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Mr. Kimura, 77, one of the first Japanese-Americans to live in St. Petersburg, fought in one of the most decorated U.S. military units.
By GREG WILLIAMS
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 26, 2000
ST. PETERSBURG -- Herbert T. Kimura, who was among the first Japanese-Americans to settle in the area and who fought in World War II, died Thursday (Nov. 23, 2000) at the VA Medical Center at Bay Pines. He was 77.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Mr. Kimura joined 17,600 other Nisei, second-generation Japanese-Americans, in fighting against the Axis.
But the Niseis' entry into the war was delayed by the forced internment of 110,000 Japanese-Americans on the West Coast. They were released to fight only after individual screenings to prove their loyalty.
Mr. Kimura fought in Italy with the Army's 442nd Regimental Combat Team/100th Infantry Battalion, which became, for its size, one of the most decorated in U.S. history.
Mr. Kimura's daughter, Linda Kimura-Marcus, traveled with her father last year to Branson, Mo., for a reunion with some of his Army buddies.
"To hear the stories of these wonderful people that did heroic deeds that I didn't even believe possible and never once think one thing about it -- my father never talked about the war, he never talked about prejudice, he just never talked about it," she said.
In St. Petersburg, Mr. Kimura's family, one of about a half-dozen Japanese-American families who lived in the Goose Pond community from Third Avenue S to Fifth Avenue N, was relatively untouched by what was happening on the West Coast during the war.
Although Mr. Kimura's daughter told how her grandfather acted as translator when government agents came to confiscate weapons and radio equipment they feared could be used to communicate with Japanese forces.
After the war, Mr. Kimura returned home and started Kimura Tile in 1947.
In recent years, Mr. Kimura and his daughter were active in the Go For Broke Education Foundation. The national group, named after the slogan of the 442nd, has sought to bring attention to the plight and the heroics of Japanese-Americans during the war.
Other survivors include Mr. Kimura's wife of 57 years, Mary E.; a son, Herbert Thomas Kimura, Seminole; three brothers, Robert, Largo, Earl, Hernando, and Eugene, Kissimmee; two sisters, Flora Kawabata and Marion Osakanda, both of Chicago; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Brett Funeral Home & Cremation Services, St. Petersburg.
A memorial service will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at Brett Funeral Home, 4810 Central Ave. The family suggests memorial contributions to the Go for Broke Educational Foundation, P.O. Box 2590, Garden, Calif. 90247.
- Information from Times files was used in this article.