{"id":3449,"date":"2025-08-27T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/?p=3449"},"modified":"2025-10-27T15:45:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T22:45:26","slug":"kazuo-masuda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/kazuo-masuda\/","title":{"rendered":"Kazuo Masuda"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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They Couldn\u2019t Bury the War Hero, Because He Wasn\u2019t White<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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August 27, 1944: Staff Sergeant Kazuo Masuda of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was killed by enemy fire near the Arno River in Italy. He was only 25.\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Masuda\u2019s heroism was unquestionable. In early July, during fierce fighting near the town of Pastina, Italy, his observation post came under relentless German attack. Crawling 200 yards under fire, he secured a mortar tube and twenty rounds of ammunition. Using his dirt-filled helmet as a base, he fought back for twelve straight hours \u2014 turning back two German counteroffensives and inflicting heavy casualties. Later, near Arno, he stayed behind to cover his men\u2019s retreat, sacrificing himself so they could live.<\/p>\n

Kazuo was a war hero \u2014 a proud member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team<\/a>. But when his body was returned home to California, his family was told he couldn\u2019t be buried in the local cemetery. The reason? He wasn\u2019t Caucasian.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The insult sparked outrage. For a family who had already endured injustice \u2014 Kazuo\u2019s parents and siblings had been incarcerated<\/a> at Jerome War Relocation Center<\/a> during the war \u2014 this was another painful reminder of how deep prejudice ran in America.<\/p>\n

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Private First Class Kazuo Masuda, 442nd RCT. He received Distinguished Service Cross for for two separate incidents. <\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Kazuo Masuda visiting his family at the Jerome incarceration camp during his furlough. A decorated war hero, Masuda would later be denied burial in his California hometown.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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When Kazuo Masuda\u2019s body was returned home in 1948, his family was told he couldn\u2019t be buried in the sections with trees and grass \u2014 those were for Caucasians only. <\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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Mary Masuda on the right at their farm in present-day Fountain Valley, California. She also faced the \u201cGo back to where you came from\u201d threats of the day.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Kazuo Masuda\u2019s sister, Mary, accepting his posthumous medal from General Joseph Stilwell. \nKazuo died protecting two fellow soldiers in Italy.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Young Captain Ronald Reagan honored the Masuda family with a beautiful and inspiring speech on unity and sacrifice.\n<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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After the war, the hostility persisted. For example, when Kazuo\u2019s sister, Mary, returned home, she was\u00a0 <\/span>approached by a group of five men who threatened her with \u201cbodily harm\u201d unless she moved out of the country. Even after the Masudas had sent four sons to fight for America, including one who gave his life, they were still \u201cthe enemy.\u201d<\/p>

The U.S. Army, pressured by the national attention, held a public medal ceremony for the Masuda family in December 1944. A young Army captain named Ronald Reagan gave a speech that day:<\/p>

\u201cBlood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world, the only country not founded on race, but on a way \u2014 an ideal.\u201d<\/p>

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After media pressure, Sgt. Masuda was finally allowed to be buried in Westminster Memorial Park in Orange County.<\/p>

Decades later, President Ronald Reagan would sign the Civil Liberties Act of 1988<\/a>, granting an apology and reparations to Japanese Americans who had been unjustly incarcerated. In his signing remarks, he recalled the Masuda story:<\/p>

\u201cThe name of that young actor \u2014 I hope I pronounce this right \u2014 was Ronald Reagan.\u201d<\/p>

By invoking his own role in honoring Masuda decades earlier, Reagan underscored how the injustice against Japanese Americans could not be ignored forever.<\/p>

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Pallbearers carry Staff Sergeant Kazuo Masuda\u2019s flag-draped coffin to his long-delayed burial at Westminster Memorial Park, Orange County.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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President Ronald Reagan shakes hands with June Masuda Goto, sister of Staff Sergeant Kazuo Masuda, before signing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. <\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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Masao Masuda holding a portrait of his brother, Kazuo Masuda. The prejudice they faced became symbols of the fight for dignity and justice for Japanese Americans.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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The use of Kazuo Masuda\u2019s story, as scholars Harry Kitano and S. Megan Berthold observed, accomplished a great deal. It humanized the injustice, showing that even a decorated war hero could be denied dignity at home \u2014 and it helped build the moral momentum that led to redress.<\/p>

Kazuo Masuda\u2019s life is valuable not only for his battlefield bravery, but also for the way his memory helped reshape America\u2019s conscience. So that America can stand truly unique in the world as the only country founded on \u2014 an ideal.<\/p>

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Share this article<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They Couldn\u2019t Bury the War Hero, Because He Wasn\u2019t White<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37,20,31,248,6,194,246,250,33,253,32,189,245,15],"class_list":["post-3449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-442nd-regimental-combat-team","tag-aapi-history","tag-civil-rights","tag-civil-rights-activism","tag-japanese-american-history","tag-kazuo-masuda","tag-law-justice","tag-military-war","tag-never-forget","tag-politicians-leaders","tag-quiet-americans","tag-ronald-reagan","tag-wartime-incarceration","tag-wwii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3449"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4799,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449\/revisions\/4799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}