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Email: "A Grandson's Quest"
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MAKAWAO – Chris Chruma said he knew his grandfather was killed in the Korean War before he was born. He just didn’t know how or why, and the nagging uncertainty plagued him as he grew up.

“I have tried to uncover information about my grandfather since I was a boy. I saw pictures of him and asked, ‘Why don’t I have a grandfather, too?’ ” the California man said.

“The answer always was, ‘He was killed in Korea. Nobody knows how or exactly where.’ ”

There was someone who knew. But it took the expanding reach of information technology to bring Chruma, now 36, to meet the 84-year-old veteran who had the answer he was seeking.

Chruma said he looked everywhere he could for answers. His mother, Rosie Chruma, said Chris was always interested in his grandfather, war and soldiers.

In 1999, Chris Chruma posted a request for information on the Korean War Project Web site, which is devoted to Korean War veterans. It also has a page to post remembrances of soldiers lost in Korea.

Eight years passed after Chris Chruma posted his thoughts on the Web site.

He thought he would never hear from anyone, as he had read that his grandfather’s unit, the 27th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division based at Schofield Barracks on Oahu, sustained heavy casualties in 1950.

“I pretty much wrote off that anyone could have served with him. I made the postings since 1999 because I wanted someone to not forget about Korea and my grandfather.”

Last year, Chris Chruma’s Internet appeal was answered.

Thousands of miles away in a Makawao doctor’s office, Jotoku Asato, a retired Maui Pineapple truck driver, World War II and Korean War veteran, told his psychologist about how his sergeant was killed in the Korean War.

At first Asato didn’t remember his sergeant’s name, but later the memories came back.

During a recent interview at Richard Sword’s office, Asato could vividly recall his experience with Sgt. 1st Class Robert C. Bennett.

He said the two were together in a foxhole Sept. 20, 1950, at the Pusan Perimeter, a bitterly contested front line around the South Korean city of Taegu protecting the port of Pusan.

All along the perimeter on Sept. 20, United Nations forces were under heavy attack, with the 27th Infantry engaged in continuous fighting along the southern flank.

After initially meeting for the first time the night before and spending the night together in the hole, the next morning the corporal and sergeant found themselves in harm’s way.

Artillery rounds were being fired toward them.

Bennett looked over the edge to see where the fire was coming from and Asato said he told the sergeant to stay down.

Too late.

Shrapnel hit Bennett and “cut his head in half.”

“He never suffered,” Asato said.

Asato said he remained with Bennett as long as he could before he was told to leave his position. According to the www.korean-war.com site, units of the 27th Infantry began to advance westward on Sept. 21, 1950, as North Korean forces withdrew.

After hearing Asato’s story last year in his office, Sword by chance was looking through the Korean War Project site.

On it was the basic information on Bennett and Chris Chruma’s appeal.

Sword and Asato decided to post an e-mail to tell Chruma what he knew.

Under the heading “I Knew Him,” Asato wrote: “I was in the foxhole with Sgt. Bennett when he was KIA by incoming. He was a fine Sgt. and I was honored to serve under his command. I still think about him with respect and dignity. I am sorry he was KIA, may he rest in peace knowing that he died for all of our freedom.”

Chruma still thanks God that he got the e-mail.

“I totally freaked out and bawled like a baby. I sent the e-mail to my family and they were besides themselves.”

Yearning to know more about his grandfather, Chruma arranged to meet Asato face-to-face last October at the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center in Wailuku.

The two, along with Sword, were able to speak further about the incident.

Chruma said his grandfather and Asato spoke about what Bennett had to say about Chruma’s grandmother, Erika.

“Mr. Asato told me that my grandfather said he had a pretty German wife.”

The two men also spoke about Asato’s service in World War II. Asato told Bennett he had served in the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the Army units created with volunteers and draftees of Japanese-Americans from Hawaii and the Mainland.

“My grandfather then told Jotoku, ‘That’s a helluva unit,’ ’’ Chruma said.

By the end of World War II, the nisei units were among the most decorated units in the Army after suffering among the highest casualty rates.

“As hard as it is to write this, Jotoku Asato gave me closure. I no longer had to worry that my grandpa suffered as I had replayed the many ways he could have died in my head.

“Mr. Asato told me that my grandfather was hit in the head by shrapnel from an artillery round and died instantly,” Chruma said in an e-mail.

Asato said he was happy that he could do something for the family of his sergeant.

“Jotoku brought happiness, peace and closure to this family after 55 years,” said Sword. “It’s amazing.”

Asato was 19 years old when he went to fight in World War II. He was 22 when he returned home. A native of Kaheka, he was unable to find a job after he came back to Maui. He decided to re-enlist and was deployed to Korea when North Korean forces invaded the south to capture the capital of Seoul.

Asato achieved the rank of sergeant first class himself before he was discharged.

“All my life, my dad told war stories because he had spent his prime years fighting in the wars,” said Asato’s daughter, Karen Saka. “He is a humble person with a strong heart, being American.”

Chruma also thinks Asato is pretty amazing.

“I think Jotoku Asato is my hero. He faced adversity his whole life. The nisei Americans were totally wronged after Pearl Harbor, Sand Island, Manzanar, etc.

“Jotoku could have stayed out of Korea but went as it was his duty. . . . Two wars . . . Jotoku has got my vote for national hero.”



n Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

 

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