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The Moral Wounds of War Being Healed By a Retired U.S. Army General

By Robert R. Schwarz  


                                          God's mercy always comes to us by way of
                                         
                                          other people …( anonymous )


                                         More than 50,000 veterans are homeless

                                         ( annual homeless assessment report to Congress )



June, 1969 , Mekong Delta
 A wounded comrade being rescued by a platoon of Capt.
Mukoyama ( in center at rear )
...UPI photo by Shunsuke Akatsuka


            In June of 1969 in  the 14th year of the Vietnam War,  150 American soldiers of  Company B, 4th Battalion of the 39th Infantry,  9th Division,  are  led silently through  the Mekong Delta jungle in search of their Vietcong enemy. Their three platoons are being led by  Capt. James Hidefumi Mukoyama, Jr. , who will  became one of the youngest major  generals in the U.S. Army .
            Each man carries from 25  to 30 pounds of gear, which includes hand grenades  and  M16 semi- automatic rifles ; Capt. Mukoyama's weapon is  an AR15,  a modified version of  his men's rifles.    The enemy which they are about to encounter kills with the Russian-developed , semi-automatic and gas-operated  AK-47  (also known as the Kalashnikov ).
            Since early morning Company B has moved in a fan-shaped patrol with fox-like alertness, for this particular  enemy are  guerrillas who operate in small units  of perhaps 27 men who have shed military uniforms and attack by ambush. Their strategy is  simply—but always violently—to  disrupt operations of larger American units and then flee quickly.
            The sun is  much higher than when Company B started out and has likely  drawn the Fahrenheit up  to 90 and the humidity to a Delta average of 84 degrees.  Their captain, who has a report that " the enemy is in  the area ", keeps the patrol moving aggressively through the dense jungle of palm trees and impenetrable walls of  bush-thickets.  If anything diminishes the men's mission focus,  it is the sudden , occasional monkey  screeches and exotic bird squawks.  Nearby are the Delta rice paddies and near them  disease-ridden swamp waters with snakes, leeches, and malarial mosquitoes.   Here and there the Vietcong have placed a  skull and crossed bones on it to warn their own men of a booby trap. But Company B  has discovered that some of the signs  falsely indicate booby traps and purposely exist to detour  this American patrol  closer  to harm's way .  But after ten months of combat in this delta,   Capt. Mukoyama's men  are   hardened to the environment  and know how to cope with any threat.   
          Capt. Mukoyama would later recall  that the constant  pumping of his adrenaline  left little room  for fear or doubts about the value of this patrol mission.  Freedom is not free, he would tell himself.  Yet ,  as the men now neared the likelihood of a fire fight,  some of  them no doubt experienced , if  for a split second ,  a  violent flashback of a past  fire fight. For their captain,  it was that  ground-concealed   hand grenade booby trap  that exploded, mortally wounding one of  his men and piercing Capt. Mukoyama's arm with  shrapnel . And there was that tripped booby trap which wounded six of his  men , killing one of them— it was the only fatality suffered by his company in Vietnam.   [ see the dramatic photo in this article  of that soldier being rescued  , with Capt. Mukoyama in the center holding his rifle ] 

The Moral Crisis of Killing

         
Capt. Mukoyama at Fire Support Base at
My Tho, Vietnam in June, 1969
      Suddenly, one of  the platoon point men  shouts " Enemy !"   No more than 50 yards ahead is an encampment of  maybe 25 Vietcong guerrillas ,  caught by surprise.  Both   sides began firing at the same time; for several seconds no human voices are heard.  Capt. Mukoyama instinctively acts: he keeps his men advancing while he stays in contact with his platoon leaders and makes sure  all three platoons are engaged in the fight. This war scene moves with the rapid precision of a professional football team . It is permanently etched  in the captain's mind .
         (In 2015 , this captain will edit the publication , "They Don't Receive  Purple Hearts " ,  ©2015 Military Outreach USA . In the  publication , he and Joseph Palmer, another veteran and  the manual's author,  share their first-hand knowledge about a soldier's moral injury and the knowledge they gleaned from  79 experts and  other sources. )

                        The military culture, like any other culture, has its own sets of
                        rules and codes. What makes the military  culture  different ,
                        however,  is that it teaches, trains, encourages, and rewards
                        the killing of other human beings….Service members, of any
                        military, are conditioned to act without considering the moral
                        repercussions of their action; they are enabled to kill without
                        making a conscious decision to do so. In and of  itself, such
                        training is appropriate and morally permissible. ..( from "They
                        Don't Receive Purple Hearts " )

     The men of Company B keep firing and advancing until they are  about 20 yards away from the guerrillas , who soon retreat.  The fire fight lasts 10, maybe 15 minutes at most.  There are no American casualties—this time. Three dead, bloodied Vietcong bodies lie at  the feet of Capt. Mukoyama . He stands over them for a moment or two  without any compassion, seeing them —he would later admit—as lifeless animals . 
  
