Go For Broke (www.goforbroke.org): World War II Japanese American veterans

Japanese American Veterans Association at www.javadc.org


2/22/09 San Francisco Examiner: "Filipino veterans see justice in stimulus bill,"
by Katie Worth
    Redwood City – Alfredo Carino looked young for his nearly 18 years, so when he joined the U.S. Army on New Years Day of 1943, he was picked out to be a spy.
    Each day, he’d take eggs, fruit and vegetables to the garrison the Japanese military had recently established in his town, a seaside province of the Philippines , and sell them to soldiers, all the while carefully observing how much equipment was flowing through the garrison, how many soldiers, how many bodies. Later, he was armed with a gun and fought those Japanese soldiers, side by side with American troops.
    Carino said he and his comrades “fought hard for the U.S. Army” and  that he was proud of his service, which is why years later, when he learned the U.S. Congress had passed an act denying veterans’ benefits to the Filipinos who had fought for the U.S. Army during World War II, he was shocked.
    “I just felt so,” said Carino, pausing as he struggled to find the right word, “disgusted.”
    Last week, some of that injustice felt so deeply by Carino — now a Redwood City resident — on behalf of the 450,000 Filipinos who had fought in that war was finally acknowledged — at least in part — by the federal government.
    The economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama on Tuesday included a program to provide every Filipino who fought for the U.S. during World War II with a lump-sum grant, in exchange for those veterans dropping any further pursuit of compensation or benefits.
    Many of those still living — including Carino — have mixed feelings about the provision passed into law in the stimulus package. As the law is written, Filipinos living in the U.S. will receive a payoff of $15,000, while veterans in the Philippines will receive $9,000. The families of the soldiers that have already died will receive nothing.
    Loreto Dimaandal, whose father was a World War II veteran, said she promised her father before he died that she’d keep fighting for the money that he felt should go to his widow. She said she saw the deal as a partial victory.
    The $15,000 is just over one year’s pension for service in the U.S. Army; and the provision included a stipulation that those that accept the lump sum can no longer pursue further benefits from the government.
    Carino said he plans to accept the funding, even though he felt the payoff did not restore dignity to his service.

12/6/08 Associated Press: “Rumsfeld nemesis Shinseki to be named VA secretary,”
by Hope Yen
    Washington – President-elect Barack Obama has chosen retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki to be the next Veterans Affairs secretary, turning to a former Army chief of staff once vilified by the Bush administration for questioning its Iraq war strategy.
    Obama will announce the selection of Shinseki, the first Army four-star general of Japanese-American ancestry, at a news conference Sunday in Chicago. He will be the first Asian-American to hold the post of Veterans Affairs secretary, adding to the growing diversity of Obama's Cabinet.
    "I think that General Shinseki is exactly the right person who is going to be able to make sure that we honor our troops when they come home," Obama said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" to be broadcast Sunday.
    NBC released a transcript of the interview after The Associated Press reported that Shinseki was Obama's pick.
    Shinseki's tenure as Army chief of staff from 1999 to 2003 was marked by constant tensions with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, which boiled over in 2003 when Shinseki testified to Congress that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the invasion.
    Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, belittled the estimate as "wildly off the mark" and the army general was ousted within months. But Shinseki's words proved prophetic after President George W. Bush in early 2007 announced a "surge" of additional troops to Iraq after miscalculating the numbers needed to stem sectarian violence.
    Obama said he selected Shinseki for the VA post because he "was right" in predicting that the U.S. will need more troops in Iraq than Rumsfeld believed at the time.
    "When I reflect on the sacrifices that have been made by our veterans and I think about how so many veterans around the country are struggling even more than those who have not served — higher unemployment rates, higher homeless rates, higher substance abuse rates, medical care that is inadequate — it breaks my heart," Obama told NBC.
    Shinseki, 66, is slated to take the helm of the government's second largest agency, which has been roundly criticized during the Bush administration for underestimating the amount of funding needed to treat thousands of injured veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
    Thousands of veterans currently endure six-month waits for disability benefits, despite promises by current VA Secretary James Peake and his predecessor, Jim Nicholson, to reduce delays. The department also is scrambling to upgrade government technology systems before new legislation providing for millions of dollars in new GI benefits takes effect
next August.
    Sen. Daniel Akaka, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, praised Shinseki as a "great choice" who will make an excellent VA secretary.
    "I have great respect for General Shinseki's judgment and abilities," said Akaka, D-Hawaii, in a statement. "I am confident that he will use his wisdom and experience to ensure that our veterans receive the respect and care they have earned in defense of our nation. President-elect Obama is selecting a team that reflects our nation's greatest strength,
its diversity, and I applaud him."
    Obama's choice of Shinseki, who grew up in Hawaii, is the latest indication that the president-elect is making good on his pledge to have a diverse Cabinet.
    In Obama's eight Cabinet announcements so far, white men are the minority with two nominations — Timothy Geithner at Treasury and Robert Gates at Defense. Three are women — Janet Napolitano at Homeland Security, Susan Rice as United Nations ambassador and Hillary Rodham Clinton at State. Eric Holder at the Justice Department is African American, while Bill Richardson at Commerce is Latino.
    Shinseki is a recipient of two Purple Hearts for life-threatening injuries in Vietnam.
    Upon leaving his post in June 2003, Shinseki in his farewell speech sternly warned against arrogance in leadership.
    "You must love those you lead before you can be an effective leader," he said. "You can certainly command without that sense of commitment, but you cannot lead without it. And without leadership, command is a hollow experience, a vacuum often filled with mistrust and arrogance."
    Shinseki also left with the warning: "Beware a 12-division strategy for a 10-division army."


7/30/08: “House passes resolution honoring the contributions of AAPI soldiers during the U.S. Civil War”
    Washington , DC - The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a resolution honoring Asian American and Pacific Islander soldiers who fought in the U.S. Civil War, culminating a five-year battle by Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) to help correct the historical record. U.S. Citizens. Honda said this resolution was the least that could be done to honor their memory.
 

7/18/08 Dallas Morning News: “For Texans in 'Lost Battalion,' real heroes were Japanese-American,”  
by David McLemore
    After more than 60 years, they remember the cold rain and the ferocity of combat in a fog-shrouded forest straight out of a fairy tale. Most of all, they remember the shared joy of survival.     
    In October 1944, 270 soldiers of a battalion of the 36th Division of the Texas National Guard were trapped by a much larger German force in the Vosges Mountains of France . Desperately low on food, water and ammunition, the Texans resisted for six days. On the seventh day, help came from an unexpected source. 
    Members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, composed of Japanese-Americans, many whose families remained locked up in relocation camps in California, fought a grinding battle inch by inch up the mountains to reach the "Lost Battalion." They did so at a terrible price, suffering as many casualties in the relief effort as they saved. 
    Today and Saturday, the Texas Military Forces Museum at Camp Mabry in Austin will exhibit newly found artifacts and hear talks by veterans of the battle. It is a reminder, said museum director Jeff Hunt, of how bravery and dedication to duty triumphed over intolerance on a cold, miserable battlefield 64 years ago. 
    "It is a story of courage, dedication and sacrifice," Mr. Hunt said. "It shows that for soldiers in combat, skin color, religion or ethnicity doesn't matter. Whatever residual animosity some may have held against Japanese-Americans was wiped away by the 442nd's performance on the battlefield." 
    In late 1944, the 36th Division spearheaded a drive through the forests of the Vosges as part of a planned strike into the German Rhineland. The 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry – the Alamo Battalion – was at the spear's tip. 
    The battalion's push eastward toward Colmar was supposed to be fast and well-supported. It wasn't. When a much larger German force encircled them Oct. 24, the Texans had food and ammunition for only a few days. The only water they carried was in their canteens. 
    1st Lt. Martin Higgins took command, ordering his 270 soldiers to dig in and prepare to fight. 
    "Dad had been an accountant before the war and was an intensely modest man," said his son, Michael Higgins. "He suddenly found himself part of something that is the stuff legends are made of." 
    Spit and spirit 
    Erwin Blonder, then a young lieutenant serving as a forward observer, remembers that the Germans began firing tree bursts – artillery shells set to detonate in the treetops that sent steel shrapnel and needle-sharp wood fragments down on the Texans, sounding like so many angry bees. 
    "We dug in and then we dug some more, covering our holes with tree branches," he said. "At 6 feet, 4 inches, I had to dig a lot longer than most." 
    Lt. Blonder had the only working radio in the battalion. Its batteries normally lasted two days in combat. He made them last six days as he sent out cryptic messages for help and to coordinate targets for headquarters artillery. 
    "It was a matter of prayer and an old Boy Scout trick," said Mr. Blonder, 87, of Palm Beach Garden , Fla. "I remembered that if you spit on the batteries, you could get a little more electrical charge." 
    Each day, the Lost Battalion underwent probing infantry attacks and more artillery shelling. Lt. Blonder's messages were brief: Send food. Send ammo. Send help. 
    "We had no idea what would happen," he said. "We were told help was coming. So we kept waiting." 
    The Army attempted to send them food and supplies packed into dummy artillery shells and fired into their position. Those that made it into their lines contained chocolate bars. 
    The 405th Fighter Squadron got the mission of attempting supplies by air. 1st Lt. Eziel "Arch" Archilla and other P-47 Thunderbolt pilots would have to fly through bad weather and drop spare fuel tanks filled with food, ammo and medicine to the beleaguered Texans. 
    "The weather was foul. We had to find them through the fog and trees, then dive-bomb the supplies at low altitude under intense German fire," said Mr. Archilla, 84, of Dallas . 
    "We were thrilled to be the squadron to do the job," he said. "We were all in our 20s and didn't think much about the danger. That kept us going." 
    Two attempts to reach the besieged Texans failed. The 36th Division commander then ordered the 442nd Regimental Combat Team to try. 
    'The heroes of this story' 
    The Japanese-American unit had already experienced a hard war. Some were kicked out of the Army after Pearl Harbor as security risks. Many others were moved with their families to U.S. relocation camps. 
    When the Army accepted volunteers for a 4,000-member regiment, about 1,500 volunteered from the camps. The 442nd fought in some of the hardest combat during the invasion of Italy and had just come off months of combat when ordered to rescue the Texans. 
    On Oct. 25, 1944, the 442nd set off in a cold rain, encountering fierce German resistance all the way. German artillery rained down constantly, and the 442nd suffered heavy casualties. 
    Kenneth Inada, 85, remembers as a young sergeant the intensity of the combat. 
    "We fought from tree to tree. It was really hell. Afterwards, you'd just shake, wondering when it would end," he said. "But in war, you take care of the guy next to you. We couldn't leave the Texans behind." 
    On Oct. 30, the exhausted 442nd broke through to the Lost Battalion. Pvt. Matsuji Sakumoto approached the stunned Texans and asked, "Do you guys need any cigarettes?" The Japanese-Americans were suddenly swamped by dirty, bearded GIs who hugged them and shook their hands. 
    Lt. Blonder sent one last message to headquarters: "Patrol from 442 here. Tell them we love them!" 
    "I can't describe the feeling," Mr. Blonder said. "We owed them our lives. As bad as we had it, we didn't suffer like those guys. They're the heroes of this story." 
    'The price we paid' 
    Terry Shima, 85, a veteran of the 442nd and executive director of the JapaneseAmerican Veterans Association, recalled the prejudice and distrust the unit encountered. 
    "You'd think we'd be bitter," Mr. Shima said. "But we did it because we were soldiers and because we wanted to prove loyalty to a government that had disowned us." 
    In the five days of the rescue effort, the 442nd had 54 soldiers killed and 156 wounded. One company was reduced to 17 men, while another had only eight still standing. "That was the price we paid," Mr. Shima said. 
    The 36th had three killed and 66 wounded. 
    For the 442nd, there was a reward, too. The rescue helped change attitudes about Japanese-Americans. 
    "That one battle showed that Japanese-Americans were simply American soldiers, beyond bigotry and suspicion," Mr. Shima said. "It helped level the playing field for future generations." 
    After the war, 442nd veterans asked Martin Higgins to help obtain citizenship for their parents who had been detained. He did, lobbying Congress successfully. 
    "Dad never forgot the men who helped save his life and the men of his command," Michael Higgins said. "All his life, he cherished them." 
    When Martin Higgins died last year at age 91, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full honors. The floral tribute at his grave was bright crimson Hawaiian anthuriums from the 442nd veterans.

