Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Medal of Honor For three days this weekend, Hawaii is bestowing belated recognition on the deeds and sacrifices of World War II Asian-American soldiers, especially 22 who went beyond the call of duty to earn the coveted five-pointed star hung from a sky-blue ribbon -- the Medal of Honor.
heroes given a
‘last hurrah’
The three-day fete also
recognizes all the WWII
Asian-American soldiersBy Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinTwenty-two Asian and Pacific Island Americans received the Medal of Honor in June following a review of Army records requested by U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka.
Twenty of the medal recipients were members of the famed 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, composed largely of second-generation Japanese Americans. Among the five medal recipients still living in Hawaii is U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, who lost his right arm attacking a German stronghold in Italy.
The weekend tribute began last night as several hundred friends, relatives, and veterans, many of them members of the 100th/442nd RCT, honored seven of the 22 who are buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.This morning, a motorcade-parade wound its way from Chinatown through the Honolulu business district and Waikiki, ending at Kapiolani Park, to give these aging World War II warriors their "last hurrah."
A Chinese lion dance along with 10,000 fireworks lit by Mayor Jeremy Harris signaled the beginning of the parade near the Sun Yat Sen statue fronting River Street.
Applause rippled through the crowd as Army Humvees carried the seven living Medal of Honor recipients: Inouye; Rudolph Davila, of Vista, Calif.; George Sakato, of Denver; and Hawaii residents Barney Hajiro, Yukio Okutsu, Shizuya Hayashi and Yeiki Kobashigawa.
Eleven trucks transported Asian- and Filipino-American World War II veterans.
One Humvee with an empty turret was included in the motorcade to represent the 15 deceased Medal of Honor recipients.
"Where's the machine gun?" Davila asked as he climbed into his Army vehicle, which was adorned by a large, bright 5-by 9-foot sky-blue Medal of Honor flag.
"Looking good," was the reply given by Inouye, who waited his turn to board a Humvee.
"It's OK," Hajiro said.
"He doesn't say very much," said his 14-year-old grandson Ian.
The 100 or so veterans from the 442nd and the 100th Battalion all wore white aloha shirts embossed with their Army unit insignias and matching ball caps.
George Nakasato, past president of the 442nd Veterans Club, said, "It's with some degree of proudness that I'm here today. We don't have much opportunity to do things like this. ... It's like people have been saying -- it'll probably be our last hurrah."
Military bands stationed along the parade route serenaded the motorcade as it passed by. At Fort Ruger, the motorcade turned into a parade when more than 600 soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division joined the ranks for the last several miles through Waikiki to Kapiolani Park.
The celebration is to conclude with a special banquet tomorrow at the Hawaii Convention Center. The keynote speaker will be Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, a Kauai native, who also planned to meet privately with the Medal of Honor recipients later today.
After the three-year Army study that was requested by Akaka, President Clinton presented the nation's highest medal for valor during a White House ceremony two months ago.
Until June, only one Medal of Honor had been awarded to the 100th Battalion and the 442nd, despite its record as being one of the most decorated units in World War II.
At yesterday's sunset ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Adm. Dennis Blair, Pacific Forces commander, said in his keynote address that the stories of the 22 soldiers are in a special category because these men displayed "a sustained level of intense valor" not once, but for days and even weeks.
"They always considered themselves ordinary men who rose to the challenge," Blair added.
Inouye noted at yesterday's Punchbowl ceremony that Japanese-American soldiers volunteered to fight even after the U.S. government had classified them as enemy aliens, some from behind barbed-wire fences of mainland internment camps.
He said "the sacrifices (of the members of the 100th/442nd) were not made in vain, because the generation which followed clearly benefited."
Robert Walker, undersecretary for memorial affairs, said the country owes a debt to the World War II veterans "who saved the world and came home to build America."
Twenty-nine Medal of Honor recipients are now buried at Punchbowl among the nearly 40,000 war dead.
The seven newest honorees will have new grave markers, which were displayed last night during the ceremony, along with photographs and citations of their deeds.
Besides prayers and speeches the seven who lied buried at Punchbowl were honored with a 21-cannon salute and Hawaii Air National Guard flyover.