                       ( more from "They Don't Receive Purple Hearts ) Conscience
                       can be overridden or suppressed by circumstance or emotional
                      condition. …."The rush of battle " may cause conscience to be  
                     " blanked out". It may be only after the battle is over that one's
                     conscience will play on the mind and begin to cause guilt or shame.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
          He quickly shouts orders to his platoon leaders: " Reorganize your units ! Take care of any  wounded ! Redistribute ammunition! " Then ,  aware that in the wake of a combat  victory  is when soldiers are most at risk of a counter-attack, he  leads his troops away...   
                       
     In Vietnam, a   brigadier general awards Capt. Mukoyama
 the Bronze Star

          Decades later , Capt. Mukoyama remembers   this scene during our interview, especially what happened immediately after his evacuation orders to his men… " I'm  saying  all this stuff, and then I stop and look at those three bodies at my feet and realize that something had happened to me. Something had hardened my heart, where only moments earlier these were live   human beings , children of God ; they had families, they had loved ones, they had emotions, and  yet I was treating them like they were bumps on a log. Then I remembered Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, where He told us to pray for our enemies. So in the middle of  all this stuff going on,  I just said a  silent prayer  for the three Vietcong and their families—and for myself. I  didn't make a big ceremony out of this. I didn't get on my knees. All of this  maybe lasted  45 seconds,
but it remained me with me for the rest of my life. " 
            That  captain today  will, with a joyful tone,  tell you that in that  prayerful moment  he avoided being permanently wounded morally.  It was a grace which would shape the rest of his life….

November 7, 2015…46 Years Later

                        My soul is full of troubles and my life draws near to  Sheol 
                        ( the world of the dead )…Thou has put me in the depths of
                        the pit, in the regions of the dark and deep…( Psalm 88:3 , 6 )


 
    Some of the 200 veterans  on Nov7, 2015 in Arlington Heights, IL  who heard
now retired Major General Jim Mukoyama talk about  the moral wounds of war

            Forty-six years later,  this captain—now a highly decorated, 71-year-old retired major general, is standing before  an estimated 200 veterans in a church auditorium with new "marching" orders. He is there to tell them , among other encouraging things,  how he himself  avoided a moral wound and how they and/or  their veteran buddies can heal their moral wounds.   
           The occasion is the Annual Arlington Heights ( IL ) Veterans Breakfast , and General Jim Mukoyama is  president and chief executive officer of Military Outreach USA, a national, faith-based nonprofit ministry he recently founded to help veterans and their families recover from moral injuries.  e H He On his Army dress jacket are more than  20 military decorations  and badges, including the Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart, and four  decorations from the Republic of Vietnam.  Once asked for a description of the events which earned him these honors, the general replied modestly, "  Let me just say that I was in the  wrong place at the right time  and had great non-commissioned  officers who made me look good. "
With Fr. Matt Foley, a former Army chaplain in Afghanistan
and now helping the general with "Military Outreach USA "
          To his audience, he makes no mention of having been  a victim of Agent Orange  ( the deadly defoliation  spray used against the Vietcong  ) , which eventually led to a heart attack, kidney transplant, and  his current 80 per cent veteran disability. Nor will the veterans  here learn about his  B.A. in English literature from the University of Illinois or that his retirement resume includes so much activity with   financial services and charitably agencies , that  it begs the question  if he ever slept.
Not everyday can veterans gab with  a general, like at
this celebration  breakfast for them  ...

