JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki chats with Sgt. 1st Class Randall Brown, center, and Sgt. Alonzo Brown, right, after services honoring Japanese-American WWII veterans at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Shinseki, former Army chief of staff, was the keynote speaker for the event.
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Vets ‘just did our duties’
They grew up blocks away from each other in Wahiawa, had fake sword fights and fought in World War II together. They even shared the same name: Mitsuo.
They both returned home -- Mitsuo Honda to raise a family and retire as a technician for the federal government, and the other, Mitsuo Tanji, to join the other soldiers of Hawaii's famed 100th Infantry Battalion at their final resting ground at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
"I always think of the guys who didn't come back," Honda, 86, said yesterday. "It's sad. That's why this ceremony is so important -- to make sure we think of them."
More than 500 family members, friends, dignitaries and Oahu's World War II veterans honored the memory of soldiers killed in action, like Tanji, and those who have died since at the second annual Joint Memorial Service yesterday.
The service, hosted at the cemetery by the Oahu AJA Veterans Council, brought together veterans from the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Military Intelligence Service and 1399th Construction Engineer Battalion.
"It's a good idea to bring us all together," said Glen Arakaki, an MIS veteran. "We're all getting old, and the numbers are getting fewer and fewer."
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Retired commanders Tom Tanaka and Henry Lee, representing the Military Order of the Purple Heart, followed Sgt. Alonzo Brown yesterday as he laid a wreath during services honoring the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion and the Military Intelligence Service at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
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The council chose to hold the service on the last Sunday of September in memory of Sgt. Joe Takata of the 100th Battalion -- the first soldier of the four units killed on Sept. 29, 1943, in southern Italy.
The four units are highly regarded in the islands and across the nation for transcending racism and being the first Japanese-American units to serve in World War II.
The keynote speaker, retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, Kauai native and former Army chief of staff, promised the aging men that their legacies will never be forgotten.
"You don't create units like the 100, 442 or MIS anymore," Shinseki said. "No other unit is likely to replicate what they accomplished in battle in a short period of time. No one will accomplish what they did for our community."
Like many veterans, 84-year-old Susumu Ota of the 442nd is modest and does not like to say he is a hero.
"We don't expect this," Ota said. "We just did our duties. I think everyone would do the same thing."
After the ceremony ended, many veterans lingered to eat cookies and catch up. Mitsuo Honda visited his old friend's grave.
"I only remember him as a 22-year-old boy because he never had the chance to grow old like me," Honda said. "If he were alive, he'd be 85 years old. We would have known each other for 80 years."