
> designed to prevent their heads from being cut off by the Muslim scimitars
> when boarding enemy
> ships.

> Islam, and what its Barbary followers justified doing in the name of their
> prophet and their god, disturbed Jefferson quite deeply.  America had a
> tradition of religious tolerance, the fact that Jefferson, himself, had
> co-authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, but fundamentalist
> Islam was like no other religion the world had ever seen.  A religion
> based
> on supremacism, whose holy book not only condoned but mandated violence
> against unbelievers was unacceptable to him.  His greatest fear was that
> someday this brand of Islam would return and pose an even greater threat
> to the United States .

> This should bother every American.  That the Islams have brought about
> women-only classes and swimming times at taxpayer-funded universities and
> public pools; that Christians, Jews, and Hindus have been banned from
> serving on juries where Muslim defendants are being judged.  Piggy banks
> and Porky Pig tissue dispensers have been banned from workplaces because
> they offend Islamist sensibilities.  Ice cream has been discontinued at
> certain Burger
> King locations because the picture on the wrapper looks similar to the
> Arabic script for Allah.  Public schools are  pulling pork from their
> menus, and on and on in the newspapers….

> It’s death by a thousand cuts, or inch-by-inch as some refer to it, and
> most Americans have no idea that this battle is being waged every day
> across America .  By not fighting back, by allowing groups to obfuscate
> what is really happening, and not insisting that the Islamists adapt to
> our own culture, the United States is cutting its own throat with a
> politically correct knife, and helping to further the Islamists agenda.  Sadly, *it
> appears that today’s America would rather be politically correct* than
> victorious.

> Happy Remembering!

> *Footnote from:  National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 139, No. 6, June 1971,
> article title “Morocco Land of the Farthest West,” P. 842:*
>
> “It was the Arab conquest, early in the eighth century, that
> crystallized Moroccan character.  The original Berber inhabitants had held
> the Phoenicians and Romans to coastal areas.  Yet the Berbers *submitted
> to
> the armies of Islam, **subdued not by the sword but by the word*.”

> Can you see that same type of Islamic conquest slowly taking place right
> now in Europe and the United States?