RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Lawrence Mori of California, left, and Tadashi Tojo of Waianae shared a laugh after yesterday's 442nd Regimental Combat Team 60th Anniversary Reunion memorial service at the National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. The two served in Europe together in World War II.

Service honors
WWII heroes’
sacrifices

The event kicks off the 60th
anniversary reunion of the 442nd

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By Sally Apgar
sapgar@starbulletin.com

Rudy Tokiwa bowed his head to the hot sun as he sat on a folding chair yesterday listening to speakers commemorating the bravery and sacrifice of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II Europe during memorial services at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

Tokiwa, who traveled this week from his home in San Jose, Calif., for the 60th anniversary reunion of the 442nd, sat in his chair, propped up on the metal crutches he has used since the day he and others in his unit fought along the Arno River in Italy and mortar fire cut him down. Tokiwa received a Purple Heart for his efforts that day.

Yesterday, as part of the opening events celebrating the 60th anniversary founding of the 442nd, memorial services were held at Punchbowl complete with a 21-gun salute, a helicopter flyover, bagpipes and speakers. Some of the speakers drew parallels between freedom fighting in Europe and a new generation fighting in Iraq.

Tokiwa, who joined the 442nd while in his mid-teens in a Japanese internment camp in Arizona, also won a Bronze Star and a Silver Star. He never rose above the rank of private.

"I joined to get rid of prejudice," said Tokiwa, who guesses he is in his 70s. "I wanted to prove that if you are an American that's what you are: an American."

Of the new generation of soldiers fighting war in Iraq, Tokiwa said: "You have to have the war to prove to people what freedom is. It is what we fought for."

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Hiroshi Arisumi, a 442nd veteran from Kula, Maui, turned to a friend as he walked back to a waiting bus yesterday after the 442nd memorial service at Punchbowl. Speakers at the service recalled the bravery of regiment members.

The segregated Japanese-American regiment ranks among one of the most decorated in American military history. The 442nd fought in seven major campaigns in Europe, with members winning 21 Medals of Honor, nearly 10,000 Purple Hearts, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses and other awards.

At the service yesterday, University of Hawaii President Evan Dobelle, one of the key speakers, told the audience of gray-haired veterans wearing blue and red "Go For Broke" caps: "Your heroism is legion, not simply for Asian Americans, but for all Americans. Your legacy is not only of bravery on the field -- in rescuing 211 members of the Texas 'Lost Battalion,' in breaching the German Gothic Line, in liberating Bruyeres and Biffontaine -- but also as the most valiant warriors in the ongoing battle for a free and equitable society."

Dobelle and others acknowledged these men answered a call to duty when Hawaii was not even a state and many thought Japanese Americans were spies.

Dobelle said members of the 442nd "fought for a nation that was, at the same time, mistreating their families" and rounding them up in camps. Dobelle told the audience of aging soldiers that "they, in those shameful moments, were the true patriots."

Dobelle recounted how after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, students in UH's ROTC program, who were predominately Japanese Americans, were summoned to the gymnasium and called to duty. They were ready to fight.

"But the spirit of the community faltered," said Dobelle, noting that the next month Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJAs) were "discharged from the Hawaiian Territorial Guard because of their backgrounds and their draft status was changed to 'enemy aliens.'"

Undaunted by this rejection, 169 university men signed a petition to serve the next month. The petition was accepted, and they volunteered to serve with about 9,000 other nisei from the territory of Hawaii.

At the time of this controversy, then-president Franklin Roosevelt wrote his secretary of war, "Americanism is a matter of the heart and mind; America in not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry."

Dobelle said: "In the spring of 1943, they arrived at Fort Shelby, Miss., to undergo their basic combat training. Within months, they found themselves engaged in some of the heaviest fighting of the Second World War. They left as boys. They returned as men."

After the service, Gov. Linda Lingle said: "It was a very moving ceremony, and the history of the 442nd is so dramatic, from the reason for their formation to their battles and awards to the liberating of the people of Dachau to the lives they've led since. They are truly a remarkable group of men.''

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, who won a Medal of Honor as a member of the 442nd, said: "What can you say about this day? I'm just ready for the 70th reunion now."