By WAYNE OSAKO
“It’s time for a Go For Broke stamp.”
Rafu writer Maggie Ishino was the first to coin the name “Go For Broke stamp.” She wrote these words on Aug. 2, 2012, in her now-retired “Maggie’s Meow” column in support of a long overdue U.S. commemorative stamp that would honor the Nisei soldiers of World War II.
For those readers who don’t know, Nisei is the Japanese word to describe the second-generation, children of immigrants who came from Japan during the early 1900s.
To her and to her Nisei generation, a small government-issued postage stamp that features their story would mean the world. Pre-Internet and before cell phones, the post office was the way to communicate long distance. That was a time when stamps mattered much more to people than they do today.
After years of campaigning by Maggie and other Nisei, Sansei, Yonsei,and friends and family of our veterans across the country and in France, the Go For Broke stamp was issued in 2021. The stamp is here, though it sadly will soon be gone.
Since I started in 2006, my role in the Stamp Our Story Committee has given me a front seat to the community’s fight to get the stamp issued. We are grateful that The Rafu has covered us since the earliest days.
The U.S. Postal Service had been rejecting the stamp proposal since it was first submitted in 2005. Stamps that honored fictional comic book characters, actors, and a host of mundane subjects were routinely green-lit by the USPS. Yet, a single stamp that would honor the American patriotism of the Nisei was annually rejected.
“It is truly regrettable and unjustifiable that, to date, there has not been issued a commemorative stamp acknowledging and honoring the Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion, although they served their country with valor beyond description,” Maggie declared in her column.
As a reminder of their history, an estimated 33,000 Nisei men and women enlisted in the U.S. military during the war. Over 800 made the ultimate sacrifice. Most volunteered from Hawaii, but thousands enlisted from the U.S. concentration camps where over 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated due to unfounded doubts of their loyalty.
Men mainly served in segregated units, primarily in the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team and in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). The 100th/442nd’s motto was “Go For Broke,” a Hawaiian phrase meaning “give everything you’ve got.” The 100th/442nd became the most decorated military unit for their size and length of service in U.S. history, with an exemplary battle record.
Nisei women served in the Women’s Army Corps, Cadet Nurse Corps, and MIS.
“Go For Broke” is now used to collectively describe all of our World War II Nisei veterans.
I couldn’t be happier that Maggie was able to see the Go For Broke stamp become a reality after the 15-year effort to get it. She still resides in Southern California, and she has been able to witness the stamp’s effect.
The most popular use has been for holiday greeting cards. Some have used the stamp to mail their wedding invitations. Many have given a sheet as gifts, or for koden thank-yous.
Some communities have done special Go For Broke postmark events with their local postmaster, as has been done at Manzanar National Historic Site, Poston Pilgrimage, Tanaka Farm’s “Walk the Farm,” and at the Friends and Family of Nisei Veterans Reunion.
So many who campaigned for the stamp, though, did got live long enough to see it come to fruition. This includes my own parents and most of my Nisei aunties and uncles who endured the camps mainly at Heart Mountain, Jerome, and Tule Lake. Our committee’s co-founder Chiz Ohira, who was incarcerated at Poston, also passed during the campaign.
Most heartbreaking is that more of our beloved Nisei veterans themselves were not able to witness the stamp that honors them.
I wish that legendary Rafu writer George Yoshinaga were here today.
The three Nisei women who sparked the community movement for the Stamp were big fans of “Horse” — George’s nickname. The co-founders were Fusa Takahashi, Aiko Ogata King, and Chiz. They would say, “The stamp campaign didn’t really get started until Horse wrote about it and made it official.”
An L.A. Times article on the campaign was good, but when we made it into the “Horse’s Mouth” column in The Rafu, they were jumping for joy. George was a veteran who was drafted from Heart Mountain, and first trained as a 100th/442nd replacement soldier before being sent to serve with the MIS.
Postal Service spokesman Terrence McCaffrey gave a public explanation in early 2008 that “the [Go For Broke stamp] idea had been rejected in the past because of the Postal Service’s long-standing policy of not recognizing individual units or groups in the military.”
In true Horse fashion in his March 18, 2008 column, George responded:
“After reading this explanation, I am even more distressed by the ‘leg-dragging’ by the Postal Dept. on the vet’s stamp. With all the junk they have been printing on stamps over the years, their explanation of policies regarding ‘individual units and groups in the military’ is really a joke. Who makes these policies? Well, let’s not give up. Using the slogan of the 100th/442nd, let’s Go For Broke!”
Now is the last time to “Go For Broke” for the stamp. The Postal Service will stop selling them soon, and they do not say when. They limit production and stop selling a commemorative stamp after about two years to increase the stamp’s rarity, which nurtures their stamp collector customer base.
But beyond its collectibility, to our JA community, the stamp shares our Nisei story. Perhaps President Joe Biden described this legacy best in his statement on June 3, 2021, the stamp’s first day of issue:
“Japanese American soldiers who fought for our nation’s freedom during World War II represent the best of who we are as Americans—patriotic, selfless, and courageous…. This stamp recognizes the struggle of the Japanese Americans who were immorally and unconstitutionally forced into inhumane incarceration camps.…The resilience and determination of Japanese American service members who fought during World War II embody the best of the American spirit, and this stamp is a small but significant way to honor their allegiance and gallantry.”
Thank you to our Nisei veteran elders who inspired us — we did this for you. Thank you to the Nisei elders in our community, like Maggie, Horse, the campaign founders, and others of you out there, who rallied us in support of a little stamp.
Go For Broke!
A Parting Note: Consider giving some Go For Broke stamps to family and friends this holiday season. Post offices have mostly run out, but a sheet of 20 stamps, at the going rate with handling fees, costs $14.85 on www.USPS.com. Consider also printing out and attaching a Rafu article like this one to help explain the importance of the Nisei veteran legacy, especially for younger generations who do not know the story. The StampOurStory.org website also has resources.
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Wayne Osako is chair of the Stamp Our Story Committee, the community group that rallied for the Go For Broke stamp since 2005, and now works to educate the public about the Nisei veteran legacy through the stamp. For more information, go to www.StampOurStory.org.