Jack of Harts

The Japanese Defense Force could not go to War. It was not in their cute and friendly nature, so Ken Banno and those who followed him volunteered to join the American military. Most followed their Japanese traditions of painting their weapons in cute colors. Ken often had some pretty anime pop idol, a smiling Pokemon, or some other utterly ridiculously cute and brightly colored thing painted on his fighter. And he usually based his fighter or weapons in bright pink or yellow, just to drive home the point that he was a warrior against his better nature. There was one thing in all that time that he demanded of the American military. Something it never would have considered if he had not spoken up. The American military kept the records of their Japanese volunteers sealed against all requests. Ken wanted his people to be able to return home without their deeds being known to all.

I learned many strange and amazing things from Ken Banno over the years we fought together. The strangest was that he did not want to fight at all. He considered fighting to defend his home to be a loss of honor that he would have to redeem when his part of The War came to an end. He grew up in a culture that had foresworn war altogether, that taught that fighting was beyond the last choice of a rational and honorable man. But when the Empress called the survivors of her murdered city to set aside their honor and fight for the future, he was one who answered her call. He was one of their most famous citizens, and he became an example to all of them. Tens of thousands of New Japanese followed his example and volunteered to fight. It took him decades to overcome the shame he felt at having brought dishonor on so many of his people.

I met Ken Banno in Texas, back when all us volunteers were going through our basic Marine training. He was just a small, Japanese guy when I first saw him. Yes, please don’t hate on me too much, I did not recognize him. In my defense, I never did follow surfer culture much. If he’d been a worlds famous singer I probably would have recognized him. But a surfer? It took me a while. Yes, I did know his public persona, and I fully recognized him on screen or holo, but no one expects a worlds famous Japanese celebrity surfer to show up in the middle of “Oh-My-God-Hot-and-Dry” Texas to go through Marine training. So yeah, it took me a while to recognize Buckaroo Banno walking around in our midst in the flesh. Go ahead. Sue me. I’m not perfect.