Yankee Samurai

              LYN CROST, WAR CORRESPONDENT
To the many hundreds of 100th and 442nd veterans who met
or were interviewed by Honolulu Star-Bulletin war correspondent Lyn Crost in Italy, France, Germany and England during
World War II, mere mention of her name conjures up images of
a beautiful, slender, gentle, soft spoken American woman in a
war correspondent's uniform who brought sunshine and hope
for a brief moment in their lives overseas. To the war weary foot
soldiers, Lyn Crost was a breath of fresh air, who epitomized
everything that was good and right about America.
Lyn Crost's unusual association with the 100th and the
442nd was a fortunate accident. In 1939, upon graduating
trom one of the Ivy League universities with highest honors
(Phi Beta Kappa) she was headed for the Far East for a career in the newspaper business. She never got there. She
made a stopover in Honolulu to visit her aunt who had been a
resident of Hawaii since 1900.
Lyn Crost got a job with Dr. James Shoemaker, economist,
who was doing research for the U.S. Bureau of labor statistics. After a two-year sojourn in Hawaii which also included a
job with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, she returned to the mainland on a vacation. While tKere, war in the Pacific became a
real possibility, so she decided not to return to Hawaii and
settled in Washington, D.C. She went to work in the Executive Office of the President. When a job opportunity with the
Associated Press opened up, the lure was too great and she
could not resist it.
The late delegate to congress, Joseph R. Farrington, who
was then also publisher of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, had just
returned to Washington with a congressional committee inspecting American bases and troops in Europe in the latter
part of 1944. Lyn Crost of the Associated Press was interviewing him about the trip when, in the middle of the interview,
Delegate Farrington remarked that a lot of boys from Hawaii
were fighting and dying in the European front and a lot more
were suffering in hospitals with serious wounds and how
would Lyn Crost like to represent the Honolulu Star-Bulletin
as a war correspondent to cover their stories exclusively. Lyn
Crost was thrilled but managed to remain composed and replied that she would like that very much and without skipping
a beat she continued with the interview. The details of her job
were worked out later.
Actually, Delegate Farrington's offer was not a spur of the
moment decision. He had given it serious consideration
months before and was favorably inclined toward the idea,
the only missing link being the name of the person qualified to
fill that position. Similarly, Lyn Crost's acceptance of Delegate
Farrington's offer was not a flip response. She had dearly
wanted to cover the 100th Infantry Battalion from the time the
outfit had landed in Salerno but circumstances at that time
made her wish unattainable. She had felt terribly let down.
She believed that her experiences in Hawaii and knowledge
of Hawaii and its people were invaluable in covering a story
which, she felt, was a powerful American drama worthy of
reaching the conscience of America and she prophetically
recognized its'value and significance to Hawaii and the nation. She knew that she was qualified to cover that story. And
now, when the great opportunity to cover the 100th Infantry
Battalion as a war correspondent had all but vanished and
she was happily engaged in a secure and fascinating job with
the Associated Press, located in the power center of the nation, daily interviewing nationally prominent figures in glamorous surroundings, eating in the finest restaurants, being
single and enjoying the good life in an exciting and vibrant city
... capricious fate chose such a moment in her busy and active life to present her with the option of shucking all that for
another job which would take her away from the capital of the
world, away from all the excitement and action and drop her in
the desolation of a war ravaged Europe.
It was a no contest. Lyn Crost knew what she wanted. She
asked for a leave of absence from the Associated Press and
not being able to get one resigned from the august body,
which also meant giving up the perks which went along with
the job and which she had grown accustomed to. She accepted Delegate Farrington's offer and that is how Lyn Crost
became one of the few women war correspondents in World
War II, the only war correspondent to exclusively cover the
100th and the 442nd.
Having no job description or manual to guide her, she was
pretty much left on her own to grope her way through the
maze of red tape, examinations, questionnaires, investigations, instructions and requirements before she could be
cleared, recognized and issued orders to proceed to the war
zone as a war correspondent.
One of the minor problems she had to solve was that of
identification. Where can she purchase the coveted war correspondent's patch? Nobody seemed to know. Finally, a
friend in the Associated Press suggested that she try
Abercrombie and Fitch in New York City. There she turned to