In August I wrote about Earl M. Finch, who welcomed more than 10,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry to Army basic training at Camp Shelby, Miss., in 1943. Many were from Hawaii, and most had not ever been far from home, let alone in the deep South.

Dec. 15 would have been Finch’s 100th birthday, and I thought I’d write more about him.

When others scorned them and called them dirty J—- and worse, Finch made it his personal mission to change the lot of the nisei soldiers. It was a mission that engulfed his whole life.

When the USO Canteen blocked their entrance, he started a USO just for them. He threw parties at his ranch and took the boys sightseeing to New Orleans; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; and New York.

The soldiers formed a 442nd baseball team and won the Camp Shelby championship. Finch bestowed trophies and medals on them.

Several of the soldiers were swimmers and had trained with Soichi Sakamoto’s famed “Three Year Swim Team” in Puunene, Maui. When Finch heard that the Southern Amateur Athletic Swimming Championships were being held in New Orleans, he paid for 10 of the boys to go.

Finch made arrangements for them to practice at the University of Southern Mississippi pool, paid their train fare and put them up in a nice hotel.

The nisei swimmers dominated the meet, even though they were out of shape. Takashi “Halo” Hirose captured the 50- and 100-meter races while Charlie Oda won the distance races.

They celebrated with a fancy dinner at the Roosevelt hotel. All compliments of Earl Finch.

Finch wrote long letters to the soldiers when they served overseas. More than 1,500 of the boys named him executor of their wills. He visited them in hospitals if they were wounded and visited their families if they were killed in action. In 1944 he traveled more than 70,000 miles at his own expense.

In “The Earl Finch Story,” Mark Santoki said, “to lift morale, Finch organized the Shelby Serenaders, a Hawaiian music group with ukulele, bass and a hula dancer.”

Finch wrangled a 10-day pass and took the group to New York. They stayed at the Waldorf Astoria hotel and entertained wounded 442nd soldiers at a nearby hospital. A second performance was put on at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C.

It was so successful, Finch sponsored a tour, and the group traveled 35,000 miles and entertained more than 25,000 wounded soldiers in hospitals around the country.

After the war President Harry S. Truman presented the Presidential Citation on the men of the 100th and 442nd combat teams. When the “Go for Broke” team marched to the White House, 442nd vet Larry Sakamoto said, “Mr. Finch was there. He had tears in his eyes. You could tell he was the proudest person on earth.”

Finch visited Hawaii in 1946 and later moved here. He persuaded mainland 100/442 veterans in 30 states to come to Honolulu for a 10th reunion in 1953.

It was a watershed event for Finch, Santoki wrote. “A decade after their initial meeting in Hattiesburg, the nisei had grown up and started families of their own. They had taken advantage of the G.I. Bill of Rights and educated themselves to become pioneers in academics, law and business. They were poised to take their rightful place in Hawaii’s society.”

In the mid-1950s Finch and MIS (Military Intelligence Service) vet Ralph Yempuku ventured into show business. Rock ’n’ roll was just beginning, and they wanted to bring the new sounds to Hawaii’s youth.

“Earl and I knew that we needed a good emcee to front the event who was well known around younger kids,” said Yempuku. “And that’s how we got Tom Moffatt. He was an idol to them.”

Moffatt added, “I was working at KHVH radio at the time, and Ralph was running the Civic Auditorium.

“They called me down for a meeting and asked if I would be their talent coordinator and emcee of the shows. The first show that we did was in the summer of 1957 at the 49th State Fair.”

Later, on Nov. 15, Moffatt directed the first “Show of Stars,” featuring the Five Satins, Sonny Knight, Don and Dewey, and Charlie Santos.

In January 1958 the “Show of Stars” featured Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Jerry Lee Lewis and Paul Anka. Ten thousand teens packed the performances.

For seven years the team produced rock ’n’ roll extravaganzas every other month. Hawaii had more such shows than Los Angeles, Moffatt said.

Many of the singers came to Hawaii without backup bands. Even worse, few knew musical notation.

The team hired musicians but they needed sheet music, which the singers lacked. “We had to spin their records so that the band could try to figure it out,” Moffatt recalls.

By the end of 1964, Finch, Yempuku and Moffatt had put on 34 shows and sold 680,000 tickets. More than 100 rock ’n’ roll pioneers had visited the state.

Finch died suddenly of a heart attack at age 49 in 1965. He had a heart condition that few knew about. However, the amount of aloha he shared with others in those brief years was extraordinary.

On the 100th anniversary of his birth week, I think it’s only right we take a few moments to remember all he did for the soldiers of the 100th and 442nd in faraway Mississippi.

Bob Sigall, author of the “Companies We Keep” books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.