 
5/28/08 AsianWeek.com: "FilVets House Vote Postponed,"
By: Rodel Rodis
    It was an emotional roller coaster ride for Filipino World War II veterans this past week as they rode high hopes that the House version of S.1315 - which incorporated the Filipino veterans’ equity bill approved by the US Senate - would come for a floor vote in the House on May 21. The timing would have been perfect coming the week just before Memorial Day when Americans traditionally remember and honor veterans.
    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan, they were told, was to present the House version of S.1315 for a floor vote under a Suspension of the Rules call which requires 290 House votes (two-thirds of 435 members) to get the bill considered without killer amendments that would only delay if not defeat the bill. This would also ensure that the bill would be veto-proof.
As the veterans huddled in the halls of the Capitol anxiously waiting for the vote, they heard the news from Pelosi’s office that there would be no vote on the veterans’ bill that day. The veterans wondered what could have caused the vote to be postponed.
    Was Speaker Pelosi worried that there were not enough Republicans willing to support the bill? Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Ben Gilman, the former Republican chair of the House International Relations Committee and currently a Philippine government lobbyist for the bill, had assured Pelosi that there were 74 House Republicans who would vote for the bill. The American Coalition for Filipino Veterans confirmed 
earlier the solid commitment of 27 Republicans.
    Was Speaker Pelosi worried that she and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) did not have all 230 House Democrats in lock step behind the bill especially among the 51 member conservative Blue Dog Caucus whose members have echoed Republican concerns about “giving money to foreigners”?
    Just the day before on May 20, Speaker Pelosi had addressed Democratic House members to firm up support for the bill, telling them “I’m very committed to it because it is the right thing to do and we do not want any more time to pass by.”
But was there another reason for the delay perhaps?
    Could a letter from San Francisco Veterans Affairs Commissioner Regalado Baldonado to Speaker Pelosi denouncing S.1315 have played a role in the vote delay?
    The Baldonado letter urged the introduction of a House companion bill that would provide “full recognition and benefits to Filipino WW II veterans residing in and outside the United States.” It declared S. 1315 to be ”woefully insufficient” as it would provide the 14,000 Filvets in the Philippines with $300 a month pension while the 6,000 Filvets in the US would be entitled to $900 a month.
    “We cannot waiver in our position or tolerate any deviation from equal treatment for all of our Filipino WW II veterans,” the Baldonado letter asserted.
    Speculation about the role of the Baldonado letter in postponing the vote caused a number of veterans in Washington DC to call fellow WW II veteran Baldonado in San Francisco and to ask him about his letter. 
    The DC veterans pointed out to Baldonado that the Veterans Federation of the Philippines, which represents the 14,000 vets in the Philippines, fully backs S.1315, which would provide $375 a month pension to Philippine based veterans who have dependents, $300 a month to those without dependents and $200 a month to their widows.
    Baldonado explained to his comrades that he did not write the letter, that it was prepared for him to sign by leaders of the Filipino Veterans Equity Center in San Francisco and by an activist group called Students Action for Veterans Equity. He said he did not know that Rep. Filner had abandoned his HR 760 in favor of S.1315.
    Delfin Lorenzana, head of the Veterans Affairs Office of the 
Philippine Embassy in Washington, was among those who spoke with Baldonado. “The danger here is that if his letter has been widely circulated,” he told the other veterans, “it may have influenced the  decision of Pelosi to postpone the vote on S.1315 yesterday, despite the fact that there are more than enough Republican support, because of the conflicting signals she is getting from the Fil-Am community especially in her home district.”
    As the veterans were gathered in Washington DC to ponder the fate of the veterans’ bill, on May 21 over 100 community leaders in San Francisco gathered at the Philippine Consulate to hear former President Fidel V. Ramos urge the community to support S.1315 as the best chance to get the Filipino Veterans Equity Bill to pass the US Congress.
    In the Open Forum that followed his speech that was moderated by Ben Menor, attorney Lourdes Tancinco, chair of the Veterans Equity Center, informed Ramos that her group did not support S.1315 because it did not cover all the veterans and at the level they should be entitled to.
    Ramos replied that we cannot get everything we want from the US  Congress, not even Pres. George W. Bush can do that, and that we have to be realistic about what is possible and take what we can get. He said we should build on the momentum of 96-1 vote in the US Senate for S.1315 to get a House version passed.
    But Jaymee Sagisi of the Students Action for Veterans Equity voiced her disagreement with Ramos’ position, asking him “How can you advocate that Filipino veterans in the Philippines should receive only one third of what US veterans get?”
    Ramos reiterated his position that we have to be realistic about what can be expected from the US Congress.
    “Filipino veterans in the Philippines getting $300 a month, and another $200 a month in widows’ benefits, that realistically will happen under S. 1315 is better than a $900 a month dream that will never come,” commented veteran Lucio Dimaano. 
    In the discussions that occurred among members of the audience, it was explained that Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), the principal sponsor of the Filipino Veterans Equity Bill in the Senate, recognized that the Filvets bill could not pass if it went out on its own, as the anti-immigrant sentiment in the Republican Party was too strong. The only chance of passage was to fold it into an omnibus Veterans’ Benefits Enhancement Bill which would affect several veterans programs, including disability compensation, housing, pension, burial, life insurance, and readjustment benefits.
    Akaka’s advocacy for the Filvets stand alone bill was met with vociferous opposition from Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Sen. Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) and Sen. David Vitter (R-Alabama). They opposed offering benefits to non-US citizen veterans who, Craig said, ”are taking money away from our veterans. That is the ‘Robin Hood in reverse’ effect. At least Robin Hood, when he took money, left it in Nottingham. He spread it out amongst his own. Here we are taking money 
from our own and sending it all the way to the Philippines.”
    Filipino veterans expressed concern that if Baldonado and his group succeed in stalling passage of the veterans’ benefits enhancement bill, the other non-Filipino veterans groups may likely junk the Filipino veterans equity provision in the bill and move on with their omnibus bill.
    Filipino veterans groups are hoping that the Filipino community, including Commissioner Baldonado, will unite to support passage of the House version of S.1315 if and when it comes for a vote probably on June 3.
    Members of the Filipino community are urged to email Speaker Nancy Pelosi and their representatives in Congress to express support for S.1315 by logging on to the website: www.house.gov. 



5/24/08 Northwest Asian Weekly: “‘The Battle for Hearts and Minds’ goes on for Asian American veterans,”
By Ann-Marie Stillion
    Tony Chan’s DVD collection of four related documentaries concentrates on personal stories to tell the tale of war and the impact of racism. 
    “Asians in the West” begins with Don Lau, who served as an army journalist, turns to the combat experiences of Cole Lew, and ends with the story of combat nurse Lily Lee Adams, who returned to the U.S. to become a veterans advocate.
    Although not explicitly stated in the work itself, all three have struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s not clear how the interviewees were chosen for the story, but it is clear that each one experienced not only the battles in war, but the racism of fellow soldiers and the system they found themselves in, along with a lack of understanding from their peers at home and in everyday life. In the end, whether due to lack of services or an indifferent society, each was forced to come to terms with the demons left behind.
    In training, Lau was used as a stand-in for the enemy, dressed in a coulee hat and pajamas because he was Asian American. Authorities, attempting to train soldiers unfamiliar with Asians, pointed to him and said, “This is what the enemy looks like.”
    Now, decades later, Lau — who was nominated for a Pulitzer for his photography of Patty Hearst while working for the San Francisco Examiner — twists in his chair as if restrained by an invisible tether as he speaks. “If I ever see that guy again — ” his voice trails off.
    Lau describes the terror of walking the streets with the constant threat of being detained as the enemy or worse. In the interview, the decades-old pain is palpable.
    Lau says that even though he was a journalist, the intensity of his memories have remained despite the fact that he did not fight.
    In another interview, Lew, who eventually received his doctorate from the University of Hawaii , talks about the value for him of being close to other soldiers. He says he went into the army to find out who he was.
    “If you talk to Vietnam veterans, this was the first time they ever became close, you talk about intimacy, having friends you could call buddies in a short period of time … it was beautiful in that way, it was nice … now in civilian life, nobody is that close anymore.”
    Along with the others, he relived war memories for a long time, refusing to sit with his back to the door, suddenly believing that the enemy was nearby. Trained as a psychologist and working with vets now, he says that many Asian Americans don’t even know they have PTSD.
    Issues of shame complicated their seeking help. They had to face the possibility of shaming the family, and at the same time, getting help from the Veterans Administration was inadequate as Asian Americans were frequently not viewed as Americans, Cole says. “What are you doing here?” some administrators said.
    Producer/director Tony Chan, who also teaches at the University of Washington , began the series with “American Nurse” in 1992 and finished that last one, “Lily Goes Home”, in 2007.
    The two other stories, “Sweet Heat,” 1998, and “The Insanity of It All,” 2002, cover the interviews with Lau and Lew.
    For Adams , nursing was one of the logical choices of a career for women in that era. Inspired by Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you” speech, she decided to serve in Vietnam .
    The young combat nurse came to hate what she was doing in Vietnam . “When I first saw war injuries, I couldn’t move,” she recalls.  Stationed in the southern part of Vietnam near the border of Cambodia , she gradually came to see the face of racism in the war, that the people America was fighting were her cousins.
    “Although most of our lives, we were told that we were inferior to men, by the time we hit Vietnam , we had realized that we were very strong emotionally,” Lee said.
    Produced independently on a shoestring budget, these spare DVDs with nothing more than gunfire at times for a sound track are full of human treasure, of lives examined in the light of personal insight and history.
    What rings true are the sounds, sights and smells of an era, and the shape of the lives left behind in the wake of the war.
    “American Nurse” aired on KCTS Seattle in 1993 and received an award at the Hiroshima Film Festival on Peace. “American Nurse” and “Sweet Heat” were screened at the Vietnamese Film Festival in Toronto .
    Documentaries are available separately from distributors Video Out, www.videoout.ca, and Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre, www.cfmdc.org.

2/22/08 Asia Times Online: "Speaking Freely: Asian American soldiers of conscience,"
by Gina Hotta
    Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing. 
    When Major General Antonio Taguba steps on-stage, his shoulders are pulled back and he stands straight while addressing the audience at the University of California, Berkeley. He smiles at the warm reception he receives at a university known for being at the center of anti-war and left-wing students movements. A man in the audience holds up a sign saying "Mabuhay General", expressing a warm welcome in Tagalog, a language of the Philippines. It also reflects the pride that Filipinos in America feel when they see this man - the son of immigrants to Hawaii, whose father was a survivor of the Bataan Death March - talk about his investigation that revealed systematic abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. 
    "Torture is un-lawful", are the first words of his keynote address, part of the "War on Terror" lecture series presented by the Human Rights Center at Berkeley. In 2004 Taguba was lead investigator into conditions at the US military's Abu Ghraib facility in Iraq. His highly critical report was publicized throughout the world. The 6,000-page report gave evidence of torture, prisoner abuse, and a failure of leadership and responsibility at the highest levels of authority. The report was hailed as a thorough investigation completed in only 30 days. But in January 2006, Taguba received a phone call from the Army's Vice-Chief of Staff who offered no reason but said, "I need you to retire by January of 2007." This Taguba did after 34 years of active duty. 
    The war in Iraq has thrust American soldiers of Asian ancestry into the limelight as no other US conflict has ever done before. Aside from their Asian heritage there is yet another tie that these men have. It reflects another on-going battle - one that is being fought in the halls of Congress and in countless debates throughout the world. Asian American soldiers have found themselves front and center in these fights over the use of torture, questions of wartime ethics and conduct and even over the legality of the Iraq war itself. 
    In my interviews with war resistor First Lieutenant Ehren Watada; James Yee, the former captain and Muslim chaplin at Guantanamo Bay Prison; and Taguba, they all remain strong believers in the US constitution, its principals and the ability of the US military to protect them. Despite the different ways they acted on their beliefs and despite differing opinions, what remains is their commitment to a firm set of ideals and their willingness to pay a price for it. 
    I asked Taguba if he felt that the immigrant experience had something to do with their stance that put them in the line of fire. His response was that it was more a matter of taking responsibility and of giving leadership when called to duty as any American should do. Yet Taguba's parents and their experience during World War II are the sources of his greatest inspiration. His father is a survivor of the Bataan Death March and fought Japan's occupation of the Philippines. His mother helped prisoners at a Japanese POW camp in Manila. Taguba still remembers his mother's stories about the atrocities committed in the prison.
    However, the road has not been easy for his family. It was only through Tagubas efforts that his father finally received recognition for his heroic efforts during the war. Taguba also cites instances of discrimination: of being refused service in a restaurant and - although he holds three masters degrees - being accused of not speaking English well.
    Yet his response was to double his efforts and to leave bitterness behind, his integrity intact. Watada and Yee also speak with pride about their service in the military. Both have fathers who were in the service and cite their families as a source of strength. Like Taguba, a sense of dignity and of duty towards a just cause still infuse their words, even though their beliefs took them on a path contrary to the prevailing norm. 
    Yee wanted to improve conditions at Guantanamo Bay through providing religious guidance and education about Islam. However, when rumors of spying at the prison arose, Yee was charged with espionage, the most serious of several charges. He was arrested, hooded, shackled and subjected to sensory deprivation; the same kind of treatment that prisoners at Guantanamo received. Throughout his ordeal, Yee's wife was questioned and his character was smeared. Even after all major charges were dropped and the others reduced to mishandling classified information, Yee remained under FBI surveillance. 
    Watada's refusal to deploy to Iraq underscored the Bush administration's determination to go to war, with Truth being its first casualty. Watada argues that the President misled the public and that the reasons for going to war were based on false premises. Watada states that he will not fight an illegal war. He now faces a possible court martial. 
    The stand Watada took remains a source of controversy.
    Yet support for him is strong, with a group of Asian Americans supporters driving several hundred miles to his trials in Washington State. Support for Yee first came from Muslim Americans. But as events surrounding his case were revealed, Chinese and Asian Americans rallied to his cause. 
    I compare this situation to that of the war in Southeast Asia. When I documented stories of Asian American Vietnam Veterans, I was told of an Asian American soldier being signaled out by a squad leader.
    He then told the squad, "This is what the enemy looks like." The contributions of these Asian Americans in the armed forces were no less than those of Asian American soldiers today. But too often racial stereotyping and derogatory attitudes reserved for the Vietnamese were also pointed at Asian Americans. The sense of isolation, the mental and emotional scars inflicted upon these men and women remained apparent years after returning to civilian life. 
    When I ask Taguba about the role of de-humanizing the enemy, his pace slows and his voice seems to loses its brightness. "It's about usurping your power over somebody who's desperate. It has been a part of how we handle prisoners. But it doesnt have to lead to torture or inhumane treatment." 
    Minorities in the US military bear a double duty: one to serve their country and one to prove to the very same country that they are equal human beings. This contradiction and its pressures are hard to bear without supportive networks and methods of dealing with racial discrimination. But over the years, Asian Americans have distinguished themselves in the armed service, have nurtured organizations and role models as well as developed broad networks of political and social support beyond what existed during the war in Southeast Asia. Perhaps all these factors contributed to the present phenomenon of Asian American soldiers with high profiles in issues of war, the US constitution and human rights. (Although all would have preferred to remain out of the spotlight.) 
    Other Americans have asked me if Asian Americans have a dual loyalty: one to their Asian ancestral home and one to their American home. An underlying question is: does this pose a danger to the US if they serve in its military? One only has to look at people like Taguba, Watada and Yee to find answers. Yet, these soldiers do not subscribe to a blind loyalty or patriotism. In his opening remarks, Taguba says he saw the importance of the Free Speech Movement and the struggles of minority students for a better education. Rather, these men are informed by beliefs tested by obstacles that they and their families had to overcome and by the sacrifices of those who took a stand for justice and equality.
These soldiers of Asian ancestry do not have to take on double duty. And yet many do. It's as if it comes with the uniform, with their heritage. And it is not a light burden to bear.
    Gina Hotta is a radio producer and writer with a focus on the Asian Pacific Islander Diaspora. She has won awards such as from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Asian American Journalist Association. She also works on CBS radio's Science Today.
(Copyright 2008, Gina Hotta) 


