Class Note 1943
Issue
January-February 2024
A fond merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year to one and all! Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. People care, people share. It is better to give than to receive. And it’s the best time for families to get together. It is time to count one’s blessings. But World War II changed all that. While in the Army, I spent four Christmases in uniform—and the fourth Christmas was the best of all.
On December 12, 1942, 400 of us graduated in Thayer Hall. We started with 651 frosh. It was a subdued and teary occasion. We were losing on all fronts. President Hopkins and Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, gave inspiring words. We lost 23 classmates during World War II. They are on the College’s Military Service Hall of Fame in the Hopkins Center. They will be forever young. We graduated without fanfare, no families, no friends. Would we see each other ever again? At class reunions? It was wartime. More than 100 classmates headed for Notre Dame and became 90-day ensigns. On December 15, 1942, I enlisted and became Pvt. George T. Shimizu, ASN 1715XXXX for the duration plus six months. I was 22 years old. The commandant, who had recruited me in April, and I went back a long way. When I was a senior at the American School in Japan, his daughter was in the third grade. He was a military attaché at the U.S. embassy at that time.
Christmases ’42 and ’43 were spent on post. In 1943, Mary had told me, “Eat dinner on post and come later to the Schankes for dessert,” so I did. Mary had arrived from Heart Mountain (Wyoming) Relocation Center, and we married on April 2, 1943. We were one of the first couples to marry at Camp Savage. In June, 250 of us entrained to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, to undergo a basic, 90-day training course with the newly formed 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Six of us qualified as “expert” with the M1 Garand rifle. Upon our return to Camp Savage, there were weddings and receptions galore. After graduation, we would learn our next destination: Hawaii, China, Burma, India, or Australia. Graduation day in November 1943 was an eye-opener. If you were a Nisei linguist, you became a sergeant. If you were a Caucasian taking the same course, you became a second lieutenant. Some of the older, highly skilled Nisei complained, but to no avail. The Army had its way and the Army kept it that way.
Next issue I’ll share those third and fourth Christmases.
—George Shimizu, 2140 Sepulveda Ave., Milpitas, CA 95035; (408) 930-2488; marymariko@comcast.net
On December 12, 1942, 400 of us graduated in Thayer Hall. We started with 651 frosh. It was a subdued and teary occasion. We were losing on all fronts. President Hopkins and Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, gave inspiring words. We lost 23 classmates during World War II. They are on the College’s Military Service Hall of Fame in the Hopkins Center. They will be forever young. We graduated without fanfare, no families, no friends. Would we see each other ever again? At class reunions? It was wartime. More than 100 classmates headed for Notre Dame and became 90-day ensigns. On December 15, 1942, I enlisted and became Pvt. George T. Shimizu, ASN 1715XXXX for the duration plus six months. I was 22 years old. The commandant, who had recruited me in April, and I went back a long way. When I was a senior at the American School in Japan, his daughter was in the third grade. He was a military attaché at the U.S. embassy at that time.
Christmases ’42 and ’43 were spent on post. In 1943, Mary had told me, “Eat dinner on post and come later to the Schankes for dessert,” so I did. Mary had arrived from Heart Mountain (Wyoming) Relocation Center, and we married on April 2, 1943. We were one of the first couples to marry at Camp Savage. In June, 250 of us entrained to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, to undergo a basic, 90-day training course with the newly formed 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Six of us qualified as “expert” with the M1 Garand rifle. Upon our return to Camp Savage, there were weddings and receptions galore. After graduation, we would learn our next destination: Hawaii, China, Burma, India, or Australia. Graduation day in November 1943 was an eye-opener. If you were a Nisei linguist, you became a sergeant. If you were a Caucasian taking the same course, you became a second lieutenant. Some of the older, highly skilled Nisei complained, but to no avail. The Army had its way and the Army kept it that way.
Next issue I’ll share those third and fourth Christmases.
—George Shimizu, 2140 Sepulveda Ave., Milpitas, CA 95035; (408) 930-2488; marymariko@comcast.net