Talk:Ben Oda

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Additional sources needed and provided

Currently (11/8/2023), this article's biographical information looks based on the Kirby Museum's article. As important as that article is, it still is incomplete and has missing information.

Here are my first thoughts on how to improve this article.

1) Ben Oda's wife's name was not Nishi Oda. It was Michiko (Morita) Oda. See, for example, the 1950 census for New York JRD 31-1068 page 23. It shows his wife Michiko Oda, son Kenneth Oda, and Ben H. Oda. Todd Klein's blog, linked below and written with help of the Oda family, says her maiden name was Michiko Morita.

2) Ben's full name was Ben Hatsutaro Oda. See for example his draft card from October 1940.

3) Ben Oda was born in Florin, California.

4) Early documents show a different year of birth for Ben Oda, 1913 instead of 1915. The 1930 census with his mother Tsune Oda in Sacramento shows him as age 17, and 1930-17=1913. His draft card shows December 21, 1913 (written in his own hand -- perhaps the earliest example we have of his non-professional lettering?). However, the same year as the draft card, he was enumerated in 1940 living in Sacramento with his brother Frank S Oda and mother Tsune Oda with an age of 25, and 1940-25=1915. This date continued in the future, with the 1950 census with his wife and son show him as age 34, and 1950-34=1916 (we should expect the math to be off by up to a year based on the date of the census enumeration). Probably a birth certificate is the only way to clarify his date of birth. I'm reminded of comic artist Ernie Chan, who lived under the wrong name for many years because of a bureaucratic mistake. Perhaps Ben's year of birth shifted to 1915 because of a documentation error that he decided it was easier to live with?

5) The 442nd was mostly created with draftees and volunteers from prison camps on the West Coast and from Hawaii. Ben Oda, however, was drafted from Los Angeles in the very first general draft in October 1940 (enlisted February 1941) in preparation for America's seemingly inevitable entry into World War Two. Ben's presence in the 442nd and his interactions with the West Coast and Hawaiian soldiers seems like an incredibly interesting story that is not even hinted at in the current biography's form. It must have factored into his relationship with Bill Yoshida, who himself was in the prison camps. Furthermore, Ben was in the military for a couple of years before the 442nd existed, and that service deserves its own telling. I'm also left confused at how Ben Oda was allowed to serve while Bob Fujitani was kicked out and investigated as a possible enemy agent.

6) Information from Todd Klein's blog needs to be incorporated. https://kleinletters.com/Blog/ben-oda-prolific-letterer/

7) Who created the Odabaloon font? At the time of his death, according to Todd Klein, none of the family were trained at lettering. I wonder if perhaps Bill Yoshida worked with members of the family to create it? Or did someone have computer design skills and was able to make it from scans? Roket (talk) 14:59, 8 November 2023 (UTC)