1/22/08 Asian Week: "Nisei Veterans Postage Stamp Campaign Gains Momentum,"
by Lisa Wong Macabasco
    Postal Service committee meets next week to consider proposed stamp honoring World War II Japanese American vets
    The U.S. Postal Service Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee will meet on Jan. 24 and 25 to formally consider a proposal to honor American World War II servicemen and women of Japanese heritage with a commemorative postage stamp.
    President Truman said it best Nisei soldiers fought prejudice at home and on the battlefield, and won, Sen. Daniel K. Akaka said. A stamp in their honor would be a fitting tribute to these uniquely American heroes.
    Started four years ago as a grassroots project supported by the Japanese American Veterans Association, the postage stamp campaign hopes to honor the estimated 25,000 Japanese Americans who served in the U.S. armed forces overseas and at home, including the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, whose courage under fire distinguished them as one of the most highly decorated units in U.S. military history.
    Other Japanese American soldiers joined the Military Intelligence Service, the U.S. Army Womens Army Corps and Nurse Corps, or became gunners in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Many of these soldiers were Nisei, or American-born sons and daughters of Japanese immigrants, who faced discrimination and internment during the 1940s following Japans attack on Pearl Harbor.
    Wayne Osako, the chair/coordinator of the California-based campaign, said these veterans are now in their 80s and 90s, and the campaign aims to get the stamp approved while they are still living and have it be released by 2010.
A declining number of Japanese American World War II veterans are alive today, including Don Seki, who lost an arm in the campaign to save the 1st Battalion, 141st Regiment, 36th (Texas) Infantry Division, which was trapped and appeared doomed for annihilation by German forces in the Vosges Mountains of eastern France in 1944. Seki said the postage stamp would convey the message of how the Nisei fought the enemy abroad and battled prejudice on the home front.
    A commemorative Nisei postage stamp will signify Japanese Americans commitment to preserve freedom, said Grant Hirabayashi, a resident of Silver Spring, Md., Ranger Hall of Fame inductee and member of the famed Merrills Marauders, who fought behind enemy lines in Burma.
    Commemorative postage stamps have previously been issued to other minority veterans. In 1984, a stamp was issued honoring Hispanic American veterans, and a decade later, the 92nd Infantry Division, a segregated unit of African American soldiers who fought in World Wars I and II, was also recognized with a postage stamp. A proposal to issue a stamp commemorating the Tuskegee Airmen is currently under consideration by the Postal Service as well.
    Fictional characters have their own stamps, so Japanese American veterans certainly deserve them as well, said Hawaii state Rep. John Mizuno, D-Alewa Heights-Kalihi. We already have a stamp of Yoda, a character in Star Wars. I dont think its too far-fetched to honor our Nisei veterans, said Mizuno, the son of a World War II Nisei veteran.
    The Nisei veterans stamp proposal is just one of tens of thousands of requests the Postal Service receives each year. The Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, comprised of 15 appointed individuals, meets four times a year and can either reject the proposal or keep it under consideration. Each year the committee recommends about 25 commemorative stamp selections to the postmaster general that are both interesting and educational.
    The California-based campaign has so far collected more than 10,000 written petitions and more than 7,000 signatures online, in addition to letters of support from members of Congress, veterans and civic organizations, and resolutions from city legislatures.
    The state legislatures of Hawaii, California and Illinois will soon be considering resolutions of support this winter. A congressional letter of support for the stamp is currently circulating in Congress, and 26 members have signed on.
Resolutions supporting a Nisei stamp will be introduced in both the Hawaii Senate and House. We believe they deserve their rightful place in history,
Lt. Gov. James Duke Aiona said. You question why they even did what they did. I believe it was purely out of honor and commitment to our country.Stamps recognize the highlights of our American story, said Hawaii state Sen. Les Ihara, D-Kahala-Palolo.
    Additional reporting by the Associated Press
    To support the campaign, visit niseistamp.org, call (714) 534-5139 or e-mail info "at" niseistamp.org.
    Letters of support and petitions may be sent to: Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, USPS Stamp Development, 1735 North Lynn St., Suite 5013, Arlington, VA 22209-6432.
    Please send a copy to: JACL Headquarters, ATTN: Nisei Stamp Campaign, 1765 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA 94115 


12/21/07 Los Angeles Times: A stamp of approval for Japanese American veterans?  Supporters press for a postal honor for more than 30,000 who volunteered during WWII despite family and friends' internment.
By Teresa Watanabe
    Months after Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government imprisoned Robert Ichikawa behind barbed wire in a desolate World War II internment camp. But the Torrance resident volunteered for the U.S. military anyway. He wanted, he said, to prove his loyalty to his American homeland over his ancestral land of Japan . 
    More than 30,000 Nisei, or second-generation Japanese Americans, did likewise by volunteering for military service during World War II. Many of them joined the mostly-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team and 100th Infantry Battalion, whose valor under fire made it among the most highly decorated units in U.S. military history. 
    Others joined the Military Intelligence Service as interrogators, translators and interpreters, crucial roles credited with shortening the war by as many as two years. About 300 Nisei women served in the Women's Army Corps and Cadet Nurses Corp. 
    Now, as Japanese American World War II veterans rapidly dwindle in number -- most are in their 80s -- their supporters are pushing for a commemorative postage stamp in their honor. 
    And they have attracted support from an unexpected quarter: the Jewish community.
    At a Los Angeles news conference Thursday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance pledged support for the campaign and called on the U.S. Postal Service to approve the proposal when its commemorative-stamp review committee meets next month. 
    Rabbi Abraham Cooper said his Wiesenthal Center has had a long relationship with the Nisei veterans, stemming from an initial friendship with one of them, the late Clarence Matsumura, who helped liberate Holocaust survivors from the Dachau concentration camp. 
    Last month, Port Hueneme City Councilman Murray Rosenbluth successfully sponsored a city resolution supporting the campaign. He, too, was moved by the mostly-Nisei 522nd Field Artillery Battalion's aid in liberating Dachau . It was a "good deed that resonated with me," Rosenbluth said at the City Council meeting.
    Rabbi Shmuel Novack of Chabad Southside in Jacksonville , Fla. , joined the campaign because his grandfather, Lt. David Novack, commanded many of the Nisei soldiers as an officer in the 100th Battalion. 
    The younger Novack traveled to a Las Vegas reunion of Nisei war veterans last month, hearing for the first time their stories of his grandfather's bravery, including shattering his leg on a land mine.
    Now, Novack said, he is a passionate supporter of the stamp campaign.
    "They have stamps for flowers and animals and Elvis Presley and Superman," Novack said in a phone interview. "But these guys are living Supermen. They did so much despite all of the adversity they faced at home."
    The campaign was launched four years ago but has just begun to pick up steam. It has attracted support from more than 50 California cities and 10,000 petition signers. 
    Community organizations, such as the American Jewish Committee and Japanese American Citizens League, have endorsed the campaign. So have numerous federal and state lawmakers, including Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), a 442nd veteran who lost an arm in battle. Proposed resolutions are pending in Congress and in several states, according to Wayne Osako, stamp campaign chair. 
    Osako said the Postal Service has issued commemorative stamps honoring minority veterans in the past. It issued a stamp in 1984 honoring Latino veterans and another a decade later recognizing the African American Buffalo Soldiers, Osako said.
    The Nisei veterans stamp would be the first to honor an Asian American military group, he said. 
    The Postal Service's citizens' stamp advisory committee is to begin formally reviewing the proposal next month in a selection process that usually takes about three years, Osako said. The stamp could be issued in 2010.
    But that is a race against time for many of the aging veterans and their families. 
    Gardena resident Chizuko Ohira, one of the three Nisei women who first launched the campaign, said her husband, Ted, a veteran, was an avid stamp supporter. But he died in March, she said, before seeing his dream realized.

9/26/07 Asian Week: Hmong Labeled Terrorists, Denied Green Cards,
by: Sandy Cha
   Fresno , Calif. Its an endless process of waiting, of not knowing why or how, but thats often the way it is, applying for U.S. citizenship. Many can relate, but in particular, the situation has become tenuous for the 4,000 Hmong with backlogged applications.
    During the Vietnam War, the United States recruited more than 40,000 Hmong men in Laos to fight communism on behalf of the American government in a covert operation known as the Secret War.
    They rescued American pilots who had been shot down, guarded the Ho Chi Minh trail, gathered intelligence, provided information about the landscape and suffered enormous casualties, dying at a ratio of 10 to one in comparison to their American allies.
    Hundreds of thousands of Hmong immigrated to the United States in the decades following the Vietnam War, but it was not until December 2003 that the State Department made the decision to resettle 15,000 Hmong refugees my grandparents among them from Wat Tham Krabok, one of the last Hmong refugee camps in Thailand, to the United States.
    But decades after assisting the United States under the principles of democracy and freedom, many Hmong may be stranded without the opportunity to obtain full citizenship.
    The broad provisions of the Real ID Act, signed into law by President Bush in 2005 as an attachment to the Patriot Act, affirm that groups of two or more individuals who have taken up arms against a government will be deemed a terrorist organization, and are therefore prevented from gaining full citizenship or refugee status even while facing possible deportation.
    Anyone who provided material support, meaning food, shelter, money or any related assistance to a terrorist group, faces equal risk as well.
    The Hmong who fought alongside the Americans in Laos are considered terrorists under this definiton and are therefore ineligible for asylum or green cards.
    My grandparents recently resettled in the United States from Thailand , but my grandfather does not have full citizenship.
    It has been over a year since he applied for a green card. He currently works part-time in an entry-level position for an electrical company and is learning English as fast as he can.
    He is trying to assimilate into this new culture, taking ESL classes, working and paying taxes.
    Yet, he has not received an answer as to why his green card application has been backlogged while everyone else in the family has received theirs.
    Many Hmong would like to think that the U.S. government did not intend to apply the Real ID provisions to the Hmong community, especially since Hmong soldiers took up arms on behalf of this country; since thousands of Hmong soldiers died to save American lives; and since the United States deserted the war in 1975, leaving thousands to fend for themselves against increasing communist attacks.
    Young Hmong Americans have a civic responsibility to speak up for the Hmong community. A group of 11 from Fresno recently carried this history and these stories to Washington in meetings with the offices of legislators.
    In these meetings, the stories and struggles of parents, elders and recent refugees, all back home thousands of miles away, resonated heavily, and some participants could not hold back their emotion.
    Our government is responsible for ensuring democracy for everyone, especially for these Hmong who now struggle to become active citizens. Relief may be near if the Foreign Operations Bill passes this fall with its provision that would exempt the Hmong from the Real ID Act.
    American citizens, young Hmong Americans and other communities, should challenge themselves to be critical of how legislation affects the history of immigrants in this country and especially of how this history is coming back to impact many families today.
    Article by Sandy Cha, as told to Mai Der Vang, a youth media coordinator in Fresno .
    FYI: MATERIAL SUPPORT UPDATE provided by The Hmong National Developments News Flash for the week of October 01, 2007 .
    What is Material Support? Due to provisions containing broad definitions of terrorist activity and terrorism in the Patriot Act of 2001 and the REAL ID Act of 2005, the activities of Hmong and Montagnards who fought alongside the U.S. during the Secret War in Laos and the Vietnam War unintentionally fell under these broad definitions. The material support bar impacts individuals who have provided material support, such as food, water, shelter, money, and etc. to individuals who are classified as terrorists. Material support is an issue that affects not only the Hmong and Montagnards, but thousands of refugees and asylum seekers from all around the world.
    Current Legislation and Next Steps: Language addressing the material support issue for the Hmong and Montagnards (and other refugee groups) was recently passed in the Senate as an amendment to the Senate Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill. What next? Within the next few weeks, the Senate Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill will go to conference, where a number of selected Senators and Representatives will convene to work out the differences in the House and Senate versions of this bill. Once the bill is finalized and agreed on, it may be sent to the president to be signed into law. The President has threatened to veto the Senate Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill due to issues unrelated to material support.
    Misperceptions about Material Support: While we are excited about the passage of material support language, it does NOT mean that there isnt more to be done! The language still has to go through conference, during which it could possibly be changed and there is still a threat of the President vetoing the bill. Many in the community perceive that if and when the material support issue is resolved, this will automatically allow thousands of Hmong refugees from Laos and Thailand to resettle in the U.S. While resolving material support issues for the Hmong would take care of a huge barrier, the refugee issues of the Hmong in Laos and Thailand are very complex and its resolution WILL NOT open the floodgates for Hmong to resettle in the U.S. This update was adapted from the Material Support Community Update Call hosted by Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) and Hmong National Development (HND) on Friday, September 14, 2007.
    For more information, please contact Srida Moua, Policy Advocate, at (202) 463-2118 or smoua@hndinc.org. You may also contact Helly Lee, Advocacy Initiative Director, at (202) 667-4690 or helly@searac.org. To receive further updates, please subscribe to hndflash@hndinc.org.
Vivanxai Moua on Oct 01, 2007


9/6/07 Dallas Morning News: "Show profiles Japanese-American war hero,"
by Esther Wu
    PBS will present "Most Honorable Son," a profile on Ben Kuroki , one of the first Japanese-American war heroes. The show will air at 8 p.m. Sept. 17 and can be seen locally on KERA-TV (Channel 13).
    During World War II, more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were interned in makeshift camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. Suspected of being enemies of the state, they were forced to leave behind their homes, businesses and most of their belongings to live in relocation camps. They were allowed to bring only what would fit in one suitcase. 
    Many of the internees were elderly and young children, and at least 62 percent were U.S. citizens. Despite the hardship of the camps, many young Japanese-American men voluntarily joined the U.S. armed forces the only way they felt they could prove their loyalty to the U.S. Some were sent to Japan , a country many had never seen before. 
    Against this backdrop, Mr. Kuroki, a Japanese-American born in Nebraska , volunteered to join the Army Air Corps after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. 
    He was the lone Japanese-American in the corps. He flew bombing missions throughout Europe and Japan . But Mr. Kuroki also had to endure racial discrimination from his fellow servicemen on the ground. 
    In the documentary, Mr. Kuroki explained his experience simply: "That was what my whole war was about. I didn't want to be called a Jap." 
    Mr. Kuroki, now 90, is a Nisei, a first-generation American of Japanese decent. He is believed to be the only Nisei to fly raids on Japan , surviving 28 missions in a B-29 bomber. 
    During the war, he was assigned to visit the internment camps to recruit other men to join the armed forces. 
    "The armed guards were wearing the same uniforms I was wearing," Mr. Kuroki said. "I was really quite shocked to see my own people in those internment camps like that." 
    Controversy followed Mr. Kuroki, who was considered by some a "tool of the government," while others considered him a hero. And through it all, he continued to fight racial discrimination. 
    The documentary also includes interviews with some of Mr. Kuroki's fellow crewmen, including retired Lt. Col. Edward "Red" Weir of Denton . 
    Mr. Weir flew multiple combat missions with Mr. Kuroki, including a massive raid on Hitler's oil refineries in Ploesti , Romania , on Aug. 1, 1943. 
    Last month, the two men were reunited in Lincoln , Neb. , on the anniversary of that raid to celebrate the premiere of "Most Honorable Son". 
    Mr. Weir told newspaper reporters that during a chance meeting with Mr. Kuroki shortly after the war, he asked his former crewmember how things were going. 
    "He said, 'Well, I still can't get a haircut downtown.' And he had medals; his uniform over on the left side was covered with the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal and many other medals, but those were his words to me, 'I still can't get a haircut downtown.' " 
    "Most Honorable Son" explores Mr. Kuroki's journey from facing racial discrimination to being a decorated war hero and the issues of cultural identity, patriotism and commitment to one's convictions issues we still face today.

