Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Take pleasure in this free story!
Rising up in Hawaii, Gary Ikuma mentioned, his father, a a centesimal Infantry Battalion veteran, shared tales about his experiences throughout and after World Warfare II. That impressed Ikuma to take an curiosity within the army at a younger age, which led him to affix the Navy afterward.
However extra vital, Ikuma mentioned his dad’s tales instilled in him lots of the values that the second- technology Japanese American, or nisei, troopers lived by: perseverance, arduous work, humility and respect.
“I knew what they went by way of and what my father did for the nation and our neighborhood. It was a tough life he needed to lead, so all of us are impressed. We tried to do our greatest, similar to they did,” mentioned Ikuma, whose dad, Edward Ikuma, served within the a centesimal Battalion’s Headquarters Firm. “To at the present time I nonetheless have in my head what my mother and father advised me as I used to be rising up. It caught with me all these years.”
This 12 months marks the eightieth anniversary of the a centesimal Infantry Battalion’s formation. To commemorate the milestone, Ikuma and different neighborhood leaders need to encourage and educate the subsequent generations concerning the unit’s legacy. By doing this, Ikuma mentioned he hopes younger individuals get the alternatives to study these nisei veterans, similar to he did from his father, who’s 103.
The youth challenge, organized by Ikuma and different volunteers who’re descendants of a centesimal Battalion veterans, asks youth to determine an vital difficulty dealing with Hawaii and to make use of the nisei troopers’ values to create an revolutionary answer to it. It’s open to all Hawaii center and highschool college students, and the deadline to enroll is March 29. Individuals might be given prizes, and their tasks might be displayed on-line.
Different upcoming occasions are deliberate for the eightieth anniversary.
Jan Sakoda, a member of the planning committee, mentioned it’s vital to recollect and perpetuate the a centesimal Battalion’s legacy as a result of they helped to form Hawaii in some ways. They had been trailblazers, she mentioned, and their success opened the door for extra nisei to enlist within the Military throughout World Warfare II.
Sakoda’s father, Gary Uchida, who served within the a centesimal Battalion’s Headquarters Firm, labored on the Halekulani Lodge for greater than 4 decades, first because the proprietor’s secretary in highschool, making his manner as much as vp earlier than retiring. Sakoda mentioned her dad was storyteller who shared his wartime experiences and made time for his youngsters, though he labored lots to offer for them. Uchida died in 2009.
“They needed to overcome quite a lot of obstacles like prejudice. They needed to show their loyalty. They’d lots to show,” she mentioned. “It’s vital to inform the story as like an underdog (one) so individuals at the moment can see that though the boys confronted discrimination and prejudice … they had been capable of band collectively and in the end present that they had been reliable and will make a distinction within the lives of themselves, their households, the state and the nation.”
The a centesimal Infantry Battalion fashioned on June 12, 1942, as a unit made up of principally nisei from Hawaii. The troopers, about 1,400 from Hawaii, underwent intensive fundamental coaching in Wisconsin, Mississippi and Louisiana for greater than a 12 months. The battalion’s success and efficiency throughout coaching helped pave the best way for the federal government to kind the 442nd Regimental Fight Crew, an all- volunteer unit of nisei males from Hawaii and the mainland.
Due to the a centesimal Battalion’s excessive variety of casualties, the unit turned referred to as the “Purple Coronary heart Battalion.” Many additionally recommended the a centesimal Battalion and the nisei troopers for his or her fight expertise, notably as a result of lots of them had been, on common, no less than 3 inches shorter and 20 kilos lighter than most infantry troopers.
The a centesimal and the 442nd RCT are acknowledged as probably the most adorned unit for its dimension and size of service in U.S. army historical past. In 2011 the a centesimal Battalion, 442nd RCT and the Army Intelligence Service, Japanese American troopers who translated and intercepted authorities paperwork, had been collectively awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the very best civilian award bestowed by Congress.
In response to Sakoda, there are simply eight identified dwelling a centesimal Battalion veterans in Hawaii.
Kathi Hayashi credit her father, Tokuichi Hayashi, who served within the a centesimal Battalion’s A Firm, and his fellow troopers for opening doorways for individuals of coloration, together with herself — she retired as a senior vp at Verizon. Lots of the nisei veterans returned dwelling, graduated from school and have become politicians and neighborhood leaders. Her dad, who died in 2015, labored for a few years as an digital mechanic at Pearl Harbor.
She additionally traveled to Bruyeres, France, in 2019 for the seventy fifth anniversary of the city’s liberation from German occupation by the nisei troopers.
“It’s simply superb. The cities that we had been in, they’d parades and commemorative certificates. They had been so grateful for the liberation of their city by the a centesimal and 442. For us to overlook when they’re remembering, that may be actually unhappy,” she mentioned. “It’s a distinct technology, so I feel typically we have to return to the fundamentals. I really feel we owe lots to those males.”
Organizers are holding a digital informational assembly on the challenge Thursday. For extra info, go to 808ne.ws/3N6AQMP.
———
Jayna Omaye covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a nationwide service group that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on belowlined points and communities.