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Medal winners In 1997, when seven black American soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor, only one -- Vernon Baker -- was alive to receive the award for valor.
entitled to $600
monthly stipend
Medal of Honor winners get
$600 a month, but it's not clear
if that is retroactive to
World War IIBy Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinOne of the special benefits was a $600 monthly stipend, payable for life.
But the payments were not retroactive to the date of the battlefield action in April 1945 that resulted in Baker's receiving the Medal of Honor. The monthly stipend took effect when the Medal of Honor was awarded in January 1997, according to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
However, family members complained and Congress enacted special legislation to make the stipend retroactive, the VA said.
The country's newest living Asian American Medal of Honor recipients -- five from Hawaii -- are in the same category.
The VA, which already has looked into the retroactivity of the monthly stipend, believes it is a congressional matter, said Ron Yonemoto, a VA spokesman here.
The offices of Sen. Daniel Akaka -- who initiated the review nearly five years ago that resulted in the award -- and Rep. Neil Abercrombie are researching the possibility of retroactive payments.
Abercrombie said he believes the latest seven recipients, including U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, "should get whatever benefits Medal of Honor honorees are entitled to."
Akaka's law was "the correction of perceived injustices," Abercrombie said, "and these newest Medal of Honor recipients are entitled to any benefits associated with the medal."
The actions of the living seven honorees also occurred on the battlefields in Europe in 1945.
The monthly stipend for Medal of Honor winners has been slowly increased during the years by Congress. It was raised to $600 in 1998 from $400 in 1993.
Under Akaka's law, 22 Asian Americans -- 20 of them members of the segregated Japanese American World War II units of the 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team -- received the Medal of Honor at a June White House ceremony.
In the case of black American soldiers, none were awarded the Medal of Honor in World War II despite the fact that 1.2 million where in uniform.
Only nine received the Distinguished Service Cross -- the nation's second highest medal for valor.
It was not until 1992 that the Army contracted a team of historians to review the records of Distinguished Service Cross recipients.
After a three-year study, the name of seven Medal of Honor recipients were forwarded from the Pentagon to the White House.
Akaka believed that, despite the combat record of the 100th/ 442nd, anti-Japanese sentiment prevented the nisei soldiers from getting fair recognition.
The 100th/442nd earned 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, becoming one of the most highly decorated Army units, but only one Medal of Honor, which was awarded after the war and under congressional pressure.
The combat records of more than 100 Asian Americans -- more than half of them from the 100th/442nd -- were reviewed by Army historians and the names of 22 were forwarded to President Clinton for approval.