Takejiro Higa
Military Intelligence Service

Youth in Okinawa

Takejiro Higa

In Okinawa, Takejiro speaks Okinawan hogen (dialect) at home and Japanese in school. His family cannot afford to send him to high school.

At 14, to help his uncle, Takejiro regularly transports black sugar to Naha on a horse cart.

Almost 16, he anticipates conscription into the Manchuria Development Youth Corps. He begs his sister for passage to Hawaii before this happens.