{"id":86544,"date":"2025-10-15T07:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/?p=86544"},"modified":"2025-09-22T21:49:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T21:49:18","slug":"check-six-from-bellows-to-guadalcanal-hawai%ca%bbi-national-guard-in-world-war-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/2025\/10\/15\/check-six-from-bellows-to-guadalcanal-hawai%ca%bbi-national-guard-in-world-war-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Check Six: From Bellows to Guadalcanal: Hawai\u02bbi National Guard in World War II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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July 1941: Company G, 298th Infantry Schofield Barracks, Hawaii<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eighty-five years ago, on Oct. 15, 1940, the Hawai\u02bbi National Guard\u2019s 298th<\/sup> and 299th<\/sup> Infantry Regiments marched into Schofield Barracks under new orders from President Franklin Roosevelt. What began as a 12-month mobilization soon stretched into more than five years of wartime service, forever shaping the Guard\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newspapers of the day proudly called them \u201cHawai\u02bbi\u2019s Own.\u201d Local families and businesses rallied behind the soldiers, donating money and supplies to ease the transition from civilian to Army life. Within weeks, Guardsmen had built their own cantonments at Schofield, an area nicknamed the National Guard Woods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Bellows Field on the morning after Pearl Harbor, Company G of the 298th<\/sup> Infantry Regiment found itself in the middle of an encounter that would make history. In the predawn darkness of Dec. 8, 1941, Corporal David Akui spotted what he thought was a turtle swimming ashore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turned out to be a man \u2014 Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki, commander of a Japanese midget submarine. Akui and other Guardsmen captured Sakamaki, who became the first Japanese prisoner of war<\/a> taken by U.S. forces in World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all the Guard\u2019s stories were about triumph. On Jan. 28, 1942, an Army transport called the Royal T. Frank was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine<\/a> while carrying new recruits of the 299th<\/sup> Infantry Regiment to Hilo. Seventeen Guardsmen were killed. Survivor George Taketa remembered hearing someone cry, \u201cWake up. I see some big fish coming!\u201d \u2014 moments before the torpedo struck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survivors were taken to Maui, afterwards nine continued service with the 298th<\/sup> Infantry Regiment. Eight later transferred into the famed 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd<\/sup> Regimental Combat Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the spring of 1942, the War Department ordered the removal of Guardsmen of Japanese ancestry, leading to the formation of the 100th Infantry Battalion<\/a>, which later became one of the most decorated units in U.S. Army history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reorganization weakened the 299th Infantry Regiment, which was inactivated in June 1942, and its soldiers absorbed into the 298th<\/sup> Infantry Regiment. The reorganized regiment deployed to the South Pacific<\/a>, guarding installations on Guadalcanal and Espiritu Santo. For many Hawai\u02bbi Guardsmen, the deployment carried unexpected memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Platoon Sgt. Dai Woon Sur recalled: \u201cThis war wasn\u2019t only killing and destruction . . . During the period we were there, it was like a picnic for the local boys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guardsmen built grass-roofed mess halls, held Friday fish frys for hundreds of men, and even made homemade surfboards from scrap lumber. \u201cOn Sunday, our day off, we\u2019d paddle four or five miles up the coast. We lived off the land and the sea \u2014 just like home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the war\u2019s end in 1945, the 298th<\/sup> Infantry Regiment had earned honors for the Central Pacific Campaign. The regiment was fully inactivated by January 1946, having spent more than five continuous years on federal service \u2014 longer than any other Hawai\u02bbi-based unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s Guardsmen in World War II is one of resilience, sacrifice, and spirit. They defended their islands after Pearl Harbor, endured tragedy at sea, contributed soldiers to the legendary 100th<\/sup> Infantry Battalion, 442nd<\/sup> Regimental Combat Team, and carried Hawaiian culture with them to distant shores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eighty-five years later, we remember them still \u2014 citizen-soldiers who stood ready when history called, and who lived up to the name given to them: \u201cHawai\u02bbi\u2019s Own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learn more <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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References: <\/em>1940-1941 Annual Report<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>1941-1942 Annual Report<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>1955 August The Hawaii Guardsmen<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>1964 December The Hawaii Guardsman<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>1968 Spring The Hawaii Guardsman<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>1969 Summer The Hawaii Guardsman<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>1971 Fall The Hawaii Guardsman<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>1990 July \u2013 September P\u016bp\u016bkahi<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>1991 October \u2013 December P\u016bp\u016bkahi<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>1993 February \u2013 March P\u016bp\u016bkahi<\/em><\/a>,  <\/em>1995 January \u2013 February P\u016bp\u016bkahi<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>2016 November Pupukahi<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>2022 Winter P\u016bp\u016bkahi<\/em><\/a>, For Some, Guadalcanal a <\/em>\u2018South Pacific\u2019 Scene by Bob Krauss Honolulu Advertiser, Aug. 13, 1995<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eighty-five years ago, on Oct. 15, 1940, the Hawai\u02bbi National Guard\u2019s 298th and 299th Infantry Regiments marched into Schofield Barracks under new orders from President Franklin Roosevelt. What began as a 12-month mobilization soon stretched into more than five years of wartime service, forever shaping the Guard\u2019s history. The newspapers of the day proudly called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":86545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"8703,61550,58805,16339,43030,62208","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12401,12386,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1940s","category-check-six","category-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86544"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86574,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86544\/revisions\/86574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}