After doing a bit of reading (Ryan, Google is your friend) I find that the answer depends a lot on who you ask. Nisei are not quite the same as "native born" Japanese if they return to the "homeland". Then there are the half Japanese who are also often in a different position socially and economically. It would appear that for so called "native" Japanese there is a distinction to be made.

I rather suspect these subtle distinctions are lost on most non-Asians. Frei very likely was ignorant of these facts and the young driver running around waving his national flag might as well have been a pilot over Pearl. He is, at least on some base level still back in WW2.