Dr. Yutaka Koichi Yoshida, who probably was the oldest surviving member of the World War II 442nd Regimental Combat Team, died last month at age 104.
Yoshida, at 31, was one of the oldest people to volunteer for the 442nd RCT in 1943, according to Dr. Michael Okihiro, who interviewed Yoshida several times for oral histories and articles on Japanese doctors in Hawaii.
Yoshida died Sept. 13 in Honolulu.
Okihiro said that Yoshida was a “very bright guy” who was born in a Waipahu plantation camp called Stable Camp, which was named for the horses and mules that were housed there.
Okihiro said Yoshida caught the Oahu Railway train to commute every day from Waipahu to the Iwilei station to attend McKinley High School, graduating in 1930.
He worked for three years after graduation as a chemist at Oahu Sugar Co. but left to join the Honolulu Police Department while attending the University of Hawaii as a part-time student planning to attend medical school.
When the Japanese attacked the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Yoshida, as a police officer, accompanied FBI agents as they arrested prominent members of the Japanese community.
Okihiro said that Yoshida painfully recalls having to arrest a Nishi Hongwanji Temple priest.
In March 1943, at the age of 31, Yoshida volunteered to become a member of the 442nd RCT and was assigned to H Company, 2nd Battalion.
Yoshida was chosen to lead two squads of heavy machine-gunners as a sergeant, Okihiro said. He fought in Italy and was wounded by shrapnel near the village of Scopeto, where he was awarded a Silver Star.
He rejoined his unit in France after recuperating for months in a hospital near Rome.
Yoshida was awarded a Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster in April 1945 during the Po Valley campaign. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant after that campaign before the end of the war.
Following the war, Yoshida attended the University of Cincinnati Medical School and did his general surgical training at the Dayton, Ohio, Veterans Administration Hospital.
Yoshida began his medical practice in the islands in 1955 at the age of 43, and practiced medicine for 35 years.
His wife of 60 years, Marge, whom he met while attending medical school, died in 2007.
Okihiro said that Yoshida “loved to play tennis” at the Beretania Tennis Club in Makiki and gave up the sport only when his hips gave out.
He and his partner were the doubles champions at the Hawaii Medical Doctors Association tournaments for 10 years.
He is survived by daughter Ann, who lives in Chicago; son Ken; and two grandchildren.
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Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled Dr. Yutaka Koichi Yoshida’s last name as Yoshi in several references.
