A veteran told me that years ago when he was stationed at Ft. Shafter, he would usually have sentry duty at the gate.
In civilian language, the shift was what we call the graveyard shift. Although he had heard whisperings from other soldiers and their wives about spirits that haunted the base, he had never experienced anything. About an hour after he began his shift, a few cars came in one night. Young soldiers coming back from a night on the town. Before driving past his post, a car full of soldiers who were a bit drunk commented to the guard that his buddy was out of uniform. That, in fact, the uniform itself wasn't from this century. He ignored them, figuring they were drunk, probably high, and perhaps hallucinating. However, as the hours wore on and other people trickled in, they made the same remarks about his buddy standing inside the guard shack wearing a uniform from one of those old war movies. He saw nothing, telling everyone he was the only guard on duty. Finally, one late night, when it was still dark, the veteran saw the buddy of whom everyone spoke clearly; his uniform was from another era and was not American. It was Japanese. He spoke to the veteran, but his mouth was not moving. In his mind, he heard the voice."I'm Kitamura," he nodded. "My parents live nearby; tell them I'm here."
Apparently, it wasn't the first time the spirit of that Japanese soldier appeared at the post. One could only assume that in life, he might have been the son of immigrants who came to Hawaii to work on the plantation and that after their contracts were fulfilled, they moved off the plantation, bought a house, and started a family business. When the war broke out, the family or the son himself might have felt some loyalty to the Emporer and went to fight for him, as a psychic said. Whatever the circumstance, his presence at the guard post meant that he had died in the war and was now perhaps looking for absolution from his parents, who have long since passed.
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