VAntage Point
Frank DeVita: From Brooklyn to Omaha
Frank DeVita served in World War II on USS Samuel Chase (AP-24) and was involved in the storming of Omaha Beach and later the Pacific Theater in Japan.
Frank DeVita was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, during the Great Depression. As early as 1941, 16-year-old DeVita was anxious to join the Armed Forces following the attack Pearl Harbor. Taking the advice of his mother, DeVita waited until he graduated high school before he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard at the age of 18. DeVita chose the Coast Guard while his brothers joined the Marines and Army because it was the branch that would send him out to defend his country the fastest.
VAntage Point
Frank Wada: Which Side?
People doubted Frank Wada’s loyalties because he was Japanese-American. However, Wada readily volunteered to fight for his country when given the chance.
Born in Redlands, California, in 1921, Frank Wada faced racial discrimination throughout his childhood. He was only allowed to swim in the public pool on Mondays, which was the day that non-white children were granted entry. At the movie theater, he was expected to sit in the upper balcony. And, he was only one of the few Japanese American families in town, so he had difficulty finding a community he could closely identify with. No amount of education seemed to liberate Wada from discrimination. In his senior year of high school in 1938, a fellow student asked him, “Which side are you going to fight for?” Wada’s mother got wind of his harassment and told him that if he were to ever fight, it would be for America.
VAntage Point
Don Seki: Japanese American War Hero
Don Seki served as a member of the 442nd Regiment, a unit of Japanese American soldiers, during World War II.
Born in December 1922, Noboru “Don” Seki grew up in the Manoa Valley in Honolulu, where his parents worked as farmers on a sugar plantation. He was the youngest son and grew up barefoot; his family was at the bottom of the plantation economy. At the time, two of every five Hawaiians were Japanese American, and discrimination against Japanese American citizens was not as prevalent as it was on the mainland.
When Seki was 17, his parents moved back to Japan. Seki, however, stayed behind. On Dec. 7, 1941, only three days after they said their goodbyes, the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. Life as he knew it changed forever and Seki would not see his parents again until 1947.