Leighton Goro Sumida

A Company

Leighton “Goro” Sumida was born in 1920 in Honolulu. He graduated from Farrington High School and completed 12 years at the Chuo Gakuen Japanese School. Sumida was 21 years old when he entered the Hawaii National Guard as a prewar draftee.

When Hawaiian Provisional Battalion (later renamed the 100th) was formed, Sumida became an original member of A Company. He served as an infantry scout during the war and one of his favorite things to do in the army was play poker. Sumida was a fun-loving young man who came home from Europe with lots of great stories to tell about his escapades.

There were seven boys in the Sumida family, six of whom served in the war. All returned safely, but their “mother’s hair turned white during those years.”

Most of the pictures in Sumida’s collection came from his buddy, Chiyoto Nagao, who traded his P3 pistol with a merchant marine for cigarettes and a camera.

Fellow veteran Ben Tamashiro’s interview with Goro Sumida appeared in the April 1978 issue of the Puka Puka Parade. In it, Mr. Sumida described his responsibilities as a scout. http://hdl.handle.net/10524/18496