9/5/07 Pacific Citizen: National JACL Board Strengthens Support for Watada: After much debate within the organization, the board issues a statement calling for a fair and impartial trial and reinforces Watada's right to be protected from double jeopardy.
By Caroline Aoyagi-Stom, Executive Editor
    SAN FRANCISCO For two and a half hours over a lunch of curry Floyd Mori, JACL's national director, got a chance to hear about 1st Lt. Ehren Watada's upcoming court martial and why he's against the current Iraq War - in person.
    It was the first time Mori had met the 29-year-old Japanese American with the notorious distinction of being the first Army officer to refuse deployment to Iraq .
    "I respect the process he went through, the conclusion he came to - a personal, moral decision that took courage to do so," said Mori. "He is a forthright, intelligent, sound person of integrity."
    Mori's impressions of Watada set the tone for the Aug. 18 national JACL board meeting where board members were once again asked to increase their support for the first lieutenant, this time focusing on the issue of double jeopardy, a fifth amendment right.
    With Watada's second court martial on charges of missing troop movement and conduct unbecoming an officer set for October, community activists and civil rights attorneys spoke out in support of the resolution brought to the table by the NCWNP district.
    "Look to the heart of the resolution," urged Andy Noguchi, NCWNP civil rights co-chair.
    After a lengthy debate, which included two time extensions, a slightly watered down version of the resolution was eventually passed - almost unanimously.
    With a vote of 13 to 1 the national JACL board agreed to increase their support for Watada, calling for a fair and impartial trial including the right to have a trial presided over by an impartial judge and the right to be protected from double jeopardy.
    "In my mind I am satisfied their appeal for double jeopardy is within JACL's purview," said Mori. "Double jeopardy goes to the issue of a fair trial."
    Community Debate
    In June of 2006 Watada announced his life changing decision to refuse deployment to Iraq because he believes the war is not only immoral but illegal. Since then the JA community has been vehemently divided into two camps: those who staunchly support his constitutional rights and those who believe Watada's oath as a soldier requires him to obey direct orders from his superiors.
    The same division continues to permeate the JACL.
    Elaine Akagi, PNW district governor, was the lone dissenting vote on the national board. She cast her vote because her district - which includes Fort Lewis where Watada currently serves in an administrative position - told her to vote down any resolution calling for increased support for the officer.
    "We have a lot of former military people living in the PNW, since Fort Lewis and Bremerton are here in Washington . The message I get from them is that Watada was wrong to not deploy when ordered to, and as an officer of the U.S. Army, had a duty to go," she said. "They feel he must face the consequences of his decision, and that the Army's form of trial will be fair and just."
    The original resolution - which included stronger wording and a call for JACL to write letters to the courts - did not sit well with some of the national board members.
    "There are several things that trouble me about this resolution," said Kristine Minami, EDC governor and an attorney. "This is military law. It is inappropriate to try to sway a judge's decision in any way. JACL was not there."
    But in the end, a diluted version of the original resolution seemed to satisfy the majority of the national board.
    A Civil Rights Issue
    "[The JACL's] role to me as a Japanese American is to be a voice ... for civil rights. To stand up for what's right."
    As a member of the renowned coram nobis legal team, Karen Kai brought a lot of credibility to the national board debate on the Watada resolution. She reminded them that when she and her fellow attorneys asked for the national JACL board's support in the 80s they did not know all of the legal issues but they did what was right.
    She asked the current national board to do the same. "This statement calls for justice for Lieutenant Watada."
    Last July in response to the community's call for JACL to take a position on the Watada controversy, then national director John Tateishi issued a statement of concern over some of the charges he currently faces.
    Ever since the statement was issued, some JACL chapters and members have pushed for a stronger show of support for Watada including the Watsonville-Santa Cruz chapter. It was this chapter that urged the NCWNP district to bring the resolution to the national board's attention.
    "Today we are at a crossroads. What kind of organization are we going to be?" said Mas Hashimoto, of the Watsonville-Santa Cruz chapter. "We need to take a stand, a firm and dedicated stand."
    Alan Nishi, NCWNP governor, echoed the same sentiments: "We should take a more solid stance than we have in the past."
    Double Jeopardy
    On Oct. 9 Watada is scheduled to head back to court for a second trial. At his original court martial the judge declared a mistrial. If convicted of all charges, Watada faces up to seven years in jail.
    Watada's attorneys are currently arguing that a second court martial constitutes double jeopardy, a fifth amendment right that protects individuals from being charged with the same crime twice.
    "Double jeopardy is an important constitutional right to protect all citizens from oppression. This is the issue presented here," said Robert Rusky, who with Kai was a part of the coram nobis legal team.
    The JACL national board has already begun to disseminate their decision to strengthen support for Watada and the resolution also calls on the organization to help educate other groups on the controversial issue.
    "Our belief ... is this will define JACL's continued effectiveness for future generations," said Paul Kaneko, a board member of the Watsonville-Santa Cruz chapter.
    National JACL Resolution on Watada (adopted Aug. 18, 2007):
"The National JACL Board believes that all American citizens have the right to a fair and impartial trial, which includes the right to have a trial presided over by an impartial judge and to be protected from double jeopardy.
    "The National JACL Board shall generate a strong public statement supporting 1st Lt. Ehren Watada's right to a fair trial. It shall engage in activities including, but not limited to, disseminating this statement through letters of support to the appropriate officials as necessary and directing our National Director to educate other organizations on this civil rights issues to raise awareness.

7/5/07 New York Daily News: Pol honors the 'forgotten': Rookie legislator wins fight for state Korean War Veterans Day,
by Lynsey Johnson
    As the daughter of a Korean War veteran, Queens Assemblywoman Ellen Young knows how important it is to honor veterans of the "forgotten war."
    The rookie legislator, who grew up hearing about the war from her parents, helped pass a resolution last month that made June 25 Korean War Veterans Day in New York.
    "We always want to give recognition to those unsung heroes, it's very important," said Young (D-Flushing) at a special commemoration last week on the steps of Flushing Town Hall .
    "We will do this every year, right here on these steps," Young added, noting that her Assembly district boasts the borough's highest Korean-American population.
    For veteran Sok Kang, president of the Korean War Veterans Association of Greater New York, the measure is long overdue. Kang, 75, insists the war, fought in the 1950s, is overlooked because it came on the heels of World War II and was soon overshadowed by the Vietnam War.
    "Recognizing the Korean War veterans is an honor," he said. "I was shot in the ear and the leg. They call the Korean War 'the forgotten war,' and the youngsters who didn't experience the war, they don't know of the atrocities."
    Donning his Air Force Academy uniform from 22 years ago, David Lee, president of the Korean-American Public Affairs Committee, called New York 's inaugural Korean War Veterans Day "very meaningful."
    "It's great. It's a victory," added Lee, whose father fought in the war.
    John Park, president of the Korean-American Community Empowerment Council, expressed the same sentiment.
    "This is a great honor because the Korean War is a symbolic war. They fought for us and without them there would be no us," he said.

6/5/07 San Francisco Chronicle: Ex-general called father of Hmong in U.S. ,
by Matthai Chakko Kuruvila
    More than 30 years ago, Vang Pao led a guerrilla army of Hmong tribesmen fighting to keep communist forces from taking control of his native Laos . When the United States staged its final retreat from Vietnam in 1975, Pao fled to the United States and helped other Hmong to do the same.
    The former general is now 77 years old and living in Orange County , but federal authorities said Monday that he hadn't given up the fight. They accused him of leading a ring of conspirators that was raising money and weapons to launch an attack against the communist government in Laos .
    The Hmong are an ethnic and linguistic group native to a region that includes southern China , Vietnam and Cambodia in addition to Laos . Pao, a Hmong, was a general under the Laotian royal government.
    Laos ' neutrality during the Vietnam War meant the United States could not send its own troops to fight communist forces. But U.S. officials feared that if Laos fell to the communists, so too would South Vietnam and Cambodia .
    So the CIA enlisted the Hmong as proxy warriors in Laos , an effort often referred to as the secret war.
    Hmong forces, led by Pao, rescued downed U.S. pilots and blocked the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which served as a supply line to communist North Vietnam .
    The communist takeover of Laos prompted an exodus of tens of thousands of Hmong refugees, many of whom wound up in the Central Valley and Minnesota . Pao settled in the United States and led Neo Hom, an organization also known as the United Laotian National Liberation Front. But his influence spread far beyond any one organization.
    "Vang Pao is the father of the Hmong people," said Cheu Vue, a coordinator for Hmong Lao Radio in St. Paul , Minn. , center of the largest concentration of Hmong Americans.
    Pao encouraged the Hmong to educate themselves, to start businesses and become successful in their new country, said Vue, breaking into tears during an interview. Hmong people would often give jewelry, fine clothes or other presents in gratitude for his help, Vue said.
    "Vang Pao has been a central figure -- the central figure -- in Hmong life for a very long time," said Anne Fadiman, who wrote an account of a Hmong family in the Central Valley , "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down." But, she said, "he has always been controversial."
    For those who have immigrated to the United States , the war sometimes creates a generational gap, Fadiman said. Pao is a hero to many older Hmong who long to return home, she said, but many younger Hmong are less taken with him and have little desire to leave the United States , where they were born.
    Fadiman said about 80 percent of the Hmong in the United States donated to Pao's organization in the early 1980s. Even then, Pao told her that the money was to be used "to carry out guerrilla activities and the eventual overthrow of the communist government presently controlling Laos ," she wrote in an e-mail to The Chronicle.
    Vue insisted that Pao is a peaceful person interested only in helping the Hmong.
    "I don't believe he's the person who would attack the Laotian government," Vue said. "He always says peace comes first. He doesn't want war."

April 2007 http://asiancemagazine.com/apr_2007/in_pursuit_of_a_dream

In Pursuit of a Dream by Edmund Moy
    On November 10th, 1944, pilot Hazel Ying Lee reported to Bell Aircraft factory at Niagara Falls , New York . She was given orders to pick up a new P-63 fighter and fly it to Great Falls , Montana .
    As one of 132 female pilots trained to "fly pursuit," Lee was qualified to pilot the super-fast and powerful fighters of the era, including the P-51s, P-47s and P-39s.
    Lee and other pilots delivered over 5,000 fighters to Great Falls as part of the United States link in supplying Russian allies with planes during World War II. From Great Falls , male pilots flew the fighters on to Alaska , where Russian pilots waited to fly the planes home.
    For Lee, keeping arduous schedules, working six or seven days a week with only eight hours between shifts was common practice. Pilots like her were often stuck in small towns for up to a week because of bad weather.
    And on this mission, weather problems would force Lee to stop in Fargo on her way to Great Falls . It took until the morning of November 23, 1944 for her to arrive in Great Falls .
    LEARNING TO FLY
    Born in Portland , Oregon , on August 24, 1912, Lee was the daughter of Chinese parents who had raised eight children during a time of widespread Anti-Chinese bias.
    Following graduation from High School in 1929, Lee found a job as an elevator operator at Liebes Department Store in downtown Portland . It was one of the few jobs a Chinese-American woman was allowed to hold at that time.
    In 1932, after a friend let her ride with him at an air show, Lee, was hooked on flying. She already had a reputation as a tomboy, growing up playing handball and running races with the boys, and immediately began saving money for private flight lessons. Despite opposition from her mother, she just "had to fly," even though at that time, less than one percent of pilots in the U.S. were women.
    The allure of flying was too powerful for Lee to ignore. She was known to love and enjoy danger -- and doing something that was new to a Chinese girl at that time was exciting. And so she began her pursuit of the dream of flying.
    Lee eventually enrolled in a flying program sponsored by the Chinese Benevolent Society and joined the Portland Flying Club. She took flying lessons with famed aviator Al Greenwood.
    By October 1932, Lee had become one of the first Chinese-American women to earn a pilot's license. She became one of only a handful of other Chinese-American women pilots.
    At the time, flying was considered a relatively new daredevil sport dominated mostly by men.  Lee was seen as a rebel for breaking the stereotype of the passive Chinese woman and was acting in a manner that was "unladylike."
    Soon after, Lee traveled to China and volunteered to fight against the Japanese invasion as part of the Chinese Air Force. But because she was a woman, Lee was forced to take a desk job with the Chinese military and flew only occasionally, for a commercial company operating out of Nanjing . Sweetwater , Texas for an arduous six-month training program. Lee was accepted into the 4th class, 43 W 4. At that time, she became the first Chinese-American woman to fly for the United States military. During training, Lee was forced to make an emergency landing in a farmer's field after her aircraft developed engine problems. The farmer mistook her for a Japanese pilot and held her at pitchfork point, believing he was being invaded. His son called Avenger Field and let them know one of the WASP trainees had made a forced landing at their farm, and soon she was back at the base with a story to tell. Mich. She primarily flew trainer and liaison type aircraft until April 1944 when she was sent to instrument school as part of an upgrade program designed to prepare her for flying advanced aircrafts. Candidate School in June because of the belief that the WASPs would soon be militarized and commissioned as Lieutenants in the Army. She completed her training by attending Pursuit School in September 1944.
    Pursuit School qualified her to fly all the Army's single-engine Fighter aircraft, including P-39, P-40, P-47, P-51 and P-63. She graduated on October 2, 1944 (with six other WASPs and 27 men) and returned to the 3rd Ferrying Group to resume deliveries of aircraft. She was prepared for almost anything and worked hard to keep up with her schedule. Although, the P-63s that were sent through Great Falls arrived in Russia too late to see much action in Europe, they were used at Konigsberg -- and in the final drive on Berlin at the end of the war. The planes were also main assets in the USSR 's "Operation August Storm," also referred to as "The Battle of Manchuria," in 1945, when the Soviet's liberated Northeastern China . It was a fitting close to the circle of Hazel Ying Lee's brief, but heroic life. Arlington , VA 22209 Attention: Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee A salute to Hazel Ying Lee and other Asian American women who fought for their country will take place in Winter 2007 at the Museum of Flight in Seattle .

4/3/07 Filipino Veterans Equity Act Included in House Budget Resolution for the First Time 
    Washington, DC- The National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity (NAFVE) 
applauded the United States House of Representatives for passing a resolution that included a marker for the Filipino Veterans Equity Act (HR 760). It ensures that the Equity Act will be part of the ongoing budgetary process and that funds are specifically set aside for our veterans in the House version of the bill. The Senate version, S 57, is currently in the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, with hearings scheduled for April 11. HR 760 would amend current law to consider Filipino World War II veterans as U.S. veterans for purposes of eligibility for programs administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

2/15/07 National Alliance Mobilizes Around Congressional Hearings to Pass 
the Filipino Veterans Equity Act 
    Washington, DCThe newly formed National Alliance for Filipino Veterans 
Equity ("the National Alliance") announced its support for Congressional Hearings for HR 760, the Filipino Veterans Equity Act. The bill was introduced on January 31, and would provide U.S. Veterans status for Filipinos who fought in World War II for purposes of benefits. Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA) announced February 15 hearings for the bill as Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. 
    "The Alliance has brought together a broad base of support from the community to support passage of the Filipino Veterans Equity Act," said Jon Melegrito, Co-Chair of the Alliance. "We are pleased that Congressman Filner has continued to be a champion for this bill and has called for hearings. We are thankful to all of the members in Congress who have supported this important issue, notably Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Mike Honda, who heads the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Sen. Daniel Inouye who have consistently introduced an equity bill in the Senate. We applaud their leadership in keeping the Filipino veterans cause alive." 
    "This month marks the 61st anniversary of passage of the 1946 Rescission Act, which took away the veterans status that was originally promised to Filipino veterans when President Roosevelt conscripted them to help in the Pacific theater during World War II," said Lilian Galedo, the other National Alliance Co-Chair. "With many of this bill's champions in Congress now holding key positions to help move this bill, the time is right to restore justice for our veterans and reaffirm America's commitment to all those who bravely served the U.S. in times of war." 
    The National Alliance represents over 20 local, national and international 
organizations committed to securing full equity for Filipino World War II Veterans. All the groups have been part of a 60-year campaign to restore to Filipino WWII veterans their rightful claim to U.S. veterans status and recognition for their bravery in defending the United States during WWII. The National Alliance's sole purpose is to pass the long overdue Filipino Veterans Equity Act.

