When the United States entered World War II with the attack on Pearl Harbor, about 29,000 people of Chinese ancestry were living in Hawaii, and an additional 78,000 were on the mainland, according to the U.S. Army’s Center of Military History.

A bill passed by the U.S. House and Senate now awaiting the president’s signature would recognize the contributions of more than 18,000 Chinese-American World War II veterans with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor Congress can bestow.

“Like other minority service members, (Chinese-American) contributions were not appropriately recognized during or immediately after World War II,” U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, who was among those to introduce the legislation, said in a news release Wednesday.

The Congressional Gold Medal “goes a long way to right that wrong and express our gratitude for Chinese-American veterans’ distinguished serv­ice,” Hawaii’s Hirono said.

Among the posthumous recipients would be Honolulu-born Army Capt. Francis B. Wai, who received the Medal of Honor for leading and rallying fellow soldiers against waiting Japanese forces in the invasion of Leyte in the Philippines.

The son of a Chinese father and Hawaiian-Caucasian mother, Wai, a Punahou School graduate, served with the 24th Division out of Schofield Barracks.

On Oct. 20, 1944, he landed at Red Beach in the face of withering Japanese machine gun fire from a palm grove surrounded by rice paddies.

“Finding the first four waves of American soldiers leaderless, disorganized and pinned down on the open beach, he immediately assumed command,” Wai’s citation reads. “Issuing clear and concise orders, and disregarding heavy enemy machine gun and rifle fire, he began to move inland through the rice paddies without cover.”

The men on the beach followed, taking enemy position after position. Wai was eventually cut down.

He initially received a Distinguished Service Cross, but the award was upgraded to a Medal of Honor in 2000 along with those of 21 other Asian-Pacific Americans who were mostly of Japanese descent.

According to Veterans Affairs, Wai, buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, is the only Chinese-American to receive the Medal of Honor from World War II.

About a quarter of all Chinese-American soldiers served with the Army Air Forces, and in 1943 support units were formed for the China-Burma-India theater, according to the Army. Other Chinese-Americans trained as pilots and air crewmen and fought in Europe and the Pacific, but most were assigned to ground units.

U.S. Rep. Judy Chu of California said, “Despite facing racial discrimination at home, including the hateful Chinese Exclusion (Acts) that remained in place until 1943, these Chinese-Americans showed true patriotism and service to our country.”

Prompted by anti-Chinese sentiment aimed at immigrant laborers, Congress passed the exclusion act in 1882, and a series of anti- immigration laws followed.

An estimated 40 percent of Chinese-American soldiers in World War II were not native-born citizens, the Army said. When Congress repealed the Chinese Exclusion Acts in 1943, many used their military service to become naturalized citizens.