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Captain Carl Hirota, formerly of San Francisco and Topaz, was among the visitors at the semi-monthly Cosmo Nite at the YWCA in Kansas City, Missouri. Captain Hirota, dental officer for an engineering battalion stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, practiced dentistry for 8-1/2 years in San Francisco prior to evacuation. Chairman of the Topaz Center Council, Captain Hirota volunteered in the Army the day after Secretary of War Stimson's announcement that Japanese-Americans were eligible for military service. While in military service, Captain Hirota has seen most of the United States but still prefers California. He hopes to go back there after his tour of duty with the Army and enter private dental practice again. I have served entirely with Caucasians and have never experienced any discrimination north or south of the Mason-Dixon line, Captain Hirota said. If we prove ourselves loyal during the war and good citizens after the war in civilian jobs, I think the hatred on the West Coast will fade away, he said. -- Photographer: Iwasaki, Hikaru -- Kansas City, Missouri. 3/4/45

Contributing Institution:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library