2/7/07 press release from Congressman Mike Honda (CA-15), Chair of the
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC):
    There are approximately 328,000 veterans of AAPI descent, and 62,378
AAPIs who are currently on active duty in the military.

12/27/06 San Jose Mercury News: Chung: Victories mark veteran's life: Paving Way for Those Who Followed
By L.A. Chung, Mercury News Columnist
    In his 103 years of living, he was variously known as Asha Schutz and Peter King, but it didn't matter to Peter Chang Sr., whose steady, small victories helped pave the way for others during an era when the ``Orientals'' were viewed mostly as house servants.
    The retired Navy man's life will be celebrated Thursday at the Avenidas Senior Day Health Center in Mountain View , a place that was almost his second home in recent years. He died Nov. 26.
    ``He's so special to us,'' said Lenny Park, head of the health care center, who'd thrown a birthday party for Chang, complete with a live banjo group, when he turned 100. ``He was here every day. It was a big part of his life.'' Avenidas president Lisa Hendrickson will personally open the center that day, when it is normally closed.
    Chang could be remembered at Avenidas mainly as the courtly and meticulous military vet with a penchant for current events and U.S. history, if it weren't for the oral histories taken by his grandchildren and a scholar at UC- Los Angeles .
    Reflected in Chang's 100-plus years are glimpses into the history of Korean immigration to America , Korean-Japanese history, and how Chang persevered, despite discrimination in the U.S. military, to become a chief warrant officer and running the Navy's torpedo school during World War II.
    The centennial of Korean immigration, beginning with the arrival of 102 contract workers aboard the USS Gaelic to Hawaii in 1903, was an event marked by the Smithsonian and the Korean-American population. Among the passengers was Chang's mother, who had not come as a contract laborer for Hawaii 's sugar cane fields, but as the wife of a diplomat. Chang was born in Oakland in October of that year, and some scholars believe he was the first baby born of Korean nationals on the U.S. mainland.
    He carried the name ``Asha Schutz'' while living his first 10 years with family friends, the Schutz's, who took him under their care while his mother joined her husband at the struggling mission in Washington, D.C.
    As the son of a diplomat, Chang's life might have turned out quite differently. But in 1910, Japan annexed Korea , and the Korean mission was dissolved.
    Unwilling to return to occupied Korea, Chang's multilingual father moved the family to Shanghai, China, an international base from which he could conduct a ginseng import business with Australia, which did not allow Asians to immigrate. Shanghai was also a place where his children could get a good education in the international settlement and hopefully do more than ``wear a white jacket.''
    ``My father had seen in Washington and other places that all the hired help and household chores were done by `Orientals' and they all wore white jackets,'' he told oral historian Sonia Shinn Sunoo at UCLA. ``He (said he) will not have his children do that.''
    So international was Chang's upbringing that he never learned much of the Korean language. He enrolled, after much haggling, he said, in the British-run Thomas Hanberry School . He had to change his name for the school roster to ``Peter King,'' to avoid trouble from benefactors in England .
    On his own
    When his father died aboard ship en route to Shanghai in 1922, Chang was suddenly on his own, at age 18. He used his English skills to get a job as maitre d'hotel in Tientsin , frequented by traveling diplomats. One, it turned out, had known his father. Through that connection, he had an opportunity to work his way back to the United States on a five-masted barkentine ship. He learned the sailing craft so well that he was able to avoid the galley jobs where Asians were exclusively channeled.
    When he made it to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1922, he signed up for the U.S. Navy through a recommendation from another contact from Tientsin . ``We don't have many Orientals,'' his friend reportedly said. ``Most of them are servants but I'll see if we can break the ice with my recommendation.''
    In the interview with oral historian Sunoo, the question of barriers arose in a different context. Chang did so well on the naval exams, he was recommended to the Naval Academy in Anapolis , Md. , but his application was rejected because superiors did not think men would work under an Asian officer. Supportive superiors recommended Chang to one of the top training schools for torpedoes instead. He served first on the USS New York in Norfolk , Va. Even in uniform, Chang was refused service at restaurants while stationed in Norfolk , and at the barber shop in the city's YMCA.
    The torpedo knowledge in World War II became crucial when he was stationed in Pearl Harbor , because of Japanese success in destroying American warships.
    Move to Peninsula
    After the war, with education their priority, Chang's wife, Helen, wanted to settle near Stanford University . But back on the mainland, race again was an issue. ``A lot of people didn't want to show them houses in College Terrace,'' grandson Jonathan Korty said. They got lucky when one woman was willing to sell her home on Yale Street .
    ``I guess it worked because both his children went to Stanford,'' Korty said.
    Son Peter Chang Jr., who died of cancer in 2004, was a precocious trumpet player who had a chance to play with Louis Armstrong when he was 13. He made his name, however, when he pulled off an upset in Santa Cruz County at age 26, becoming the first Asian-American and youngest district attorney when elected in 1966. Dubbing Santa Cruz ``the murder capital of the world'' he presided over the prosecution of the era's most notorious serial killers and mass murderers, from Herbert Mullin, who killed 13 people, to Edward Kemperer, who butchered eight women, many hitchhikers, and his own mother.
    Daughter Beulah married her graduate school classmate, filmmaker John Korty, and established a successful interior design business in Marin. Among their three children is David Korty, a well-known Los Angeles artist and Bay Area musician Jonathan Korty, whose band, Vinyl, has five albums.
    Grandson Peter Chang III became a naval engineer and another grandson, Christopher Chang, works in high tech. Granddaughter Katherine Chang works in construction management.
    Korty vividly remembers one day when his grandparents' history ``came home to me.''
    He was attending the prestigious Branson School , a Marin County prep school in the town of Ross , when he made a customary trip to Palo Alto to take his grandmother out to Korean lunch. They were talking, as they often did, about her experiences as a young woman, how she worked as a house girl for a wealthy San Francisco family, and how they sometimes wouldn't pay her on time. That meant on her day off she could not afford the nickel fare for the bus, or a dime to see a movie.
    What was this family's name, he asked that day? Sutro, she said.
    He stopped to absorb that. As in Mount Sutro. Sutro Tower . As in the descendants of San Francisco Mayor Adolph Sutro. He told his grandmother he went to school with a whole branch of the Sutro family and they played in the same soccer games.
    ``I think she got a kick out of that,'' Korty said. ``Because of all their hard work and sacrifices, her grandson was going to the same prep school as their grandsons.''
    That's what can happen in far less than 103 years in America . Even if you have to change your name a couple times.

12/13/06 Go For Broke Receives $100,000 From Paul & Hisako Terasaki 
    (Torrance, Calif.) The Go For Broke National Education Center has received a $100,000 gift from Paul and Hisako Terasaki to help further its efforts to preserve the story of the World War II Japanese American veterans, whose decorations and record of service is unparalleled in military history, it was announced today. 
    Dr. Terasaki is a noted researcher who served as Professor of Surgery at UCLA from 1969-99. In 1964, he developed the micro lympho-cytotoxicity test that was adopted in 1970 as the international standard method of tissue typing. He and his corporation, One Lambda, have played a central role in the development of tissue typing and transplantation surgery. 

11/9/06 Belleville News Democrat: Duckworth says future run for office a possibility,
By Megan Reichgott
    Chicago - Tammy Duckworth has dinner plans with her former Army buddies. Then she wants new prosthetic legs, flying lessons and a Ph.D.
    After that, she'll consider running for Congress again.
    Two days after losing a nationally hyped race to Republican State Sen. Peter Roskam, Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran, said she is disappointed that she came up short in her bid for the seat held by retiring Republican Rep. Henry Hyde.
    "It was definitely hard; I'll admit my heart aches today," Duckworth said Thursday in a telephone interview. "But you know what? I've been through so much more and I'm alive."
    Duckworth said another run in 2008 was a "possibility."
    "I would consider running for office again," Duckworth said. "Serving your country as a public servant is an honorable thing."
    By now the former Army helicopter pilot's story is well-known outside of the 6th Congressional District in Chicago 's northwest suburbs.
    The 38-year-old, who lost her right leg and most of her left leg after a rocket-propelled grenade attack north of Baghdad in November 2004, was recruited by the Democratic Party to run for Congress.
    Alternating between a wheelchair and prosthetic legs, Duckworth surprised many people by mounting a competitive campaign in the traditionally Republican district. Unofficial results showed Roskam with 51 percent of the vote while Duckworth had 49 percent, with 96 percent of precincts reporting.
    Democrats were eager to showcase the bubbly, smiling Illinois Army National Guard major who gave them more credibility on security issues.
    Duckworth got noticed: Reporters from Japan and England captured the closing days of the campaign; she even won a 2006 "Woman of the Year" award from Glamour magazine.
    U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who helped recruit Duckworth even though she lived just outside the district, said her loss "broke my heart."
    "She couldn't have done a better job," said Durbin , Illinois ' senior Democrat. "She was a fantastic candidate - strong, courageous throughout, as she has been her entire life. I was so proud of her, and I wish she would have won."
    Duckworth, a political novice before the campaign, said negative television ads and "robocalls" - automated, recorded telephone calls from the National Republican Campaign Committee - cost her the race.
    "The sheer volume and nastiness of the negative mail pieces and TV commercials, they surprised me," she said.
    Before Duckworth decides whether to run again, she has an important anniversary coming up: her "Alive Day."
    That's what she calls Sunday, the two-year anniversary of the day her helicopter went down. Duckworth plans a reunion dinner in St. Louis with her crew, including Chief Warrant Officer Dan Milberg, whom she credits with saving her life.
    "I can choose to spend the day feeling bad about my injuries ... or just be thankful for the people who saved my life," she said.
    Duckworth, who has degrees in political science and international affairs, plans to finish a Ph.D. at Northern Illinois University and work to raise awareness of veterans' issues.
    And after a campaign that took a physical toll, she also has some simpler goals.
    She wants her prosthetic legs adjusted so she can get a pilot's license for fixed-wing aircraft.
    "For now, I'm looking to get some legs and just getting in shape again," Duckworth said.  



11/3/06 Washington Post: VFW Passes Over Veteran in Illinois ,
by Don Babwin  The Associated Press
     Chicago -- The Veterans of Foreign Wars' political action committee Friday endorsed a Republican congressional candidate with no military experience over a Democrat who lost her legs in combat in Iraq .
    The endorsement of GOP state Sen. Peter Roskam over Tammy Duckworth angered some Illinois veterans, as well as national figures such as former Sen. Bob Kerrey, a veteran who lost a leg in Vietnam .
    "They should be ashamed of themselves," he said. "They have some explaining to do to their members."
    Duckworth is a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot with the Army who lost her legs when her aircraft was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
    A spokesman for the VFW political action committee did not immediately return calls for comment. The endorsement was announced by the two campaigns.
    Flanked by more than 20 veterans at a news conference, Duckworth said she was never contacted by the organization or asked to fill out a questionnaire, as typically happens when organizations are deciding which candidates to endorse.
    "I think it's unfortunate they did this," she said.
    Duckworth has said that invading Iraq was a mistake but now that American troops are there, withdrawal should be tied to an aggressive training plan for Iraqi forces.
    Roskam has repeatedly said the military needs to "finish well" in Iraq . He caused a stir during a debate when he said the district wasn't a "cut-and-run district" _ something Duckworth supporters called inappropriate, given her injuries.

Tammy Duckworth (D)
Candidate for U.S. House
Illinois - District 6 (Lombard)
disabled veteran of Iraq war
http://duckworthforcongress.com/
2006 election results:
Duckworth: 49%
Roskam: 51%


