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DENNIS ODA / JAN. 7
Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the Pacific Fleet, will speak at events honoring the anniversaries of the 100th Battalion and the Korean War.
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Navy Adm. Harry Harris, Pacific Fleet commander, will deliver keynote speeches at two separate ceremonies, one honoring the 72nd anniversary of the 100th Battalion and the other the 64th anniversary of the Korean War.
Harris’ first speech will be at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Dole Cannery Ballroom before veterans of the 100th Battalion. Many of the battalion’s Japanese-American draftees were inducted into the Army before the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.
The nisei, or second-generation Japanese-Americans, served in a segregated unit that became known as the "Purple Heart Battalion" because they suffered the highest casualty rate in the history of the Army. On June 26, 1944, the 100th was assigned to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and fought together until the surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945.
Among the oldest veterans attending Sunday’s banquet will be Takashi "Kit" Kitaoka, who is 102, and who after the war became the first Maui-born judge to preside over state cases, from 1962 to 1968.
On Wednesday, Harris will be the keynote speaker at 10 a.m. at the 64th Korean War Commemoration ceremony at the National Cemetery of the Pacific. Gov. Neil Abercrombie also will deliver remarks.