            One soon notices that this retired  soldier , however, does not fit the Hollywood movie  profile of  a combat general. Those who interacted with him earlier at breakfast saw a bespectacled ,  five-foot-four-inch man with smiling brown eyes , and  a  genuinely cheerful and  warm personality.  
            He takes his audience back to that Mekong Delta fire  fight  and sums it up with :   "The concept is that when you have a moral injury  in combat ,  you don't have time  to address it and think about it. So what do you do ? You suppress it, and it becomes unresolved grief.  Often it does not bubble up until these veterans are  55 or retired,  and then [ for the moral wound to heal],  they must have coping skills such  as performing a service for others,  church involvement,  or confession ."
           He emphasizes  the importance  of the morally wounded veteran (or anyone wounded morally)  to rebuild  a sense of worthiness , self-worth. The absence of this , Jim Mukoyama  cautions, has proven to be a factor in suicide among veterans and also  among men, women , and children  who have  "no moral compass " or have discarded it and now have given up hope.   [ Though statistics about military suicides widely vary due to a variety of methods  used to collect them,  a recent study found that the suicide rate for veterans was 50% higher than that among those who had not served in the military. ]
            A veteran in the audience stands up and asks: " How do you approach a veteran who has a moral injury?"
            "The first thing you do is get him registered with the Veterans Administration,"    Gen Mukoyama  replies.  Many in the audience now again look at their breakfast program , which lists RESOURCES FOR VETERANS: Military Outreach USA, (  877) 734-4244 or www.miltaryoutreachusa.org/  ; Road Home Program, The Center for Veterans & Families at Rush Hospital, Chicago ,  (312 ) 942-8387 ; www.veteransroadhomeprogram/  ; and Veterans Crisis Line, Veterans Administration, (800) 273-8255 [ press #1 ] , www.veteranscrisisline.net/  .
            Afterwards, the general shakes hands with veterans wearing  smiles as broad as his. For most , interacting this way with a two-star general—retired or not—is a first. For the general, his mission is far from complete.

A Long March from Cub Scout to 2-Star General, 1953-1995 
       
     The  "moral compass" which Gen. Mukoyama believes defines a man or woman's life  likely defined him while growing up in a lower-middle class family in Chicago's  Logan Square neighborhood. There , he says, he led the  life  depicted  in the still-celebrated paintings  of Americana  by Norman Rockwell . "Every Sunday we'd put on our best Sunday clothes and walk—as a family—to church  . I was baptized  and confirmed and sang in the choir. "  He was a Cub Scout and Boy Scout , had a newspaper route, attended Schurz High School , and played the saxophone and clarinet at Polish weddings.  ( At a guest appearance in 2015  at Schurz, he admonished the students:  "Complete your  education and  compete in life.  " )
            Born in Japan, his father immigrated here in 1918 and moved to Chicago  in the early 1930's ; his mother, of Japanese descent, was born in Madison, Wisconsin. In Chicago, the senior Mukoyama  opened a retail gift store , which  after 30 years  became  unprofitable due to the nearby  large  chain-owned  stores that had sprung up. "My father could have easily declared bankruptcy  but he didn't for the  sake of family honor and his integrity, " the general says.  His father belonged to the   local chamber of commerce and to a  committee to help settle  Japanese Americans who had been interned  on the West Coast during the World War II and had come to Chicago  "with nothing" .  All of this, he  says, " Is a lesson  I'll never forget. " Both his parents  and grandparents remained married for 55 years. 
            Long  before Jim Mukoyama wore an Army uniform,  he had desired a military life. He got his first taste of it in R.O.T.C  programs at his high school and  the University of Illinois, from which he graduated in 1966 and  commissioned a  regular Army second lieutenant and  assigned to infantry  unit .  Unknown to many of his friends, he reluctantly chose not to become an Army chaplain.  Nevertheless, in peacetime  or war, he never was known to be lukewarm about what he believed was a calling to "serve God."
              Jim Mukoyama laughingly  recalls an incident when, as a mere lieutenant, he was given red carpet treatment  during an R&R ( Rest & Recreation )  in Japan . He went to visit his family grave site ,  "One of my lifelong missions   I had to fulfill, " he says. An uncle of his knew the Japanese army chief of staff and, unbeknown to his nephew, had arranged for a limousine to be  waiting  for him as he got off the Tokyo  train. 
          Soon  Lieut. Mukoyama is sitting face to face with the chief of staff . " 
          I was just a lieutenant ,"  he says  during our interview , "and he's treating me like I'm a general!  " 
           Japan was then  experiencing a lot of anti-American sentiment over a controversial defense  pact with  Japan  and the United States. Delighted  that Lieut. Mukoyama's visit to Japan had somehow made front page news in several Japanese newspapers, the general  tells him,  " I want to thank you for what  your visit has done to promote  United States-Japan relations  .Then, having learned that his American visitor has had U.S.  Army airborne training,  he gives  him the  Japanese Parachutist Badge, an enviable distinction in  the Japanese army .
          "No one will believe  this, " the lieutenant tells the general. The next day , Lieut. Mukoyama  opens  his hotel room  door and is handed an envelope with official Japanese army orders–in English—that award the parachutist badge to this American  lieutenant..  
            That day Lieut. Mukoyama  takes a stroll down the pedestrian-packed sidewalks of Tokyo .  He has dismissed  the prudent  advice not to wear his American military uniform, so as not to stir up unpleasant memories of the American military occupation of Japan after World War II. He will show he's proud to be  an American Army  officer— and keeps strolling  through throngs of Japanese pedestrians.   
 "People would  take  double takes of me, " he says.  " I had a Japanese face; I was a short guy with black hair;  and they saw my name tag that said 'Mukoyama . '  "     
                                       Promotions Come Fast,  then Unwelcome
                                       Bravery Before Congress; ' Somebody Has
                                       Got to Stand  Up ! '
     After that, he rose fast  through the ranks and, in 1986 ,  became  the then  youngest   general in the Army;  and, two years later,  the first Asian-American in  United State history to command an Army division.   When asked later in life  what his biggest challenge had been , Jim Mukoyama says,   " I really don't think there's been a lot of challenges. I've always felt that if I worked hard and studied hard enough, I'd be successful in life. "  
Hoisting Old Glory at his home near Chicago