8/30/06 Sacramento Bee: Filipino vets ask for full WWII honors,
by Stephen Magagnini
    Raymundo V. Seva survived the hellish Bataan Death March at the hands of his
Japanese captors.  Seva, 85, lived long enough to become a U.S. citizen -- a privilege granted to thousands of Filipino World War II veterans ordered to serve under Gen. Douglas MacArthur's Far East Command.
   But Seva, who now resides in downtown Sacramento with his wife, Fe, wonders if he'll live to see the day he and his fellow Filipino warriors will finally be recognized as U.S. veterans.
   "The Japanese bullets did not distinguish between U.S. and Filipino people," said Seva. "It's about fairness and justice. It was President Roosevelt who called Filipinos to serve in the U.S. armed forces."
   Seva and about a dozen Filipino World War II veterans came to the state Capitol on Tuesday to fight for HR 4574 -- the Filipino Veterans Equity Act of 2006 -- being pushed hard by California congressmen Bob Filner, a Democrat, and Darrell Issa, a Republican.
   Similar bills have died in Congress. Meanwhile, thousands of Filipino war vets have been claimed by old age long after they helped the United States win the war in the Pacific and MacArthur made good on his famous promise, "I shall return."
   Issa's press secretary, Frederick Hill, said a 2003 law authored by Filner did grant Filipino veterans disability benefits for war-related crimes, and access to VA hospitals and nursing homes.
   But laws that would grant them benefits equal to U.S. World War II vets have been a tough sell, said Filner, D-San Diego.
   "This is a bill I've been working on for 14 years," Filner told The Bee. "The 2003 bill took care of part of the problem for the population living in the U.S. , but my bill gives full benefits and a pension to all Filipino veterans."
   Filner said the cost would be about $200 million a year for the roughly 30,000 to
50,000 Filipino veterans still alive, a third of whom now live in America .
   Filner said the bill is stalled in the Veterans Committee.
    "If I got it to a vote on the floor of Congress, it would pass," Filner said.
    "We spend $1 billion in Iraq every 2 1/2 days. So several hundred million a year is not a lot of money. We can afford it, and it's a historical and moral necessity to right this wrong before they all die."
   Filner added, "There is still racism that led to this problem to begin with. We don't think of these Asian people as somebody we ought to be helping."
   The plight of the surviving Filipino warriors has galvanized young Filipino Americans like no other issue.
    Student Action for Veterans Equity, a Bay Area-based coalition of students with a strong contingent at UC Davis, is spearheading the fight.
   "It's definitely the most important issue facing Filipino Americans," said SAVE
spokeswoman Erin Dawn Passaporte. "We recognize we're here because of the
World War II veterans who fought for the freedoms we're sort of tasting right now."
   Passaporte, 27, has been working with Filipino veterans in San Francisco for years and sees their daily struggle for better housing and medical care. Most live on $776 a month Supplemental Security Income.
   In the Capitol basement, alongside Rick Rocamora's photo exhibit of the lives of
Filipino war veterans, Seva and his compatriots shared war stories.
   Seva, a sergeant with the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, recalled April 10, 1942, the day the Japanese marched more than 70,000 Filipino and American POWs about 70 miles in blistering heat without food or water.
   "My God, it was hell," Seva said. "If you tried to go out of line to buy food or drink
from villagers they just stabbed you with bayonets. Those who couldn't go on, they just killed them." As many as 11,000 didn't make it to the prison camp.
   Seva became a judge after the war and moved to the United States in 1993 after receiving a letter qualifying him for U.S. citizenship.
   Bert Arcaya, who was captured by the Japanese on the southern Filipino island of Mindanao , gave an impassioned speech to his comrades at the Capitol:
   "After we have fought so many battles we still have a last one to fight," said Arcaya, 84, who lives in a Sacramento retirement home.
   "We were regularly organized military units ordered to enlist by the president of the U.S. " Arcaya said. "We were required to take the Pledge of Allegiance and the soldier's oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America , not the Constitution of the Philippines ."
   Arcaya, an engineering student when he was called to active service, said he and many other Filipinos joined the guerrillas in the hills. "We used to sing 'God Bless America ' and ' America the Beautiful' -- we considered America the mother country."
   Many Filipinos saw their wives and daughters raped or bayoneted, Arcaya said.
"My father-in-law and father were captured, tortured and finally beheaded."
   Nearly 100,000 Filipino veterans gave their lives during World War II, Arcaya said.  "Telling us we are not U.S. veterans after we have suffered dishonors all Filipino people.
   "It's not a matter of money or benefits," Arcaya said. "It's a matter of justice and
integrity."
    Sorcy Apostol, a Filipino American professor at Sacramento City College , said the 2.3 million Filipino Americans -- half of them Californians -- don't have the political clout to get the bill passed, but time is of the essence.
   "In five or six years from now almost all of them will be gone," she said, "and you
want them to really taste the victory they fought for."

5/18/06 Dallas Morning News: Monumental contributions deserve a moment,
by Esther Wu
    I've often been asked why there is a need for an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month or, for that matter, Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month. My response is that these special months were created because the public needs to learn more about these groups.
   The struggles, achievements and contributions of many people are often overlooked. Learning about our diverse society about people who look, speak and eat differently than we do may help us gain a better understanding of one another. And we can only hope that will lead to more tolerance.
   So just for the record, here are a few Asian-American "firsts" that helped shape the world we live in today.
    Col. Young Oak Kim: first Asian-American to command a battalion during war. He led the 1st Battalion, 31st Army Infantry Regiment during the Korean War. During World War II , Col. Kim was a member of the 442nd/100th Regimental Combat Team, one of the most decorated units in U.S. military history. The "Go for Broke" segregated Japanese-American battalion was created while an estimated 120,000 people of Japanese descent were interned in this country.
   Gen. Eric K. Shinseki: first Asian-American to be named chief of staff of the Army, in 1999. Before the war in Iraq , he was the first to tell the Senate Armed Services Committee that it would take several hundred thousand soldiers to maintain order in that country after the war. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld disagreed with Gen. Shinseki, who retired shortly afterward.



1/4/06 Los Angeles Times: Young O. Kim, 86; World War II and Korean War Hero, Uniter of L.A. Asian Communities,
by Myrna Oliver
    Retired Army Col. Young O. Kim, one of the most celebrated heroes of World War II and the Korean War, who later became Los Angeles' elder statesman and link among Korean, Japanese and other Asian American communities, has died. He was 86.
    Kim died Thursday of cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles .
    Kim was a major co-founder of Los Angeles' Japanese American National Museum, Korean American Museum, Korean Health Education Information and Research Center, Korean American Coalition, Korean Youth and Culture Center, and Center for the Pacific Asian Family.
    He also led efforts to build the Go for Broke monument in Little Tokyo, completed in 1999, which honors the primarily Japanese American members of World War II's combined 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The monument and a related Educational Foundation that Kim chaired were named for the book "Go for Broke," which chronicled the combined units' exploits in Italy and France .
    "He's a bridge-builder. He's part of an elite group that has a scope beyond his or her own ethnic community," Stewart Kwoh, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California, told The Times in 1987, when Kim was honored by the Japanese American National Museum board.
    "Especially for someone of his generation, that's fairly unique," Kwoh said. "His efforts have served ethnic communities beyond the Korean and Japanese American communities. He's vitally concerned about other Asian groups as well."
    Born in Los Angeles in 1919 to immigrant Koreans, Kim grew up on Bunker Hill, where his parents ran a grocery store at Temple and Figueroa streets. He worked in the store as a boy in the 1920s and '30s, an era when Asian groups were not on good terms with one another, particularly Koreans and Japanese because of Japan 's occupation of Korea .
    Yet Kim, who saw himself foremost as an American, overcame those ethnic prejudices.
    "I welcome the new immigrants of all countries," Kim told The Times in 1987. "By having that attitude, I think I'm faithful and true to the American dream. I'm proud of my ethnic roots. I've always been proud of my ethnic roots.
    "But at the same time, I feel I'm basically American. I fought for America . I also fought for the Korean people."
    When World War II broke out, Kim was drafted and assigned to the Army's 100th Infantry Battalion one of only two Koreans in the outfit.
    He said the assignment occurred because his superiors at officer candidate school in Ft. Benning , Ga. , "didn't know the difference between Korean, Japanese and Chinese."
    When he reported to duty at Camp Shelby in Mississippi as a newly minted second lieutenant, his battalion commander offered him a transfer, saying: "The men here are all Japanese, and Koreans and Japanese don't get along."
    "But we're not Japanese and Korean," Kim replied. "We're all Americans. And we're all fighting for the same thing."
    At Camp Shelby , he talked with Japanese American officers from Hawaii about changing many Americans' negative view of Asians.
    "We realized we had to do well in combat. Only by doing well in combat would we be in a position to try to effect some of these changes," Kim told The Times in 1987.
    The units did better than well.
    "In hindsight, we were wildly successful," Kim told The Times. "I'm talking about as a combat unit, and in effecting the changes that we wanted to nationally."
    Kim became the only Korean American to earn the Distinguished Service Cross during World War II.
    On June 26, 1944, in Italy , Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark awarded Kim the prestigious medal because of his efforts in obtaining intelligence that helped the Allies break through at Anzio Beach and eventually capture Rome .
    As United Press reported when Clark pinned the medal on him, Kim "went behind German lines at Cisterna captured two Germans and brought them back past several enemy outposts to obtain information needed by the Allied command."
    He was accompanied on the daring daylight mission by Japanese American soldier Irving Akahoshi.
    Some of Kim's wartime exploits were illustrated in the 1997 documentary about the 100th/442nd and interned Japanese Americans, "Beyond Barbed Wire," in which he is "the Korean lieutenant."
    Wounded several times, Kim earned so many medals in his two wars that he lost count.
    The 20 or so decorations he stored in a box in his garage included two Silver Stars, three Purple Hearts, a French Croix de la Guerre and an Italian Cross of Valor.
    Last February, France presented Kim with its highest award, Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honor, for his efforts to liberate French towns toward the end of World War II.
    When Kim returned to Los Angeles on April 9, 1945, The Times headlined the story "Korean Hero of Italy Home."
    During the Korean War, Kim became the first Asian American to command a regular U.S. combat battalion, and led his unit in pushing enemy forces back from the 38th parallel. Their efforts helped create a strategic buffer between North and South Korea .
    In October, South Korea authorized awarding Kim its highest military honor, the Taeguk Order of Military Merit.
    After Korea , Kim spent another 20 years in the Army, posted in the United States , Europe and South Korea , until 1972, when he retired to Los Angeles . He earned a degree in history from Cal State Dominguez Hills and worked for a time as chief executive of Fine Particle Technology in San Diego .
    Married and divorced twice, Kim is survived by three stepsons, Jerry and Tom Surh and Corey Covert; a sister, Willa; and two brothers, Jack and Henry.
    Funeral services are scheduled Monday at Santa Monica United Methodist Church , 1008 11th St. Kim will be buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu .
    Instead of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Go for Broke Educational Foundation or the Center for Pacific Asian Families.  

10/5/05 Los Angeles Daily Breeze: Veterans 'Go for Broke' in honoring fallen soldier.  WWII Nisei troops pay tribute to Torrance 's Medal of Honor winner, Ted Tanouye,"
by Doug Irving
    The old soldiers gathered in the morning sun, greeting each other with hands that trembled with age, snapping pictures of a granite monument to a fallen comrade.
    They were Nisei, second-generation Japanese-Americans who fought in Italy and France while their parents waited behind the barbed wire of relocation camps. They had fought alongside Ted Tanouye, the Torrance farm boy who earned a Medal of Honor in World War II.
    They came to Torrance this week to visit his memorial, and to assemble once again as a company. Their voices are shallower now, but they pulled together and belted out their old fight song anyway:
    "Fighting for dear ol' Uncle Sam, 'Go for Broke,' we don't give a damn."
That was their motto, 'Go for Broke.' They were all of Japanese ancestry, assigned to a segregated combat team with a few white officers at a time when suspicion and prejudice ran high.
    Many mailed their letters home to bleak internment camps, where the federal government had sent their families shortly after the outbreak of war with Japan . 
    They talked about finishing the war, finding their way home and getting their parents out of the camps.
    "That's the way it went in those days," said Kiyoshi Yoshii, now 87.
    He was drafted a few months before his parents were sent to a Utah camp; he later lost his arm at the elbow to a German mortar.
    "We couldn't do anything to prevent them being taken."
    Ted Tanouye enlisted from Torrance shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor .
    He led an infantry platoon into Italy in July 1944, and was ordered to seize a rocky hillside where the Germans had dug in machine-gun nests.
    He fought even after an explosion ripped through his left arm. He fired into a German trench until he ran out of bullets, then crawled to get more. He refused first aid until his platoon had captured the crest of the hill.
    His actions that day earned him the Medal of Honor -- a recognition bestowed decades after his death. He remains the only soldier from Torrance to win the nation's highest military award.
    He was killed in a mine explosion a few months after fighting up the hill.
    A foundation formed in his honor dedicated a monument of stone and bronze outside Torrance High School last year.
    That's where the 24 veterans gathered on Tuesday in white short-sleeve shirts with "Go for Broke" stitched onto the chest.
    Most had come from Hawaii , where they still meet for breakfast once a month. But others had come from Illinois and Colorado ; their last surviving white officer had come from Ithaca , N.Y.
    James Yanagida was shot in the shoulder on the same hill where Tanouye fought.
    He remembers ducking for cover behind small boulders, crawling in places where the hill was too steep to stand, the air crackling with bullets.
    "We fought together," he said Tuesday.
    "Once you get together as a company, it's very hard to forget each other."
    The old soldiers, most of them now in their 80s, placed wreaths near Tanouye's monument and unveiled a new memorial plaque. It tells his story in white block letters cut deep into the black granite.
    Later in the day, they planned to watch an award-winning documentary about Tanouye called "Citizen Tanouye."
    "There was nothing they were asked to do that they couldn't," said Robert Foote, the platoon commander who came from New York . 
    "We were a family. It wasn't this kind of unit" -- he snapped to attention -- "we were family. It was everybody for everybody else."

8/16/05 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Japanese American vets' service to U.S. hailed.  In intelligence, they acted as translators, interrogators, code breakers,
by John Iwasaki
    Less than a year after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Howard Minato -- whose parents emigrated from the country waging war against the United States -- received his draft notice in Seattle .
    Once inducted, his loyalty was immediately challenged.
    "An intelligence officer asked me, 'What would you do if you were confronted by your brother and he was in a Japanese uniform?' " the 86- year-old Minato recalled Monday. 
    Minato replied that the supposition was off base because his brother was an American. But to answer the hypothetical question, "I said, 'I'd do what you'd do: I'd shoot.' The officer stopped right there and walked away."
    Sixty years after the end of World War II, Minato and other local veterans, nearly all of them nisei, or second-generation Japanese Americans, were recognized Monday in resolutions approved by the King County Council and Seattle City Council.
    They served in the Military Intelligence Service, translating enemy documents and radio transmissions, breaking codes, interrogating prisoners of war and interpreting during war crime trials. They also played a significant role in the American occupation of Japan and in rewriting Japan 's constitution. 
    Other nisei, members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and 100th Infantry Battalion, were highly decorated for fighting the Nazis in Europe .
    By comparison, the 6,000 men and women who served in the MIS are lesser known. Their military exploits were classified information and kept secret for nearly 30 years after the war.
    "It was a hush-hush organization," said Tak Matsui, 88, who helped found the Military Intelligence Service Northwest Association in 1980.
    Unlike members of the 442nd or 100th, the MIS soldiers did not have their own unit, another reason for their relative anonymity, said association President Arthur Yorozu, 78. He said the MIS was always on temporary duty, attached to U.S. and allied units.
    Toshio Taniguchi, 84, volunteered for the MIS, serving in Burma and India .
    "I'd listen to (enemy) telephone calls," he said. "As soon as I'd start listening, they'd cut it off."
    It was far more complex than that, according to James McNaughton, command historian for the Army, who is writing a book about the history of Japanese Americans in the MIS.
    "The MIS nisei used their knowledge of Japanese language and culture to provide Allied commanders with vital intelligence in every major battle and campaign" in the Pacific theater, he said. 
    "Their foremost legacy will remain the Allied victory over Japan , which was achieved in less time and at lower cost than would otherwise have been possible."
    The nisei's service came "while many of their own families languished behind barbed wire," McNaughton said. More than 110,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast were incarcerated in desolate camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor .
    Even the Japanese POWs saw the irony.
    "When we were in the Philippines , they couldn't quite comprehend that there were people of Japanese ancestry in the U.S. Army," Minato said.
    Their MIS duty erased doubts about nisei loyalty and service, said Hiro Nishimura, 85, another vet recognized Monday. He quoted Maj. General Charles Willoughby, intelligence chief for Gen. Douglas MacArthur: "The nisei saved countless allied lives and shortened the war by two years."
    That was when they were young men. The 14 silver-haired vets who showed up Monday are mostly in their 80s, with some leaning on canes. 
    The Military Intelligence Service Northwest Association once numbered about 200 men, most of them in the Seattle area. Now it's less than half of that locally, with many of them inactive members.
    In December, the association started the legal process of dissolving their non-profit organization. In July, members voted to divide their financial assets between the Nisei Veterans Committee, Nikkei Heritage Association and Densho, the Japanese American Legacy Project.
    Not all the MIS vets are nisei. Among those honored Monday was Olaf Kvamme, a native of Norway who grew up in Fife . ("He looks white, but he's half-Japanese," quipped one of the other vets.)
    Before reading a resolution honoring the vets, King County Councilman Dow Constantine summed up their contribution:
    "They are a tremendously important group that helped us in the winning of that war and the winning of that peace."

