Japan's Interesting People:The Akune Brothers

This is yet another page of *Japan's Interesting People*.

This page will cover 4 (yes, 4) Japanese people at the same time. These are the 4 brothers of *The Akune Family*. These brothers would go on to fight in World War 2 and on opposite sides.

But what was their history was like? This is what this page will try to cover.

## But first

Now, before we begin, I just want to let you know that some of the evidence is quite unreliable since there's no official page of The Akune Brothers on Wikipedia, so I had to look elsewhere and I found some less reliable sources in educational Youtube videos and Ancestry.com

## Beginning

It all began (supposedly) when a Japanese couple (a man named *Ichiro* and a woman named *Yukiye*) Fell in love with each other and got married.

In 1918, Ichiro and Yukiye decided to move to the USA in hopes to begin their lives together. As they moved to the USA (and to the state of California) they also wanted to open up their own Grocery Store.

As they opened up their Grocery Store, their life was going good.

In fact, the couple would go on to have 9 children. The eldest of the 9 children were 4 boys: *Masami*(known in English as *Harry*), *Kenjiro* (known in English as *Ken*) Saburo and Shiro.

Things were really looking up for the Akune family and their Grocery Store business.

That is until the Great Depression hit on October of 1929 and the Akune Family's grocery store business was hit quite hard by the Depression.

But perhaps an even bigger tragedy struck the family when Yukiye dies in 1933, the family was devastated.

This is when Ichiro decided to move back to Japan, but his family moved back first and have his kids live with relatives.

The Akune Brothers would move in with their uncle.

While they were living with their uncle, the brothers were given some formal Japanese education from their uncle. The brothers were quick to learn Japanese and were even taught the history and culture of Japan.

When they came of age, Harry and Ken decided to move back to the USA (the nation they personally call home).

Very much like what happened to their parents and family before them, things were looking good for both Harry and Ken. But it wouldn't last for long.

## Internment and Military Service

On December 7, 1941.  Their ancestral home (Japan) attacked their regular home (the USA) at an American naval base: *Pearl Harbor*. Thus the USA officially enters World War 2.

With this, the US government approves a bill that tells all Japanese people (either they're immigrants or American Citizens) to be put into internment camps. Harry and Ken were no exception as they were taken away and put into an internment camp in Colorado. There, they were given a series of harsh treatments from their captors.

Even when being interned, the US Military was looking for Japanese people to recruit as they can be an important asset in the war effort. Harry and Ken (seizing some kind of opportunity) decided to be recruited into the US Army.

When Harry and Ken were recruited into the US Military, they helped the USA crack many of Japan's top-secret military communication codes (one of them being Japan's naval code: JN-25) due to their ability to speak Japanese.

But that didn't mean they were well-liked among their fellow American soldiers. Because they were Japanese (and because of what Japan did to America at Pearl Harbor), their fellow American soldiers resented them. Despite this, Harry and Ken still did their duties for the US Military.

Harry and Ken would go on to aid the US Army during World War 2. But little do they know, is that their younger brothers Saburo and Shiro would also fight in the war, but on the side of Japan.

Saburo would be an elite fighter pilot, while Shiro would become a military strategist (at the age of 14).

## The brothers meet

On August 1945, the USA would drop the Atomic Bombs on Japan, and Japan would surrender a month later.

Harry and Ken were then assigned to Japan to help with the US Occupation there.

During the occupation, the 4 brothers would receive invitations from their father: Ichiro who wants to organize a family reunion of the Akune.

As The family reunion began, the 4 brothers would meet for the first time in several decades, and this is where the 4 brothers found out that they fought on opposite sides of the Pacific Theater of World War 2.

Soon, a heated argument would break out between the 4 brothers, and this would continue for several minutes.

An actual physical fight would've broke out between the brothers, that is if not for their father, who told them to stop fighting and get along, and so they did. The 4 brothers made up, and the reunion went without another hitch.

Soon, Saburo and Shiro would return to the USA with Harry and Ken and even recruited into the US Army.

By the time the Korean War began, the 4 brothers would fight together,

Well, that is it for this page of *Japan's Interesting People*. Don't forget to check out my other pages on here, and don't forget to check out my Games and Movies wikis as well. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.