            Now  wearing  two stars on each shoulder,  Major General Mukoyama will make  a decision that impels  him  to retire with five years  remaining  before mandatory retirement.  He  has been studying  how the military  was  budgeting its money and is convinced it is  not in the "best interests " of the country  and is also  ignoring Army procedures .  He testifies to this before a Congressional House subcommittee ,  but not as  an Army officer but  as a civilian  (because of his membership  with the Army Reserve Association  of which  he is  president and founder ) . Members of  his association  had caught wind of the budget improprieties and urged their president to tell Congress about it. " Somebody has got to stand up ! " the members pleaded.  
            Gen. Mukoyama did stand up .  It so  angered the Army Chief of Staff  who , according to Mukoyama ,  "blackballed " him.    " A year later, my career went down the drain. I was history. I retired from the military under a cloud because I testified  that the military  had made  political decisions and were making some budget cuts  that was  to the detriment of our force readiness."   His testimony, however, was later validated by a  Government Accounting Office (GOA) study. " But the train had gone too far down the track to turn things around," Jim says .
 At the Army's  retirement ceremony honoring  Mukoyama's more that 30 years of service,  "All  I got," he says  with a melancholic expression,  "was a handshake. "  
          But he quickly turns philosophical and  adds with a sigh, " But God closes doors and He opens them."
         Jim had no idea that 30 years later a particular door would open and usher in  his deepest  desire.

At Last, 'His Greatest Commission '


And we know that God causes all things  to work
together for good to those who love God, to those
who are called according to His purpose…
 (Romans 8:28 ) 

             But there is  no rocking chair or 18-hole links  for Jim.  He is  soon doing a beaver's work e s of public  service and white-collar labor. There are  those several years as full-time vice president and chief compliance officer of a national stock brokerage firm, also volunteering for ten years as an instructor for the Military Ministry of the former Campus Crusade for Christ . Then came membership in  the New York Stock Exchange, and later, a co-chairman post on the Patient Advisory Council for the mammoth veteran's health care center in North Chicago . He joined  the Willow Creek Community mega-church and started   a  religious group   for 30 to 40 veterans and their family members. 
           For six years he and his wife do volunteer work at a hospice  center. The stress of caring   for dying people wasn't like war combat stress, but  even   for Jim it was  "most stressing. " He bonded with a 56-year Vietnam veteran  like himself  who , while being wheeled around by Jim, would cry out, "Hey, I've got a general  pushing me around! "  The man would soon die of cancer. "He was a  fighter, " Jim says, "and used to tell me, 'when I beat this, I'm  going to become a hospice volunteer like you. ' "
         His thoughts about the hospice silence  Jim for awhile during our interview  .  He finally breaks  his silence with,  "I've come to realize God has created all of my seeming disparate parts and experiences  in my life into a mosaic, and that hospice duty was all part of it. "