8/11/05 Lincoln (NE) Journal Star: New honor for Japanese-American hero,
by Joe Duggan 
    He remembers the day, but not if it was cloudy or clear.
    Doesn't matter no one could discern sky through all the antiaircraft shells blasting around them.
    "You couldn't believe how black it was with all the explosions," says Ben Kuroki, recalling the World War II bombing mission over Munster , Germany , that occurred nearly 62 years ago.
    The farm boy from Hershey , Neb. , saw it all from a B-24 gun turret on his 30th mission. But he never saw the shrapnel hit the Plexiglas dome above his head.    
    Suddenly he fell into darkness as thick as the sky around him.
    Then a deafening rush of air.
    The feel of an emergency air mask on his face.
    Finally, as the B-24 heads back to base, the radio operator offers to lightly injure Kuroki. It's a gesture of goodwill between brothers in arms.
    "He wanted to pinch my cheek and get blood running down my face so I'd get a Purple Heart," Kuroki recalls.
    Kuroki completed 28 additional bomber missions and in the process became the only Japanese-American who flew over Japan during the war. While he did earn the Distinguished Flying Cross, he never suffered so much as a scratch in combat, so he never got that Purple Heart.
    But this weekend in Lincoln , his legion of supporters hopes he will at last receive an even greater honor.
    On Saturday, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will bestow an honorary doctor of letters degree upon the 88-year-old UNL alumnus. On Friday night, his friends and family hope the military will present Kuroki with the Distinguished Service Medal, the third highest of the U.S. Army's decorations.
    John R. Doyle, a Lincoln attorney and highly decorated World War II veteran, said Tuesday there's no question Kuroki deserves the medal.
    "It's just phenomenal he went on that many missions. He was amazing," Doyle said. "And fighting prejudice all the way, that was remarkable."
    Sen. Ben Nelson has assisted Kuroki's supporters who petitioned the U.S. Army to upgrade the decoration. W. Don Nelson, the senator's Nebraska director, said Tuesday that after several years of providing documentation and filling out forms, the award has been approved by military authorities. They remain hopeful they will receive the official certificate and the medal in time for a presentation dinner at The Cornhusker hotel starting at 6 p.m. Friday.
    Reached at his home in Camarillo , Calif. , Kuroki said Tuesday he feels humbled by the efforts of so many Nebraskans to see that he receives the Distinguished Service Medal.
    "Most importantly, I feel that it gives credence to the word democracy', and it's Americanism at its very best. I feel that more so than any personal glory it gives to me."
    Kuroki's story of incredible courage is amplified by the racial discrimination he had to overcome. In an era when the government locked American citizens of Japanese descent in interment camps, Kuroki repeatedly had to persuade superior officers to allow him to serve in combat. Along the way, he manned bomber guns in 58 missions in Europe, North Africa and Japan .
    He was born in 1917 in Gothenburg, one of 10 children of Shosuke and Naka Kuroki, Japanese immigrants who later raised their family along with potatoes and beets near Hershey. He grew up knowing he was different from his white friends but never feeling the sting of bigotry.
    After the attack on Pearl Harbor , Kuroki's father urged him and his brother to volunteer for service. He felt racism for the first time when, despite passing a physical exam, recruiting officials in North Platte refused to enlist the Japanese-American brothers. They had to drive 150 miles east to find a recruiter in Grand Island who would sign up the brothers.
    From then on, he had to "fight like hell to fight for my own country." The technical sergeant proved himself at every opportunity, and through sheer persistence and the help of those he befriended, he succeeded in being assigned to a bomber crew.
    After flying 25 missions a number that bought a crew member a ticket home or a noncombat assignment Kuroki volunteered for five more.
    His missions included the harrowing raid on the Ploesti oil fields in Romania a critical fuel source for Hitler's war machine. Flying just over the treetops, the Americans took heavy losses. Of the nine planes in Kuroki's squadron, only two returned from the mission.
    After a brief time stateside, Kuroki requested to serve with a 12-man crew on a B-29 bomber, which was being used in the Pacific Theater. Because there were questions whether a Japanese-American soldier could fight against the nation of his ancestors, he was flatly denied. But after repeated requests and a review of Kuroki's stellar service record, Secretary of War Harry Stinson granted an exception.
    The atomic bombs fell after his 28th mission in the Pacific.
    After the war, the man called "Most Honored Son" by his crew mates returned home a hero.
    He enrolled at the University of Nebraska , where he obtained his journalism degree in three years. He published a weekly newspaper in York for a short time before moving to Michigan and finally to California , where he retired as the news editor of the paper in Ventura in 1984.
    But he never has been able to walk away from what he calls his 59th mission speaking against racial intolerance.
    "It's definitely improved, but there are still problems," Kuroki said. "And there probably will be as long as there are humans."
    This weekend, however, he will thank those who have fought for him.
    In addition to Sen. Nelson, the long list of people who have worked to see Kuroki honored by UNL and with the Distinguished Service Medal include Sen. John McCain, University of Nebraska Regent Charles Wilson and members of the 93rd Bomb Group Association. Carroll "Cal" Stewart of Lincoln, who served with Kuroki in England , and his son, Scott Stewart, helped with much of the documentation necessary for the award application.
    "I'm just the luckiest man on the planet," Kuroki said. "To have these Nebraska friends go to bat for me, I cherish that as much as I do receiving the medal."
    An incredible life
   1917 Ben Kuroki is born in Gothenberg, one of 10 children of Japanese immigrant parents. He grows up on his parents' potato farm and graduates from Hershey High School .
    1941 After a failed attempt, Kuroki enlists in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He's eventually assigned to the 93rd Bombardment Group.
   1942 to 1945 He serves as a gunner on B-24 and B-29 bombers on 58 missions in Europe, North Africa and Japan . He is awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak clusters and receives an honorable discharge.
   1946 Subject of the biography "Boy From Nebraska " by Ralph G. Martin.
   1950 He graduates from the University of Nebraska with a degree in journalism. His long career in newspapers takes him from Nebraska to Michigan to California . Along the way, he and his wife, Shige, have three children and four grandchildren.
   1984 Retires from newspapering.
   2000 Subject of PBS documentary "Conscience and the Constitution."
   2005 Approved for the Distinguished Service Medal and honorary doctor of letters degree from UNL. 

5/17/05 Hattiesburg (Miss) American: Veteran of famed Japanese-American regiment dies.
by Janet Braswell
    Herbert Sasaki first saw Camp Shelby as a 23-year-old Japanese-American soldier who left his family in an interment camp to fight with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. 
    While the regiment trained at Camp Shelby , he met Arnice Dyar, a girl from Purvis who worked in a laundry on base. They married in 1943 and, after serving in Europe during World War II, Sasaki settled in Hattiesburg . He died Friday at age 84. 
    "He always talked about how the Mississipp-ians responded to them," Arnice Sasaki said Monday. "He said they took them in as a family." 
    After serving in Europe with the 442nd and earning a Bronze Star, Sasaki made a living determining the sex of chickens. He served another four years in the Army during the Korean War and later became a broker for International Paper Co. 
    But it was the 442nd and its legacy as the most decorated unit of World War II that was his life's work, said his daughter, Beverly Yamamoto of Athens, Texas. 
    "It was the most important thing to him - that the 442nd was recognized for what they did," she said.
    Sasaki served 12 years on the board of directors of the Armed Forces Museum at Camp Shelby .
    "He was just an extremely interesting man, a real 'Southern' gentleman from California ," said Betty Drake, retired museum director. "He was just a remarkable person. It's a great loss." 
    Sasaki was active in the museum's evolution from a small classroom building to a former theater and, finally, to the current $4.5 million facility. 
    The 442nd Association, an organization of veterans of the World War II regiment, is a major financial backer of the museum and paid for air conditioning the old theater building. 
    "I remember him as a solid citizen of that board," said retired Gen. Mickey Walker of Jackson, chairman of the museum board and former chief of the National Guard Bureau. "He was just a strong member in everything we've attempted to do." 
    But Sasaki didn't push his ideas to the forefront.
    "Herb was a man of few words," Walker said. "He didn't have a lot to say. He was more of an action man than he was a talker." 
    He was presented the Mississippi Distinguished Civilian Service Medal for his work at the museum.
    The 442nd was made up of Japanese-American soldiers from California and Hawaii , some of whom had been interned in camps following the start of World War II. 
    The 442nd Association returned to Camp Shelby in 1995 for an anniversary reunion. During an interview then, Sasaki remembered the friction between the California soldiers and the natives of Hawaii . 
    "They didn't like to conform to anything," Sasaki said of the Hawaiians. "They liked to fight. They fought even us because we thought they were too obnoxious."
 

