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Brian Keith
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Brian Keith

Digging through my militaria accumulation, I came across this uninteresting WW II four pocket coat. Name and number inside, I look it up here:

 

http://wwii-enlistment.com/record/16136465/

 

 

Record: Robert H. Kronenberg – 16136465

Residence:
Cook, Illinois

Date of Enlistment:
30 October 1942

Place of Enlistment:
Chicago Illinois

Component of the Army:
Regular Army (including Officers, Nurses, Warrant Officers, and Enlisted Men)

Branch:
Unknown

Source of Army Personnel:
National Guard in Federal Service, within 3 months of Discharge

Nativity:
Japanese, citizen

Year of Birth:
1911

Education:
1 year of high school

Civilian Occupation:
Skilled occupations in slaughtering and in preparation of meat products

Marital Status:
Widower or widow, without dependents

Known Grades:

·         Private

Known Units:

There are currently no known units for this record.

Kronenberg is not exactly a Japanese name, is this an error?

Anybody have any other sources to find him? I don’t find him on Find-a-Grave.

Too bad this uniform is devoid of any insignia.P4080348.JPG.ff6813108833aca95951b72f90271cee.JPGP4080346.JPG.52c08f1a46768c29ec7a933dcfc2de35.JPG

Thanks for looking. Not sure why the uniform photo posted upside down, weird computer thing i suppose.

BKW

P4080345.JPG

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huntssurplus

I would look into it a little further. There were plenty of Japanese Americans who took on more "american" sounding names in the 1930's-1940's that lived in the midwest. I read a book about one gentleman who changed his last name to sound more "american" and lived in the midwest. 

 

This one looks like it might be an error as in ancestry it looked like it lists his fathers name as "otto" and mothers name is "Isabelle" and their ethnicity as "canadian". But it may be worth it to dig a little further. 

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1 hour ago, huntssurplus said:

I would look into it a little further. There were plenty of Japanese Americans who took on more "american" sounding names in the 1930's-1940's that lived in the midwest. I read a book about one gentleman who changed his last name to sound more "american" and lived in the midwest. 

 

This one looks like it might be an error as in ancestry it looked like it lists his fathers name as "otto" and mothers name is "Isabelle" and their ethnicity as "canadian". But it may be worth it to dig a little further. 

You’re over-analyzing this one. Yes, sometimes Nisei changed their names, but it was rarely to something as Germanic as “Kronenberg.” The census lists his father’s parents as being from Germany and his mother’s parents as being from England. Given the Midwest’s strong history of German immigration, there’s really no surprise here. 

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Brian Keith

Thanks for everybody's analysis. Looks like he worked in one of the meat packing plants in Chicago. Depending on where he was sent, the army might have been a relief from that hard work!

Best Regards,

BKW

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