By Ashley Gebb/ADagebb 9/15/2012
Louise Fukumitsu, 88, looks at a Congressional Gold Medal
awarded to Koe Hinoki, a childhood friend from Colusa.
Hinoki was among 18 recipients of the medal at the
Marysville
Buddhist Church on September 15, 2012.
When Frank Komatsubara told his
parents, Japanese Americans interned at the Amache relocation center during
World War II, he was volunteering to serve in the military, his father said he
would disown him.
Yet the young Yuba City man decided
to pursue the service anyway, believing that as someone born in the United
States, he had an obligation to serve his country. A few years after signing
up, he finally was discharged, but not after facing combat and amassing several
medals.
His father later said he was proud
of Komatsubara. On Saturday, he was honored with 17 other Japanese-American
Congressional Gold Medal recipients for service in the 100th Infantry
Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service.
Fighting both the enemy abroad and
prejudice at home, they were responsible for great victories for their country,
said US Rep. Wally Herger, who presented the medals. "Members of these
units are some of the greatest patriots in our nation's history," he said.
"These courageous men truly did wager everything to protect our nation's
freedoms."
As Japanese Americans were interned
in camps, classified as unsuitable for military duty and cast out as enemies
even if they were born in the U.S., many young men still stood up to volunteer
to for military service. Many of them served in the 100th Infantry Battalion,
the first US Army combat unit comprised entirely of Japanese Americans; the
442nd RCT team, an all-volunteer Japanese American combat unit; and the
Military Intelligence Unit, where they performed secret intelligence work
against the Japanese military.
Lorraine Komatsubara, accepting the
award posthumously on her husband's behalf, said the medal was quite an honor.
Until his death in 1993, Frank Komatsubara was immensely proud of his service.
"He just felt like he had to
prove he was an American," she said. About 200 people gathered at the
Marysville Buddhist Church for the ceremony and gave raucous applause for each
man who received a medal. Only 4 of the 18 medal recipients are alive: George
Inouye, Yutaka Nakatani, Jiro Okikawa and Kenneth Tanabe.
Nakatani, 88, said his only wish
would have been that the others so deserving of the honor were still alive and
able to accept their medals themselves.
The ceremony was a follow-up to one
held in November in Washington, DC, where about 400 able-bodied Nisei veterans
gathered to receive their gold medals.
The Marysville chapter of the
Japanese American Citizens League wanted to host a local ceremony for all the
men who were not able to attend the first honoring. It acknowledged that more
area residents may also have been deserving of the medal but did not respond to
the call for applications the league sent out earlier this year.
Only a teen when his family was sent
to Amache, an internment camp in Colorado, the injustice was not a deterrent to
Tanabe when he was drafted in 1944. His father told him the decision on whether
he would follow through was up to him, and nearly 70 years after serving with
the 442nd RCT, he is proud of his service and his new Congressional Gold Medal.
"It's a great honor for all of us," he said. "It was a group
effort."
Lucille Tokuno's two brothers-in-law
were recipients, and she helped accept their medals posthumously. Shiro Tokuno
served in the Military Intelligence Service and Tim Tokuno was part of the
442nd RCT. "It was very emotional
for me," she said. "I've always admired them for what they did. They
really sacrificed their lives and fought for their country."
Source: http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/japanese-119465-combat-military.html
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