5/15/05 Twin Cities Pioneer Press: 'Secret war' echoes: In May 1975, the U.S. evacuated Hmong leaders from Laos as the Vietnam era climaxed. That exodus 30 years ago changed a people and a faraway city.
by Jim Ragsdale
    America 's secret war was finally ending in chaos, and in private.
    Tens of thousands of Hmong fighters and their families waited on a mountain airstrip in northern Laos . Gun-toting men, aged parents and mothers nursing babies, their belongings stuffed into bamboo boxes and overflowing suitcases, all sat on the airfield in the tropical heat.
    They scanned the clouds nestled against the hills, waiting for a miracle from above. They were hoping to be rescued by the United States government, which had surreptitiously armed and directed them since the early 1960s to hold back the communist tide in Laos .
    The airstrip was as secret as the war itself a remote U.S. base not found on any map, in a picturesque town named Long Cheng, where the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency was known as "Sky." Communist forces, bragging they would wipe out their Hmong enemies, had Long Cheng surrounded.
    It was May 14, 1975 30 years ago this weekend and Sky was falling.
    By day's end, the last U.S. airplane would lift off to safety in nearby Thailand , carrying a few hundred lucky refugees who had fought their way onboard. A helicopter carrying Gen. Vang Pao, the revered Hmong military leader, also departed, climaxing a five-day airlift of about 2,500 military officials, soldiers and their families.
    Most of those waiting on the airstrip would have to leave on foot.
    Neither the Hmong, nor an unlikely group of strangers 8,000 miles away, could have grasped the magnitude of the day. The distant and mysterious war that would forever change the Hmong, and St. Paul , was finally over.
    Back in St. Paul , the drama of Long Cheng was not news. The Pioneer Press carried stories about the confusing turmoil in the Lao capital of Vientiane , a short chopper ride away, and of U.S. efforts to recover the Mayaguez , a ship seized by Cambodia a few days earlier.
    A million anglers were expected for the upcoming fishing opener. The Legislature was finishing work on a $5 billion biennial budget. St. Paul was 95 percent white, and Asian immigrants were a novelty. No one knew much about the secret war in Laos . "Hmong" was not a word the city was familiar with.
    The airlift would eventually put an estimated 130,000 Hmong refugees in motion, filling up refugee centers in Thailand and resettling primarily in three immigrant-friendly states California , Wisconsin and Minnesota . No one could have imagined that 30 years later, the largest urban concentration of Hmong refugees and their Hmong-American children would be in the St. Paul area.
    No one leaving Long Cheng would have thought to say, "See you in St. Paul !"
The arduous trek to a new home was just beginning.
    "THEY WERE THE WAR IN LAOS"
    A generation of war was behind those crowds on the airstrip fighting Japanese invaders during World War II, helping the French against insurgents in the 1950s and joining in the U.S.-led "secret war'' against communists in the 1960s and '70s. Their role as guerrillas and "irregular'' forces meant few people outside of Southeast Asia knew who they were.
    "They were the war in Laos,'' said Harry Aderholt, a retired Air Force brigadier general who helped direct air support for Hmong fighters and was involved with the Long Cheng airlift. "There wouldn't have been a war in Laos if they hadn't been in it.''
    Americans know that U.S. soldiers fought a long, unpopular and unsuccessful war in Vietnam from 1961 to 1973. They have touched the names of U.S. dead etched on the memorial wall in Washington, D.C., and remember the famous photo of the chopper leaving a rooftop during the frenzied, ignominious evacuation of Saigon.
    Laos was the war next door, the "other theater,'' an off-the-books conflict involving thousands of indigenous fighters who were supplied and directed by the CIA. Its dead are not memorialized because, legally speaking, there was no war; there is no news photograph of the frenzied pullout, because Long Cheng was secret, and journalists were kept away.
    The Hmong people are an ethnic minority in Laos who settled the highlands in the northern half of the country. Their homeland was central to the war, and critical to America 's fight against communism.
    The coastal strip of North and South Vietnam was where the United States sent its own troops. Laos , around which the two Vietnams were wrapped, was "neutral" by treaty but well-traveled by troops, tanks and weaponry bound for Vietnam .
    The North Vietnamese were in Laos in force, treaties be damned, moving men and material along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and challenging Lao and Hmong fighters for control of the north. The United States decided it could not send in troops, but neither could it ignore Laos .
    Imagine Minnesota at war with Missouri and agreeing never to set foot in Iowa .
    "WE ARE ALLIES OF THE U.S."
    Enter the Hmong.
    The Hmong fight for you! Your government,'' says Choua Thao, a Hmong nurse throughout the war who now works with refugees in the Twin Cities. "Your husband, your son, can stay here, and not die. But my people, they're all dead over there.''
    Recognizing their reputation as fierce, independent warriors with a track record of fighting the communists, the United States and the Hmong formed a secret alliance, beginning in the late 1950s and coming to full fruition in the early 1960s.
    "They were our freedom fighters, if you will, in Laos,'' said Paul Hillmer, head of the history department at Concordia University in St. Paul and director of the university's Hmong Oral History Project.
    Yang Dao, a Hmong scholar who served in the Lao government at the end of the war and now lives in Brooklyn Park , said it was a mutually beneficial relationship in which the Hmong were fighting to protect their homeland from communist takeover.
    "We are not mercenaries of the CIA,'' he said. "But we are allies of the U.S.''
Other Lao groups joined in the war, but the Hmong, led by Gen. Vang Pao, were most closely allied with the U.S. effort, and stood to suffer the most from defeat. They were a guerrilla force that conducted hit-and-run strikes on convoys and garrisons, supported by American air power, tying up enemy armies that would otherwise be able to focus their attention on Vietnam .
    "They put the pressure on Laos to such an extent that the North Vietnamese had to withdraw or withhold troops from Vietnam ,'' Aderholt said. "Some 10 or 15 divisions were employed in Laos against the Hmong, who would have otherwise been down in the (Vietnamese) delta, killing Americans.''
    It became an off-and-on war of guerrilla forays against the relentless North Vietnamese Army, an air show of choppers, single-engine spotter planes, screaming jets and pummeling bombers; of low-level searches for downed U.S. pilots, where Hmong fighters often assisted; of terrifying nighttime bombardments, food drops from friendly American pilots and endless treks by Hmong refugees hoping to find safer ground.
    When Secretary of State Henry Kissinger negotiated a U.S. pullout from Southeast Asia in January 1973, Vang Pao's forces lost all hope of winning. By 1975, the outmanned Hmong were pushed down from their mountain homes and into U.S.-run outposts like Long Cheng.
    By most estimates, the toll had been great. Yang Dao estimates that 15,000 to 20,000 Hmong soldiers died in more than a decade of fighting, and that total Hmong deaths, including civilians, were 30,000 to 40,000. With a population estimated at 300,000 to 400,000 at the time, that would mean one of every 10 Hmong was killed during the war.
    To put that number in context, consider that some 58,000 Americans were killed or listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War. Had the United States suffered casualties at the same rate as the Hmong, the American death toll would have exceeded 20 million.
    And in those last days, it seemed likely the Hmong death toll would continue to mount. Tanks of the communist Pathet Lao waited at the entrance to the Long Cheng valley.
    "YOU COULD FEEL THE ABANDONMENT"
    On April 17, 1975, Cambodia fell to the communist Khmer Rouge and the murderous Pol Pot. Saigon fell the the North Vietnamese on April 30.
    "In Laos , the Politburo of the Communist Party changed the political tactics,'' said Yang Dao, the Hmong scholar who was a member of the coalition government at the time. "They said, 'It's time for us to take over.'''
    They got rid of non-communists in the government and moved quickly, Yang Dao said. "They took control all over the country, except Long Cheng."
    Long Cheng, once the bustling frontier town of swaggering pilots, discrete CIA men, lifelong Hmong fighters and all manner of airborne weaponry, was the last holdout. Panic traveled through the air with the rumor that Vang Pao would be airlifted out.
    The normal operations of the town ceased while all eyes scanned the skies.
Lee Pao Xiong was there in the final days, a young boy whose father was a Hmong artillery officer determined to push his family through the mobs and onto a U.S. transport.
    "It was like a deserted town," said Lee Pao Xiong, now director of the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University . "You could feel the tension. You could feel the abandonment."
    There was no formal announcement of an airlift.
    "You have no idea whether it's going to happen or not,'' Lee Pao Xiong said. "You just hear this rumor there may be an airlift over there, so you just blindly go over there by yourself, just be ready.''
    "ONE DAY, WE'LL SEE YOU"
    Hmong who were elsewhere in Laos remember the day, because once their leaders' planes cleared the jagged peaks protecting the base, their hopes, and their country, were gone.
    Long Yang, a radioman and spy for the Hmong forces, gathered extended family members around a table in his house to help him decide whether to join the exodus.
    "They said, 'We don't want to see you die.' And the other thing, 'We're going to miss you,'" recalled Long Yang, who now lives in Cottage Grove . "I say, 'Either way, you're going to miss me which way you want?'
    "They told me, 'OK, if you die, we will never see you. But if you leave, you move, and you're alive, one day, we'll see you.'"
    Plane space was supposed to go primarily to military leaders and their families those believed to be most at risk once Laos fell. But there were too many people on the runways to enforce that rule.
    An estimated 2,500 would crowd onto the planes. According to Gayle L. Morrison, whose oral history, "Sky Is Falling,'' is the best description of the airlift, there may have been as many as 50,000 people moving in and out of the base during the airlift. Most would have to find their own way out of Laos .
    For five days, from May 10 until May 14, U.S. planes made the trip from Long Cheng across the Mekong River to U.S. bases in Thailand , according to Morrison. Once Vang Pao agreed to leave, the flights ended.
    Pilots of camouflage-colored C-130s and World War II-era C-46s were surrounded before they taxied to a halt. Crowds pushed their way into the tail ramps while the planes were still moving. Families pushed children ahead and aged parents fell in the crush. Guns were everywhere. Baggage "kickers" shut the ramps against the masses, overloaded planes lumbered to clear the rocky monolith at the end of the runway, and those left behind scanned the skies for the next plane.
    Lee Pao Xiong still is angry that the airlift was focused on top military leaders.
    "Their leaders left them, abandoned them, and they were there to fend for themselves,'' Lee Pao Xiong said of those left behind.
    But Morrison believes the airlift was a success and a turning point in Hmong history a foot in the door for refugees who would follow their leaders to Thailand and to the United States . The airlift established Thailand as a refugee center and avoided a final spasm of violence. A porous border allowed thousands to follow immediately after the airlift.
    "I STILL RUN INTO PEOPLE WHO ARE RESENTFUL"
    Within two days, the communist Pathet Lao took over Long Cheng without a fight. They found detailed military records that would help track down their Hmong enemies. Most of those remaining on the runway had to flee for their lives.
    Ahead of the refugees across the ridges above Long Cheng, across the broad, muddy Mekong separating Laos from Thailand , across the Pacific to the well-meaning church congregations, resettlement programs, public housing complexes and English-language night schools in the nation of their patron lay the future.
    Part of that future was Mee Moua, child of a medic in northern Laos , who would find her way across the Mekong to the refugee camps in Thailand , to St. Paul , to the University of Minnesota law school and a seat in the Minnesota Senate the first Hmong refugee elected to a state legislature.
    Today, Moua says, Minnesotans are still amazed to learn the details of the Hmong role in the war, and the direct link between that role and their presence in Minnesota .
    "I still run into people who are resentful their perception is that the Hmong came here illegally,'' she said.
    She said she believes the historic secrecy of the war in Laos , and of the Hmong role, makes it harder to be accepted as U.S. veterans. She sees one of her roles as telling the odd, amazing, heroic and terrifying stories of her parents' generation.
    Those stories, with bursts of nervous laughter replacing gunfire, remind listeners that the United States chose the Hmong not the other way around. Today, we would do well to remember the debt owed the Hmong people, and how a distant war changed us forever.

2/25/05 Pasadena Star News: Marine honored with tree planting,
By Jason Kosareff , Staff Writer
    Rosemead -- Officials, family and friends gathered Friday at Bitely Elementary School to plant a tree in honor of a young Marine killed in Iraq during the attack on Fallujah.
    Lance Cpl. Victor Lu, 22, of Lincoln Heights , was praised as a courageous fighter and beloved relative by his family and as a role model by state and local officials who came to pay respects.
    Lu was killed by enemy fire Nov. 13. He was buried Nov. 26 at the Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood. He is survived by his parents, four sisters and a brother.
    About 100 community members and Garvey School District employees watched as family and local dignitaries planted a roughly 8-foot-tall evergreen sapling. Lu's mother, Nham Nu, cried as she looked on.
    "The loss of Victor has not been easy,' said Lu's sister, Jessica Lu, who works for Garvey School District . "Victor was a loving son, brother and friend.'
    Lu was a stocky guy with a shaved head and an easy smile. Three poster boards were placed near the newly planted tree, each showing dozens of photographs of Lu enjoying time with family and friends. A black marble plaque marked the tree as dedicated to Lu.
    Lu's father, Xuong Lu, of Lincoln Heights , said his son wanted to be a fighter like his father. Xuong Lu fought for the South Vietnamese army during that country's civil war.
    "We all have an ache in our heart today,' said Sen. Gloria Romero, D-East Los Angeles.
    Lu was the first Asian American from Southern California to die in the war, Romero said.
    Garvey board president Bob Breusch called Lu "an example of the best this country has to offer.'
    Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D- Monterey Park, praised Lu for his sacrifice.
"He deserves our recognition,' she said.
    "So strong was his belief in the American dream that he was willing to join the armed forces to protect that dream,' said Garvey board member Henry Lo.

2/10/05 The Sunfire Group  
Retired Col. Young O. Kim Receives French Legion of Honor Award from Government of France
    Los Angeles (February 8, 2005) - The Consul General of France Los Angeles presented the highly decorated World War II and Korean War veteran Colonel Young O. Kim (Ret.) with the National Order of The Legion of Honor award ("Lgion d'honneur") from the government of France on Friday, February 4.

9/17/04 Associated Press: Sen. Inouye, Grandfather-in-waiting
By B.J. Reyes
    Honolulu - In his office, significant honors over eight decades - college diplomas, civic honors, the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star and other military awards for valor - overshadow the tiny scrap of yellowed paper set off to the side.
    "This I'm proudest about, above all else," Sen. Daniel Inouye says, pointing out the "junior police officer" certificate he received in elementary school.
    His humor is part of the style that has helped the seven-term Democrat and third most senior senator become arguably the most powerful politician Hawai'i has ever seen.
    On Sept. 7, the decorated World War II veteran known to constituents simply as "Dan" did not take time off to celebrate his milestone 80th birthday.
    "I'll go to my office because we resume our session on that day - it's a Tuesday," he says.
    Inouye's work has kept him busy since he was elected as the first U.S. House member from the new state of Hawai'i in 1959. He was elected to a full term in 1960 before winning his Senate seat in 1962.
    All of this after his distinguished service in World War II, when he served with the Army's storied, "go for broke" 442nd Regimental Combat Team made up almost entirely of Japanese Americans. The experience cost him his right arm, which was shredded by a German rifle grenade as he led an attack in Italy that killed 25 Germans and captured eight others.
    It also earned him the Medal of Honor, further cementing his popularity among Hawai'i residents who first voted him into the Territorial Legislature in 1954.
    When he's not campaigning for his eighth term this year or working, he's beckoned by an estimated 50 dinner or reception invitations a day, especially to a man who has "never had a vacation in [his] life."
    "But this may surprise you," he says. "I have dinner with my wife - and we've been married for 55 years now - about six nights a week."
    Inouye is quick to thank his wife, Maggie, for her patience and understanding through his five decades in public office.
    "I know what she has been through. It's not an easy life," he says.
That's part of the reason weekends at home in Maryland are more important to him than going on a real vacation. Whether it's just spending time with his wife or their son, Daniel Jr., 40, who drops by once or twice a week, that's just fine with Inouye.
    But he hasn't let up in his fight for the Akaka bill or funding scholarships on behalf of Native Hawaiians, a promise he made to his mother, Kame, who died 13 years ago.
    Orphaned at age 4 - Kame's mother died during childbirth, and her father died working on a plantation near Lahaina - young Kame was taken in by a Native Hawaiian couple.
    "She always looked back [at it] as the happiest moments in her life, and she always made me promise that I would do whatever possible to show her gratitude to them. She says, 'I can't do it, but you can do it.'"
    And before it's all over, he hopes to add the one title that has eluded him, although it's not one that won't be his call. That will be up to his son, who just got married in May.
    "I'm looking forward," he says with a broad smile, "to when I may have a new title to my name: grandfather."

6/23/04 Sacramento Bee: "Iraq death hits Willows: Hmong family mourns its loss,"
    Chou Vue's father and brother were killed in Laos as they fought for the U.S. government during the Vietnam War.
    On Friday, he lost his son.
    Spc. Thai Vue died Friday in Baghdad when a mortar round hit a group of vehicles where he was working. The 22-year-old mechanic served with the U.S. Army's 127th Military Police Company, 709th Military Police Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade. 
    Hmong leaders in Sacramento say they believe he is the first Hmong American to die in the Iraq war. There appear to be no Hmong names listed in a Defense Department compilation of American casualties. 
    "Certainly everybody's going to be saddened by this," said Terry Taylor-Vodden, mayor of Willows, population 6,200, where Vue's family lives. The City Council planned to note his death Tuesday, apparently the first fatality of the war from Glenn County , Taylor-Vodden said. 
    Chou Vue, 50, sat in his house packed with grieving relatives Tuesday and recalled how, after his family members were shot, he picked up a gun at age 12 and fought until those in his village fled to Thai refugee camps. There, Thai was born. 
    Grateful for being able to immigrate in 1984, Vue wanted his sons to serve in the U.S. military.
    "I like to help the American government," he said.
    His eldest son, Thor, 27, served three years in the Navy. Then Thai enlisted in the Army.
    Alan, 19, the third of five brothers, is supposed to be next.
    Chou Vue prefers that he stay in college for now, but still wants him to serve.
"It's an honor to go fight for America ," Vue said through a translator, a relative whose father also fought and was wounded in Laos .
    Vue is upset, though, that the government isn't providing enough money to have a traditional three-day Hmong funeral. Family members are already finding it difficult to wait for the body to arrive, because Hmong funerals are usually conducted immediately.
    At the Willows residence, relatives have been eating a traditional pork stew, playing cards late into the night, and trying to fit in the living room to sleep. Little children ran through the house on Tuesday, fighting and playing with candy, as Thai Vue's grandmother, Chue Lee, looked on stoically.
    She had not wanted her son, Chou Vue, to fight in Laos , just as Thai Vue's mother opposed his enlistment.
    Since her son died, Chia Thao keeps close a framed photograph of him in uniform. She sleeps with it, she said.
    Thai Vue's high school grades were bad. He got in trouble for ditching class and carving on his desk, said his girlfriend Nancy Lee, 21.
    He told Lee he wanted to join the military to turn his life around, so he could marry her and raise a family. He enlisted after graduation.
    On Friday, Thai Vue called Lee from Iraq during his lunch break. It was 1:30 a.m. here and Lee was up studying for her organic chemistry final at the University of the Pacific in Stockton .
    "I told him that he should be careful over there, and he should always watch his back," Lee said, a tear streaming down from each eye.
    She heard of his death that night.
    The last time she saw him was in April, just before he shipped off to Iraq . He was crying.
    "He said he was scared this might be the last time, he might not be able to come back to me," she said.
    Thai Vue, who loved SpongeBob SquarePants and pro wrestling, was lonely in the military, so far away from his family, his brothers said.
    But he had wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father and brother. The brothers had been raised on military videos.
    "There's a sense of duty," said Thor Vue, now studying at the University of California , Berkeley , Boalt Hall School of Law.
    The parents had urged Alan Vue to continue his education at Butte College , but he wanted to enlist last winter.
    His recruiter put on the pressure, he said.
    But his brother Thai, on a visit, convinced him not to.
    "Why don't you just go to school," Thai told him.
    "I took his advice."
    Now, though, he's itching to go, if only because it will make him feel closer to Thai. A fresh, glistening tatoo on his shoulder reads "In Loving Memory of Thai Vue."
    "If I had the chance right now to go, I would go in a heartbeat," he said. "But I have to think of my parents, too."