In this YouTube interview, host Dennis Prager speaks with Major General James Mukoyama about his family’s early 20th‑century immigration from Japan to Nebraska, the samurai and Bushido cultural legacy that shaped his worldview, and his personal journey from a religious dilemma between the cross and the rifle to becoming a career Army officer rather than a chaplain. Mukoyama recounts his experience as a Japanese‑American soldier, noting both instances of racism and the Army’s largely color‑blind focus on the uniform. The conversation turns to a critique of contemporary left‑wing narratives that portray America as fundamentally racist, with both men asserting that the nation’s core values of opportunity and freedom remain intact but are being eroded. Mukoyama promotes his memoir, Faith, Family and Flag: Memoirs of an Unlikely American Samurai Crusader, positioning it as a testament to American exceptionalism and a call for more voices like Prager’s to defend it. The interview blends personal history, cultural analysis, and political commentary, concluding with a shared belief in the enduring promise of the United States.
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I am speaking to a wonderful man and telling you this is, this is exactly the opposite of what kids are taught about America. I can't get over your dad coming from Japan in 1901 to Nebraska. If he was not the only Japanese person in his town, then, then I, I have a very wrong picture of Nebraska. In 1901.
That was my grandfather.
Yeah, I'm sorry, your grandfather. Yeah, that's right. Oh my God. Do I wish I— I so wish I could go in a time machine and just watch him there. He must have been a remarkable man, your grandfather.
Oh yeah, yeah. In fact, I never met him because he died in Japan before— because my father did succeed in his mission. He got his father to go back to Japan. But my grandfather was a Christian, and I don't know how he ever became a Christian because that was extremely rare.
Oh, at that time in Japan? Really?
It's rare today. Not only—
Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, so Koreans are much, very Christian.
Oh, yes. No, no. Koreans are, you know, they have the largest church in the world, I believe, in Seoul, and they send out more missionaries than we do.
That's right, which is a commentary on both countries, unfortunately. I mean, at least unfortunately vis-à-vis America. God. So let me ask you, I'm sorry, how did he get into the Army? How did you get into the Army?
I was, well, you know, part, part of the book is the samurai tradition. In Japan, in the Japanese culture, it used to be that the warrior was at the top of the culture, unlike China where the scholar was at the top. So the samurai tradition in Japan was handed down from generation to generation because they were in charge. The samurai were the only ones, by the way, who could carry weapons, the swords. Common citizens could not, which by the way is something to reflect on the Second Amendment, because they controlled the populace. There used to be a phrase in Japan, in Japanese, which was to cut down and walk away. The samurai could be judge, jury, and executioner on the spot. If they saw somebody doing something wrong, they can— they take out their sword, they, they could kill them and walk away. And so that's why it was important to have what was called bushido. Bushido was the way of the warrior. It was like the chivalry.
You can't surrender.
What? No, no. Bushido— bushi means warrior, do is the way.
So which was the doctrine of you can't surrender? It wasn't part of Bushido?
Yeah, no, no, it was. It was actually. Yeah, that's why the Japanese were so fanatical because the emperor was considered a divinity, so a deity. So basically the most honorable way you could die was to die for the emperor and for the country. And the other thing is you didn't want to disgrace, yourself by shame.
It's a shame culture.
Yes.
So again, how did you get into the Army? You had a samurai tradition, and, and so you volunteered? You enlisted?
Oh yes. No, I was, I was, uh, big into the warrior culture, right? But I also— it might sound like it's a dichotomous, but I, I was very religious, and I was— wanted to become a minister. So I had this dilemma of, you know, would it be the cross or the rifle, so to speak. But I had a solution. I'd become a chaplain in the Army so I could do both.
And is that what you became?
No, because what happened was, you know, God plans all this, right? And I'm Protestant, and my denomination went so far to the left theologically.
Right.
Politically. Yeah, I couldn't buy into it. So basically I was in a dilemma because in the military, in order to become a chaplain, you have to be sponsored by your denomination. So when I was praying to God at that time, I said—
what was your denomination?
Methodist? No, no, but at that time I was— I'm sorry, it was, uh, it was Congregationalist, but the Congregationalist church merged with the Evangelical and Reformed Church to become the United Church of Christ, which is one of those—
which is very left-wing.
Yeah, yeah, so that's why.
And it was left-wing then.
Yes, yes.
So who sponsored you? Oh, nobody. That's why you became a regular soldier.
Exactly. When I was praying at the time—
it does sound like God meant that, because you would not have become a brigadier general as a chaplain.
Yeah, a major general. But, but what happened was—
I'm sorry, major general.
Yeah, but what happened was Fast forward, Dennis, 50 years, 60 years. What am I doing? I'm ministering to veterans.
Oh, how ironic. You're a special man. This is, uh, this is a special— and a special day this coming week of Veterans Day. It's painful that your story and so the millions of stories like yours are not told. It's just America's racist. America's the gigantic lie of the left. And your family, I mean, even I'm surprised, to be honest, that your grandfather in Nebraska in 1902 felt comfortable. I mean, that's astonishing. But that's the norm. That has been the norm. There have been bad things, but that has been the norm. You do a good job, I'm going to go to your store.
Yeah, no, I want to make it very clear, it's not like I've never experienced racism or prejudice, but it has, it's been overwhelmingly the minority experience in my life.
Right, that's, of course.
Because we're all human.
Yes, that's right. With hundreds of millions of people, you're going to get some bad ones.
Yep.
They're not the norm. Get the book, folks. Faith, Family and Flag up at DennisPrager.com. Final segment, unfortunately. I have thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed this man, Major General James Mukoyama. M-U-K-O-Y-A-M-A. Muk. To his superior. I somehow, I find Fukuyama not that hard to say, to be honest. And his book is Faith, Family, and Flag: Memoirs of an Unlikely American Samurai Crusader, as indeed that is the case. So I reflect, I always look at the big picture, that my mind always goes to that. General, and I'm sitting here thinking, so here is an American Jew speaking to a Japanese American, Christian, I might add. So, and as you said, we're twins, just from different mothers. That's the beauty of America. The utter comfort that you and I have with one another is just complete. Because with all the individual bad people, which every society will inevitably have till the end of days, in America by and large, the beauty is people didn't care. That was your message. In the Army in the late '60s, here you are, a Japanese American, and the only color they cared about was green. The Army color. And that has been the experience of the vast majority of people. I wrote a piece about— I was the only Jew in the Simi Valley Rotary Club when I was very young in the 1970s. Nobody cared. And they all knew I was a Jew because I headed a Jewish institution. That's how I that was in the Rotary Club. That's America. So this left-wing painting is so disastrous and such a lie about this country. Are you worried?
I am concerned. I see what is happening in terms of the degradation of of belief in the exceptionalism of America. The proof is in the pudding. You have millions, tens of millions of people throughout the world who want to come to this country versus the minuscule few who say they're going to leave, and I'm still waiting for them to buy their airline tickets. It's clear that we are still the land of opportunity and freedom. It is being eroded, and that's why we need to stand up. We need to have more Dennis Pragers. We need to have more books that talk about—
Well, we need more of you, Major General. It has been an honor. The book Faith, Family, and Flag, up at DennisPrager.com for Veterans Day.
