Arthur Ogawa was a Japanese American male who joined the World War II war effort as a translator. He was a light, down-to-earth individual who did not do well with complicated philosophical discussions.
On The Terror: Infamy, Arthur Ogawa was portrayed by Marcus Toji.
History[]
Following the issuance of Executive Order 9066 during World War II, he was sent to the Japanese internment camp at Manzanar, where he mopped up the infirmary. ("Shatter Like a Pearl")
After joing the Japanese Linguist Program, he was partnered with Chester Nakayama, who signed up as a translator to escape the Colinas de Oro War Relocation Center, another of these camps, where he believed that he was being stalked by an undead spirit, a yurei. The two were sent to Guadalcanal, where they were assigned to search for any information that might lead to Sergeant Crittenden, who was lost and believed possibly captured by the forces of the Japanese Admiral Takahashi.
When Chester showed him a photo, he chastised him for using flash, worried that it might attract the enemy. Chester, explained, however, that he was troubled by something else. He asked him if he had ever heard of a yurei, and Arthur replied that he had read about them in old Kaidan stories. Chester asked him what a yurei would normally be after based on what he had read in the stories, and he explained that it would depend on its onnen, a crazed hunger for something, perhaps having to do with a wrong that it experienced during its life. He reminded Chester, however, that yurei weren't real.
He, along with Chester, was sent into the field, where a number of dead bodies were in the muck. He witnessed as Chester discovered a belt with Wabun code. Later, he was with Chester as he discovered writing in a notebook which revealed that Crittenden was to be found at a place called Giant's Head. ("The Weak Are Meat")
As of February 1943, he was still working with Chester during the protracted campaign in Guadalcanal. He was looking forward, however, to the relief that was coming from the Military Embarkation Center in Long Beach, California. He was beginning to have doubts about Chester, who had been badly rattled by a letter informing him of the stillbirth his sons, Enrique and Hikaru, by his girlfriend Luz Ojeda. Despite this, he was impressed by Chester's getting through the work on something called the "Aoki diary," the contents of which confirmed that Crittenden had undergone psychological manipulation by Admiral Takahashi. In Arthur's mind, this proved that Crittenden's actions, which included taking a flamethrower to several of their fellow soldiers, were the result of the psychological manipulation and not a yurei, as Chester had believed. He told him there was no yurei and never was, but Chester replied that had been back at the camp, responsible for the death of his children. To this, Arthur told him of the horrors he saw at Manzanar, saying that it doesn't take a yurei. Chester wondered if this meant that his whole time there was meaningless and that he was nothing, but Arthur felt this was a little too psychological for his speed. He picked up a baseball, asking if Chester played. Chester told him that he used to, that he was second base in the Nisei League. Arthur replied that that was something.
He and Chester were sent to "babysit" Tetsuya Ota, a P.O.W. that their unit's interrogator, Major Tebry Van Allen, hadn't been able to get anything out of. He along with Chester witnessed Van Allen being led out of the P.O.W.'s tent on a stretcher, and inside discovered the reason why when the prisoner spit out of his mouth Van Allen's bloodied ear. He served witness as Chester engaged with the prisoner after begging Colonel Stallings to do so. When the prisoner tried to convince Chester that he was a yurei, he warned Chester that he was a goading him, a viewpoint that Chester himself eventually came around to.
Ogawa, lying bloodied
Later, Arthur was possessed by Yuko Tanabe, the real yurei who had come overseas by possessing Sergeant Terajima, one of the new translators. He took Chester by surprise, slapped him to the ground, and then led him to a vehicle, telling him to drive and that they're going "back home." Stallings, however, spots what is happening and orders the other soldiers to shoot out the vehicles tires. They do so, causing Chester to crash dramatically. As both he and Chester lay bloodied, there was movement from a bag that Arthur was carrying. From it, a single rotten finger unzipped the bag and a corpse emerged and came to life, the undead form of Yuko Tanabe. It touched Chester, telling him "It's time to go now... Taizo." ("Shatter Like a Pearl")
Following this incident, Chester was sent back to the Colinas de Oro on a medical discharge. ("Taizo"). Arthur's fate is left ambiguous whether he survived the crash or not.