It would have been easier for Bruce Yamashita to remain silent and quietly move on, but that would have been a grave mistake for Bruce and for the entire United States military.--Norman Mineta, Secretary of Transportation and former Member of Congress, speaking at the commissioning ceremony for Capt. Yamashita
When Bruce Yamashita arrived at Marine Corps Officer Candidate School, one of the first things he heard was a staff sergeant yelling, "You speak English? We don't want your kind around here. Go back to your own country." Another sergeant ridiculed him, saying, "we have no tea and sushi here, Yamashita." Another spoke to him only in broken Japanese. The racial and ethnic harassment continued for all nine weeks of the program until, two days before graduation, Bruce, along with three other minority candidates, was kicked out of Officers Candidate School
He didn't make that mistake. He spoke up, and fought to right the wrongs he had suffered to make sure others like him wouldn't suffer in the future. It took years, but Bruce Yamashita finally uncovered the secret that brought him justice. It was a secret that proved he wasn't alone. A secret the Marine Corps didn't even realize it was keeping...
He uncovered data that proved a pervasive, consistent pattern of discrimination against minorities at Officer Candidate School for years and years. It was evidence so persuasive that Congress and the White House couldn't ignore it.
And when his findings became key to a "60 Minutes" investigation, the Commandant of the Marine Corps fueled the fire with his comments that, "minorities don't shoot as well as non-minorities...they don't swim as well, and when you give them a compass and send them on a land navigation exercise, they don't do as well at that sort of thing either."
Weeks later, Bruce Yamashita became Captain Yamashita, and his case became the catalyst for statutory and procedural reform to prohibit racial and ethnic discrimination in the Marine Corps and in all the branches of the military service.
It was, as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy observed, "a vindication not only of Capt. Yamashita, but a vindication of the process of a democracy." And it was, as Sen. Daniel Akaka noted, "a victory for civil rights in this nation."
