Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 19, 1994 TAG: 9403190099
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Yamashita, 38, a third-generation American whose grandparents came to Hawaii a century ago, was subjected to racial taunts and epithets throughout a 10-week course in 1989, then kicked out two days before graduation on grounds that he had exhibited "leadership failure."
Now an attorney in Washington, Yamashita waged a five-year legal battle against the Marine Corps that ultimately resulted in a high-level apology, an overhaul in officer-training procedures and the offer of a commission, albeit in the reserves.
Friday, a uniformed Yamashita - sporting a Marine Corps-style crew cut and straining to hold back his emotions - took his oath as an officer and beamed as his captain's bars were pinned on by retired Marine Corps Maj. Ernest Kimoto, his co-counsel in the case.
"For five years now, I have thought about this moment," Yamashita told relatives and well-wishers in the flag-bedecked House Armed Services Committee hearing room on Capitol Hill. "It means much more to me now than ever I could have imagined five years ago."
On Yamashita's first day of officer-training class, one staff sergeant told him, "We don't want your kind around here - go back to your country!" Another suggested he join the Japanese army. He was routinely called Toyota and Honda.
After two investigations - and rejections by high-level Navy review boards - Yamashita eventually was offered a commission as a second lieutenant. He turned it down on grounds that it did not reflect the time he had lost while appealing.
This year, Navy Secretary John Dalton and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Frederick Pang ordered another review, and the Marines finally offered Yamashita a commission as a captain in the reserves.
by CNB