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Son of WWII nisei receives promotion at Pentagon

COURTESY PHOTO
Courtesy photo Col. Paul Nakasone, center, with his parents Mary and Edwin Nakasone.

The Pentagon’s latest announcement of the Army’s general officer promotions includes the son of a World War II nisei Military Intelligence Service soldier from Hawaii.

Army Brig. Paul M. Nakasone, currently serving deputy chief of staff, for intelligence at International Security Assistance Force Joint Command in Afghanistan, will become director of Army Cyber Operations Integration Center at Second Army/U.S. Army Cyber Command at Fort Belvoir, Va.

Nakasone, 49, was born in St. Paul, Minn., and attended St. John’s University in Minneapolis and was commissioned through the Army ROTC program in 1986.

His father, Edwin Nakasone, was born in Wahiawa and graduated from Leilehua High School in 1945. He was drafted into the Army and sent to Fort Snelling, Minn., for Japanese language training. The elder Nakasone was in the last class at Snelling before it was closed and the training was moved to Monterey, Calif., in 1946. He was stationed with the occupational forces in Japan from 1947 to 1948 as a linguist and interpreter with the 168th Language Detachment of the 1st Cavalry Division.

The elder Nakasone later attended the University of Hawaii and was commissioned through its ROTC program and served in the Army Reserve until he retired as a colonel in 1987. In his civilian life, Nakasone taught history and political science on the mainland.

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