Before enlisting in the U.S. Army in July of 1941 and then transferring to the Army Air Corps, the adventurous, Kaua‘i-born-and-raised Rodney Satoshi Higashi (1915-2008) had been working as a mechanic in charge of the service department of a Buick agency in Grosse Pointe, Mich., and was servicing race cars for the agency on the side.
He then served nearly four years in the Air Corps, after which he went home to spend his first furlough at the home of his parents, Totaro and Kiku Higashi, in Kapa‘a in April 1945.
During World War II, Higashi was a chief engineer/gunner on B-24 heavy bombers, and survived more than 150 combat missions in the Pacific Theater with the Fifth Air Force, 22nd Bombardment Group.
The 22nd Bombardment Group, equipped with B-24s, had bombed Japan airfields, shipping and oil installations in Borneo, Ceram, and Halmahera, and had begun attacking the southern Philippines in September 1944 to neutralize enemy bases in preparation for the invasion of Leyte.
From December 1944 to August 1945, it had struck airfields and installations on Luzon, supported Australian ground forces on Borneo, and bombed railways and industries in Formosa and China.
During Higashi’s most-recent campaign, the invasion of Luzon, he flew tactical missions beginning on New Year’s Day 1945, and was stationed at Clark Field in the Philippines. He also flew one bombing mission over Formosa.
Higashi made the Air Corps his profession after World War II, and retired as an Air Force master sergeant after a long military career that included tours of duty in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Higashi was survived by his son, Jerry, and his daughter, Jan Sakuma; a brother, Jack; his sister, Sekiko Valpoon, and two grandchildren.
