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Published in the Sacramento Bee, November 7, 2011
"Minoru "Mino" Ohye is perhaps the only man alive who has served in both the Japanese Imperial Army and the U.S. Army. Ohye was born in Sacramento in 1926. When he was 3 years old, his father died in a freak fishing accident in Marysville, hitting his head on a river rock. Ohye's mother sent her young sons to live with relatives in Japan. His brother got adopted by one family; Ohye lived with an uncle who died when Ohye was in second grade. He moved in with another uncle.......On June 10, 1945, the Japanese army drafted him to fight the Soviets. On Aug. 22, Japan surrendered and Ohye was sent to work in a Siberian coal mine. He had to crawl on his hands and knees, and the more coal he dug out, the more he got fed. Ohye was released in 1947, suffering from rickets, and returned to Japan, where he got a job giving away clothes. In 1951, he returned to California to see his mother in Yuba City, where he worked in the fields. Then, during the Korean War, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Korea's Demilitarized Zone."
Read all of Minoru "Mino" Ohye's story here.
