After high school graduation, Kenje Ogata worked in the plating room at National Manufacturing. He learned to fly airplanes through the civilian pilot training program. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Kenje boarded a train to Chicago to enlist in the United States Army Air Corps. Because of his Japanese heritage, Kenje was strongly urged to “just return home.” The determined Kenje replied, “I’m here to serve.”

Kenje became an Army medical corpsman assigned to hospital service at Rockford’s Camp Grant. Kenje then waged a letter writing campaign, asking for letters of recommendation from the Sterling mayor, police chief, city attorney, and district judges. Two years later he became one of two Japanese-Americans allowed to fly for the United States in World War II.

Dr. Ogata was assigned to a B-24 bomber as a turret-ball gunner with the 15th Air Force near Foggia, Italy. He flew fifty-five missions, survived two crashes, bailing out over Poland and enemy territory in Hungary. He was awarded numerous medals, including the Purple Heart and the Air Medal with three bronze oak leaf clusters.

After the war, Kenje enrolled in classes with the University of Illinois medical extension program. He completed his dental training at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1953 and practiced dentistry one year at a dental clinic for children in Hawaii. Dr. Ogata opened his own dental practice in Sterling where his wife Wilma worked with him. Twice he traveled to Guatemala to volunteer his dental services. After forty-two years of teamwork, Kenje and Wilma retired in 1997.