Iolani students High-stepping to a rousing "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy," more than 400 students at Iolani were dressed in enough red, white and blue to resemble an American flag as they paraded through campus yesterday.
celebrate nation’s
heritage
The campus parade celebrated
freedom and honored the
deeds of war veteransBy Pat Gee
pgee@starbulletin.comThe summer school elementary students, waving homemade flags and rattlers and donning all sorts of hats and headgear, were celebrating Independence Day, a day early.
They sang patriotic songs, among them "God Bless America," recited inspirational poems like "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" and made speeches honoring the nation's founders.
Two World War II veterans, Tokuji Ono and Ryoichi Miyake, were the grand marshals of the morning parade and were later introduced by their three grandchildren who attend Iolani.
Both veterans were awarded the Purple Heart after being wounded in battle.
Ono said he felt "terribly lucky" that he was wounded before the bitterest battles occurred because he may have not survived.
He said tears came to his eyes when he heard the children singing songs like the national anthem and was "thankful to be able to come to this kind of function" with his family in attendance.
Ono said the children were too young to realize how terrible war can be or what life would be without freedom.
"War is an experience you couldn't get for a million dollars, but I wouldn't go into another war even if someone gave me a million dollars," Ono said. "You can read all about it, but unless you've been in it, you don't realize what's involved," said Ono.
His granddaughter, Mari Galiher, and grandson, Jared Ono, along with Miyake's granddaughter, Julia Tom, spoke on the high price of freedom and thanked all who risked their lives to preserve it.
Galiher, 8, said her grandfather "was in World War II and won a medal; that's really important because he was strong."
Jon Taketa, 10, who portrayed Abraham Lincoln during the program, said the 4th of July is about "celebrating what a wonderful country we live in."
Nicole Yakuma, 9, who played flag maker Betsy Ross, said Independence Day was meant to "celebrate people who fought for America," like her grandfather, a war veteran who told her about having to train dogs to sniff out bombs.
Kevin Zheng, 9, said the 4th represented "freedom -- I'm really thankful we have freedom."