"Nisei Hero", Comic Celebrating Japanese American War Hero Ben Kuroki in True Comics, 1946

Nisei Hero True Comics

Periodical

Ben Kuroki comic biography from 1946, published months after the end of World War II and presenting the Japanese American airman’s fifty eight combat missions as an argument for equal treatment of Japanese Americans at home. Appearing in True Comics, a nonfiction comic marketed to young American readers under the slogan “TRUTH is stranger and a thousand times more thrilling than FICTION,” “Nisei Hero” follows Kuroki from the discrimination he encountered while attempting to serve in the Army Air Corps through combat in Europe and the Pacific and his subsequent public campaign against racial intolerance. Its publication in 1946 placed Kuroki’s military record before a mass juvenile readership just after the wartime incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans and as returning Nisei servicemen confronted the question of whether military victory would produce greater equality at home.

True Comics. No. 49. New York: Parents’ Magazine Press, 1946. May June 1946 issue. 52 pages. Original issue, color printed on newsprint, with illustrated wrappers advertising “15 Exciting Features,” including “Smoking Fists,” “Sizzling Southpaw,” and “Secret Warriors.” The issue contains the biographical comic “Nisei Hero,” indexed at approximately five pages and devoted to Ben Kuroki and his brother Fred. The story begins in Hershey, Nebraska, where the brothers decide after Pearl Harbor that “There’s only one thing we can do, Fred, enlist!” The Air Corps initially refuses them because it “won’t accept Japanese Americans without special permission,” and subsequent panels depict Ben enduring discrimination at Sheppard Field, Texas, before obtaining assignment to an air squadron. Overseas service changes the social terms of the narrative, announced by the caption “Overseas, the men were more friendly,” as Kuroki trains as a gunner and begins combat duty. The story follows his B-24 missions against German supply shipping in the Mediterranean and the Ploesti oil fields, including his thirtieth mission over Germany, when he is wounded. After returning to the United States, Kuroki requests Pacific service and is sent to the Marianas, where his B-29 is named “Honorable Sad Saki.” The final combat sequence states that he “made twenty eight more missions over Japan,” followed by a presentation of his third Distinguished Flying Cross. The biography ends not with the decoration but with Kuroki speaking publicly after the war: “Boys of all colors, creeds and races won the war. Please, America, don’t let them down now!”

Kuroki’s biography gave True Comics unusually direct material for its established formula of presenting contemporary history through illustrated nonfiction. Born to Japanese immigrant parents and raised on a Nebraska farm, Kuroki enlisted after Pearl Harbor and became an aerial gunner despite military restrictions and repeated discrimination. He flew thirty combat missions in the European theater and twenty eight in the Pacific, ultimately completing fifty eight missions in B-24 and B-29 bombers. His Pacific assignment was exceptional enough to require approval at the highest levels of the War Department, and his combat record made him a nationally publicized Nisei serviceman while Japanese Americans remained incarcerated in War Relocation Authority camps. By 1944 Kuroki was already appearing before Japanese American audiences, including at the Topaz incarceration camp, and after his European service he spoke publicly against racial discrimination. The complete No. 49 issue also preserves the story in its original editorial and commercial setting, among sports, adventure, military, industrial, film, and biographical features intended for young readers. Cover and spine wear, with some chipping to front and back; moderate newsprint toning, and scattered handling creases; final page of "Cavalcade of England" torn out; interior colors remain strong and the issue is near complete. Overall very good condition. A complete 1946 popular comic showing how Ben Kuroki’s fifty eight combat missions were recast for American youth as a postwar argument against anti Japanese prejudice and for the citizenship claims of Japanese Americans.

Item #23803

Price: $2,500.00

Status: On Hold