The Big Door Opens
         One  day   Jim is  invited to  a round table  discussion of ten  men  who met twice a month  to tackle their  stated goal  to " transform ourselves as individuals to be better men  and to use our Christian values to influence  the transformation of our society."  Ever since Jim first heard of their  goal ,  his heart  had  been stirred: A meaningful life of full-time Christian service  had been his dream. The group is named the Pinnacle Forum.
          On a particular day, the men are  meeting at the Lake Forest ( IL) Illinois  headquarters of the mammoth  Brunswick Corporation. Each man at this round table is a successful leader in a particular  and major segment of the American culture: family, religion, education,  the media, business, government , and entertainment.  
 An inciting question is put to the men: " If you were king, what  would you do to realize our goal?"   
           When it's  Jim's turn to speak, he begins to describe all the many current afflictions —especially moral wounds—of veterans and their families.  The men pay attention to this retired general with the distinguished , eclectic  background .  "The answer to these tragic veteran problems is not bigger government," he says with authority.  " It lies with   the local community ,  spearheaded by houses of worship. "  He gives  time for full impact of his words . Then his voice  calls out for leadership:  " Somebody has got to reach out  to them ! "
        The group  gives their collective   fiat to Jim: " We're in ! "
        It is the birth of Military Outreach USA—and the birth of what Jim , with uncharacteristic emotion ,  would later call " my greatest commission. " 
        After a year of Jim Mukoyama's leadership,  the military  outreach  is active in 80 churches, and today  more than 400 churches have  signed on to its national network.  The goal of Military  Outreach USA and its cadre of volunteer workers is to enlist  20,000 thousand  churches who reach out to veterans and their families with near-comprehensive help that includes help for  homeless veterans.   
         Reflecting back on his entire life,  Jim says, "All these things God has woven together.  "As a teenager I wanted to become a minister.  But I also loved the military.  I finally said to God, ' I guess you don't want me to do the ministry thing, so I'll just move on with the military thing. ' "   
         Fr. Matt Foley , pastor of St. James church in Arlington Heights and   former Army chaplain in a combat zone of Afghanistan and who today is a colleague of Jim, commented that  , " General Jim has a tremendous drive to assist veterans and their families in returning to their homes healthy."
         Nowadays Jim and "K.J.",  his wife of Korean descent ,   live in an upper-middle class home in a quiet residential neighbor in Glenview, Illinois. They've been married 40 years. Owing to their heritages, the home's décor is touched here and there with tasteful  Asian art.  K.J. has a master's degree in gerontology and works as an activity associate at a rehab center. The Mukoyamas have   two children , both adopted: a 36-year-old daughter who lives in Seattle and is an advertising rep for Amazon , and a 35-year-old son who is a registered   dietitian. 

A Constant Spiritual  Battle Cry through  the Years: 'Cling to Your Faith '

          We sat down and continued talking. When asked if the military code of behavior had  ever  hampered  the religious  callings he had  had since youth, Jim exclaimed, "Not at all!  I remained active in church. "  He said he encouraged his soldiers to stay fit  physically,  professionally, attitudinally ( i.e., positive thinking ) , and spiritually.
         " As I  went higher in rank, I was able to talk more to the troops about my spirituality, but without proselytizing  anyone. I would tell them that whatever your faith is, cling to it.  I only mentioned the name of Jesus if I was personally asked about my own faith. When that occurred, one or more soldiers would later tell me  'we're happy you said  that . ' "
         What does he do for fun or recreation ? "Just being with my wife, just to have physical time with her,"  he replied. "  "It doesn't get any better than that. " 
Does anything make him sad?  "When I do things I shouldn’t do—and we all do that every day. And when I disrespect my  wife, or don't treat her lovingly, or when I fail to follow up on something I've promised someone. "  
Minutes Before Heart Surgery, ' Every Day Is a Great Day'

   What about being happy? " When I see God being glorified, like in nature such as a sunrise, a baby being born ,  seeing people serving others.  A dozen times a day I say , Every day is a great day!"  He recalled  how he said this even when his wife was driving him to the hospital after his  heart attack four years ago.   "When I had that heart attack and was being wheeled into  the operating room, I asked myself,  'Can you say today is a great day?'  My answer was an unequivocal  'Yes, I can.'   I had been given  40-plus  years of borrowed time since Vietnam,when many of my comrades died,  and today  I have a wonderful wife and children , live in the finest country in the world and , most importantly,  a relationship with my God through my faith.  "  Those words remain his life's  mantra .
            Just before his   surgery  and after the doctor had  asked  Jim some routine   questions , Jim repeated what he had told himself minutes ago. It prompted the surprised physician   to ask Jim , " What is  your faith ? " 
            Jim   expressed it this way: " Since you asked… I am a Christian,  Christ is my savior , you are a skilled physician, your nurses here are skilled.  But God's in charge, and whatever He decides I'm okay with it. So, let's get on  with it.  " 

       Soon thereafter,   Jim was to focus on his mantra  when his kidneys totally failed and he had to undergo dialysis  for three months  until doctors found  a right  transplant donor. It was his daughter, Sumi, whose kidney was a match for Jim's even though she was not his biological daughter . "It was truly a God thing;  He  provided ,"   Jim said, glad that his mantra includes his gratitude for family.       
            What would Jim  like people to say about him  after he's been "called home "?  Simply  that he  was a man of faith.  Perhaps more than a few aging  veterans would add that  Jim Mukoyama  was, among many things,  a front-line   medic who bandaged  the wounds of many.



THE END

All comments are welcome.
rrschwarz71@comcast.net

 
© 2015 Robert R. Schwarz



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