Christian Youth Organization (CYO)
Boxers killed at Pearl Harbor
Takao Takefuji
aka James Koba
Seizu "Paul" Inamine
Yoshio "Bunny" Tokusato
Hisao Uyeno
Danny LaVerne
Masayoshi Higa
"Freddy"
Masayoshi "Freddy" Higa, age 21. Also known as "Ha-ge" ("Cheerful"), Higa was from Waiakea Sugar Mill's Camp 5 (near Hilo, on the Big Island) and was a cousin of the well-known Hawaiian fighters Charley and Rocky Higa.
Seizu "Paul" Inamine, age 19. Born at Waiakea Camp 4 in 1922, Inamine started boxing for the Waiakea-Uka Sugar Mill team in 1939. He was a member of the 1941 Territorial All-star team (his most famous win was over future world champion Dado Marino) and in November 1941 he turned professional. Inamine's younger brothers Joe and Jim were also accomplished amateur boxers.
Takao Takefuji, a.k.a. James Koba, age 20. Takefuji was born at Honokaa, fifty miles north of Hilo, Ca. 1921. His father died when he was seven, and his mother subsequently moved in with a man named Koba, who then informally adopted Takao and his siblings. Koba enjoyed sports (he often got his older sister Mitsue to help him do sit-ups and jump rope) and his interest in boxing eventually attracted the attention of a Piihonua amateur fighter named Eishin "Toy" Tamanaha. So, when Tamanaha and his boxing buddies Charley and Rocky Higa left Big Island for Honolulu in 1936, Koba dropped out of school (with his mother's blessing) to go with them.
Seizo "Robert" Izumi, age 25. Born at Waiakea Camp 2, Izumi's family relocated to Honolulu after the Waiakea sugar mill closed in June 1948.
Daniel LaVerne, age 25. LaVerne was from Puerto Rico, and worked at Pearl Harbor. LaVerne was injured at or near Pearl Harbor's Red Hill underground fuel tank construction project and died of injuries several days later. Additional details of his death are not available.
These three men were killed or fatally injured by a single blast at the Cherry Blossom Saimin Stand on Honolulu's South Kukui Street. (Saimin are noodles, but this was essentially a diner.) The men were on their way to a weigh-in, and the cause of the explosion was an improperly fused US Navy anti-aircraft shell. The naval shells were fused to explode after 3-8 seconds in the air, but if improperly set or malfunctioning, then they exploded on impact with the ground.

The time of explosion was probably between 9:40 and 9:50 a.m., as around that time, R.K. Uyeno, a Honolulu physician attending a lecture at the nearby Mabel L. Smyth auditorium, heard several loud explosions in the direction of Nuuanu Street.  And Paul Lou, then an 11-year old boy on his way home from delivering newspapers, recalls that around 8:00 a.m., everything had been normal, but by ten o'clock the Cherry Blossom Saimin Stand was rubble.
Masayoshi Nagamine, age 27. From Waiakea Camp 8, Nagamine's family also relocated to Oahu after the sugar mill closed. He had one sister.
Hisao Uyeno, a.k.a. Ueno, age 20. Uyeno was from Piihonua, which is now part of Hilo.
Yoshio "Bunny" Tokusato, age 19. From Waiakea Camp 6, Tokusato was not a boxer, but his brother Paul was.
Four additional fatalities were friends accompanying Higa, Inamine, and Koba to the weigh-in. These were:
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