{"id":32215,"date":"2015-02-27T16:59:21","date_gmt":"2015-02-28T02:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=32215"},"modified":"2023-03-15T13:56:20","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T23:56:20","slug":"varsity-victory-volunteers-part-of-uh-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2015\/02\/27\/varsity-victory-volunteers-part-of-uh-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Varsity Victory Volunteers part of <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<abbr> legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4G6H2lpzExk\" title=\"Youtube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Every day, hundreds of <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M&#257;noa<\/a> students walk by a sculpture in the Queen <span aria-label=\"Liliuokalani\">Lili&#699;uokalani<\/span> Student Services Center. It honors 169 <abbr>UH<\/abbr> students who were members of the <abbr>ROTC<\/abbr> program when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, plunging the country into World War <abbr title=\"two\">II<\/abbr>. They were immediately mobilized into the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Territorial Guard and began keeping watch over vital installations. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We were students who answered the call on December 7,&rdquo; said <strong>Ted Tsukiyama<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We thought we were serving our country, but a month and a half later, we were all kicked out,&rdquo; said fellow <abbr>UH<\/abbr> <abbr>ROTC<\/abbr> student <strong>Yoshiaki Fujitani<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_32267\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32267\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/vvv-group.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" class=\"size-full wp-image-32267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/vvv-group.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/vvv-group-260x146.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32267\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left, Yoshiaki Fujitani, Ted Tsukiyama, Akira Otani and Takashi Kajihara participated in the 73rd anniversary ceremony of the creation of the volunteer battalion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_32269\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32269\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/vvv-historical.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" class=\"size-full wp-image-32269\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/vvv-historical.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/vvv-historical-260x146.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32269\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Varsity Victory Volunteer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The government classified the <abbr>ROTC<\/abbr> students as enemy aliens because of their Japanese ancestry. They responded by offering to serve in a labor battalion dubbed the Varsity Victory Volunteers. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;For one year, this group of university students worked out of Schofield,&rdquo; said Tsukiyama. <\/p>\n<p>They built barracks, smashed rocks and performed other menial tasks until the US Army formed an all Japanese American unit, the famed 442<sup>nd<\/sup> Regimental Combat Team. The Varsity Victory Volunteers made up the core of the 442<sup>nd<\/sup> while other members served in military Intelligence. <\/p>\n<p>Seven died in combat during the war. <\/p>\n<p>On February 26, 2015, four surviving Varsity Victory Volunteers&#8212;<strong>Takashi Kajihara<\/strong>, <strong>Yoshiaki Fujitani<\/strong>, <strong>Akira Otani<\/strong> and <strong>Ted Tsukiyama<\/strong>&#8212;participated in the 73<sup>rd<\/sup> anniversary ceremony of the creation of the volunteer battalion. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is a really, it&#8217;s a sad story, and it&#8217;s an inspirational story at the same time, of a group of young men, who offered to serve,&rdquo; said <abbr>UH<\/abbr> President <strong>David Lassner<\/strong> at the ceremony. <\/p>\n<p>The sculpture that honors them is a permanent reminder to the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> community of their inspiring dedication to the United States, that initially questioned their loyalty. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You know my dad was a very humble guy, he grew up with nothing and sacrificed. You know, a lot of the veterans they joined and really made it easy for our generation to move forward and achieve things. They paved the way for us,&rdquo; said Scott Hayashi, whose now deceased father <strong>Yoshimi Hayashi<\/strong> was a Varsity Victory Volunteer. <\/p>\n<p>There is a plaque at the base of sculpture with the names of Varsity Victory Volunteers and another that tells the amazing story of a group of <abbr>UH<\/abbr> students, who were once, a long time ago, just like the students who walk by every day. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> has been a part of our life, and for the university to accept us as you know, very integral parts, I think is very important for us,&rdquo; said Fujitani. <\/p>\n<p>View photos on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/uhawaii\/sets\/72157650641159309\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Flickr site<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>President David Lassner speaks at the Varsity Victory Volunteers ceremony<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/91_oW-dzXs8\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/vvv-names.jpg\" alt=\"V V V names\" width=\"960\" height=\"717\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-32265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/vvv-names.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/vvv-names-260x194.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On February 26, 2015, the four surviving Varsity Victory Volunteers participated in the 73rd anniversary ceremony of the creation of the volunteer battalion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,12],"tags":[9,56],"class_list":["post-32215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-video","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32215"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174274,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32215\/revisions\/174274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}