High School Yearbooks From World War II

The National World War II Museum Blog posted a collection of yearbooks from U.S. high schools during World War II.  These are some powerful images, with a mix of patriotism, humor, realism and sorrow.  The collection includes yearbooks from all across the country, but I thought it would be interesting to look at the 1944 edition from McKinley H.S., in Honolulu, Hawaii.  With the population of Hawaii coming from a wide diversity of ethnic backgrounds, I was not surprised to find a lot of Japanese-American students in the Black & Gold.  There is a memorial to former students killed during the war, including Sgt. Joseph Takata, who posthumously received the distinguished service cross for extraordinary gallantry in Italy.  He was apparently the first Japanese-American to be so decorated.