Thank you
Mister President
and
members of
Congress
for correcting a
military injustice
.
The following
twenty-two Asian-American
soldiers were
finally recognized for
their
heroism when they received
the nation's highest
military
decoration for valor
during a White House
ceremony
June 21, 2000.
.
The Medal Of Honor
Our Nation's Highest
Award
for Military Valor
"Above and Beyond the
Call
of Duty"
.
The Recipients Were:
.
Attended The Ceremony
.
Staff Sgt. (later 2nd Lt.)
Rudolph
B. Davila, 7th Infantry,
for actions on May 28, 1944
at
Artena, Italy.
Pvt. Barney F. Hajiro,
442nd Regimental
Combat Team,
for actions in October 1944
at
Bruyeres and Biffontaine, France.
Pvt. Shizuya Hayashi,
100th Infantry
Battalion,
for actions on Nov. 29,
1943 at
Cerasuolo, Italy.
1st (Later Capt) Daniel
K. Inouye,
for actions against the
enemy at
San Terenzo on April 21, 1945
Tech. Sgt. Yeiki
Kobashigawa, 100th
Infantry Battalion,
for action on June 2, 1944
at Lanuvio,
Italy.
Tech. Sgt. Yukio Okutsu,
442nd Regimental
Combat Team,
for actions on April 7,
1945 at
Mount Belvedere, Italy.
Pvt. George T. Sakato,
442nd Regimental
Combat Team,
for actions on Oct. 29,
1944 in
Biffointaine, France.
.
= Deceased
.
Pfc. Kaoru Moto, 100th Infantry
Battalion,
for actions on July 7, 1944
at
Castellina, Italy.
Pvt. Masato Nakae, 100th Infantry
Battalion,
for actions on August 19,
1944
at Pisa, Italy.
Pfc. Joe M. Nishimoto, 442nd
Regimental Combat Team
for actions on Nov. 7, 1944
at
La Houssiere, France.
Sgt. (later Staff Sgt.) Allan M.
Ohata, 100th Infantry Battalion,
for actions in November
1943 at
Cerasuolo, Italy.
Tech/Sgt, Army medic, James Okubo,
442nd Regimental Combat Team,
for extraordinary heroism
in October
and November 1944 Biffontaine
Pfc. Frank H. Ono, 442nd Regimental
Combat Team,
for actions on July 4, 1944
at
Castellina, Italy.
Tech. Sgt. Ted T. Tanouye, 442nd
Regimental Combat Team,
for actions on July 7, 1944
at
Molina a Ventoabbto, Italy.
.
= Posthumously
.
Pvt. Mikio Hasemoto, 100th Infantry
Battalion,
for actions on Nov. 29,
1943 at
Cerasuolo, Italy.
Pvt. Joe Hayashi, 442nd Regimental Combat Team,
for actions in April 1945
at Tendola,
Italy.
Staff Sgt. Robert T. Kuroda, 442nd Regimental Combat Team,
for actions on Oct. 20,
1944 at
Bruyeres, France.
Pfc. Kiyoshi K. Muranaga, 442nd Regimental Combat Team,
for actions on June 26,
1944 at
Suvereto, Italy.
Pvt. Shinyei Nakamine, 100th Infantry Battalion,
for actions on June 2, 1944
at
La Torreto, Italy.
Pfc. William K. Nakamura, 442nd Regimental Combat Team,
for actions on July 4, 1944
at
Castellina, Italy.
Staff Sgt. Kazuo Otani, 442nd Regimental Combat Team,
for actions on July 15,
1944 at
Pieve di S. Luce, Italy.
Capt. Francis B. Wai, 34th Infantry,
for actions on Oct. 20,
1944 at
Leyte, Philippine Islands.
.
Other Recipients were:
.
Before the White House
ceremony,
only two Asian Americans
had received the Medal of
Honor
for service in World War II.
.
Sgt. Jose Calugas of the
Philippine
Scouts
.
Pfc. Sadao Munemori, 442nd Regimental
Combat Team
.
Gold Star
Orchid
.
In honoring the 22 heroes,
President
Clinton said,
"It's long past time to
break the
silence about their courage....
Rarely has a nation been so
well-served
by a people it has so ill-treated."
.
The President said
immediately
following the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbor, Americans
of Japanese
ancestry were
classified as "enemy
aliens". "More
than 120,000 of them were
forced from their homes,
farms
and businesses onto trains and
buses and into camps in
isolated
areas. They were placed
behind barbed wire in
tarpaper
barracks." Immediately
following the Japanese
attack on
Pearl Harbor.
The men deeply imprinted
their names
in the annals of
military history nearly six
decades
ago. Sadly, their heroic
actions on the World War II
battlefields
of Italy, France and
Germany went unrecognized.
.
Twenty of the Medal of
Honor recipients
were members of the
Japanese-American 100th
Infantry
Battalion or 442nd Regimental
Combat Team. The regiment,
originally
led solely by white
officers, merged with the
100th
battalion in 1944.
.
.
