Son of 100th Battalion Soldier Pays Tribute to His Father's Legacy
Tim Kano recently formed a 100th Battalion Unit within the California Historical Group, using living history and reenactments to honor the Japanese American WWII soldiers.
In the documentary film "Beyond Barbed Wire," rare color footage of Japanese American soldiers of the 100th Battalion taking part in various obstacle training exercises can be seen. Part of the footage includes a close-up of a JA soldier crawling under a raised log. Although his face is partially obscured, the nametag on his helmet is clear: H. Kano.
The soldier is Henry Kano, the late father of Tim Kano, 49.
"What a rare treat it was to not only find this footage and obtain a copy of it but to also have it in color," said Tim, noting the shock he felt when he first recognized his father in the film. Later he had a friend enhance the historical images.
"In the enlarged pictures I could also clearly see the scar across [my father's] nose that was very distinctive. Later I would go through the footage frame by frame and I was also able to see him in groups of soldiers running through the obstacle course."
For the past several years Tim has spent much of his spare time collecting the stories, momentos, and artifacts from his father's life as an American soldier, including the historical footage of the 100th Battalion. He's also found a rather unique way to pay tribute to his late father.
As a member of the California Historical Group (CHG) - a non-profit that uses live reenactments to honor the WWII soldiers - Tim has created a unit depicting the battles and experiences of the fa
med 100th Battalion, a unit in which his father proudly served.
After the death of Henry this past September, these tributes have become an important way to honor his father's life.
"The reason for doing the 100th Battalion was to honor my father," said Tim. Reenactments are "an effort to understand what happened to my father and why he became the person he was.
"After all I created this to help carry on the memory in a very visual way for future generations and hopefully to get them involved in a hands on method. It's not about reenacting any longer. It's about 'living history.'"
A History Buff in the Making
As a child, Tim had just about every toy soldier Army play set available at the time and he would spend hours recreating battles and war scenes. This may have been the first sign of Tim's lifelong interest in WWII history.
In later years, Tim - a chief financial officer living in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. - would sit for hours reading WWII books at the library and he eventually got into building models and table top war gaming. Reenactments - where "you sleep in the field, wear the clothes, engage the enemy in firefights and get in 'character'" - are a culmination of his interest in WWII history.
Although Tim, like his brothers, had wanted to enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces, Henry was adamant that none of his five children would ever see war firsthand.
"My father was staunchly patriotic, but did not want any of us to have to go through what he did. As a consequence, since I couldn't join the Armed Forces I became a military historian of WWII mostly."
Although Henry rarely spoke about his wartime experiences with his family, he would often reminisce about his days as a soldier when he got together with his war buddies. Young Tim would make sure he was in earshot of these gatherings, often going unnoticed by the group of men. And it was during these moments that he learned about many of his father's WWII experiences.
"It was quite unusual and they would talk a lot, reminisce and there was a bit of crying involved on occasion. Group therapy I suppose you would call it today."
Over the years, Tim has documented his father's wartime stories, writing various essays and posting photos on his Web site (http://kanowarrior.tripod.com/actionfiguresatwar/id7.html). Henry's stories included the time he was fishing in a stream in Italy when suddenly there was machine gun fire and his buddy was shot dead. There was also the JA soldier who left the hospital before he had fully recovered so he could rejoin the fighting alongside his buddies. He died soon after.
"I vividly recall the tears coming down [my father's] cheeks as he recalled this soldier being driven away, lying on a stretcher on a jeep, never to be seen again alive," said Tim. "It makes me cry just to recall seeing the emotions on my father's face as he would tell me this, his eyes tearing up."
CHG's 100th Battalion Unit
Henry's wartime stories stay with Tim as he participates in WWII reenactments with the California Historical Group, an organization he has been involved with since the early 1980s. The memories Henry passed down are especially poignant now that Tim has started the 100th Battalion Unit within the CHG.
The 100th, along with the 133rd, make up the 34th Infantry Division Unit with the CHG. So far there are more than 20 members with Asian American members making up about one-third of the unit. The group hopes to expand its numbers so the story of the 100th Battalion can eventually be told through living history, parades and shows, in addition to reenactments.
Tim is hopeful that his efforts to keep the story of the 100th Battalion alive will encourage the children and grandchildren of other JA WWII vets to start archiving and recording the vets' stories before they are lost.
"40,000 stories and we will probably be lucky if 400 are remembered," he said. "If what little is not documented now it will be lost forever. We have a duty to our generations to come to make sure they are not."
Although Henry was a reluctant hero, his passing on Sept. 22, 2007, at the age of 93, is not the end of his story. Tim wants to ensure his legacy lives on not only for his own two daughters and grandchildren but for all those who have yet to hear about the legacy of the 100th Battalion.
"The 442nd veterans are being lost to history. My grandson who is three now will never know what his great grandfather was like although my father delighted in his visits. I need something to pass onto him or his children someday or all will be forgotten," said Tim.
"I worry about that sometimes. I feel my father led an incredible life ... What he did touched the lives of an entire culture. I can only hope for a fraction of what he did in my own lifetime. His life really meant something for generations to come."
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