Kenje Ogata |

Staff Sergeant Kenje Ogata receiving the Air Medal, 1945. | World War, 1939-1945
Army Air Forces/Corps
Company B, 32nd Medical Training Battalion, Medical Corps; 726th Bomb Squadron, 451st Bomb Group, 49th Wing, 15th Air Force
Camp Grant, Rockford, Illinois; Fort Sheridan, Illinois; Las Vegas, Nevada; Lincoln, Nebraska; Davis-Monthan Air Field, Tucson, Arizona; Topeka, Kansas; Foggia, Italy; European Theater
Staff Sergeant
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Enlisting the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Staff Sergeant Kenje Ogata assumed that, having gone through the Civilian Pilot Training Program, he would have no trouble securing a spot on a bomber. Instead, he was shunted into the Medical Corps. After two years of advocating for a transfer to the Army Air Corps, he was finally given a chance to fly—but as a turret gunner, and not a pilot. During the course of completing 35 missions out of Italy, he was shot down twice over enemy territory. His letters to his wife, Wilma, convey not only his dedication to her, but also to doing his patriotic duty, even as his country discriminated against him.
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