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Nisei Veterans Legacy is scheduled to host the 18th annual Nisei Soldiers Memorial Service at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific on Sunday.
The service will continue the tradition of celebrating the spirit of the nisei soldiers who served in World War II with a presentation of colors, wreath-draping, songs and a rifle salute, according to a news release.
“Our fathers, grandfathers, grand-uncles and other nisei were willing to sacrifice their lives and give their all to show their loyalty to the United States even in the face of prejudice and injustice,” said Nisei Soldiers Memorial Service Chair Lynn Heirakuji. “We honor the nisei soldiers and the values they passed on to us.”
Heirakuji, whose father was a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, is also former president of the Nisei Veterans Legacy.
The event, first held in 2006, honors nisei veterans who served in the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Military Intelligence Service and 1399 Engineer Construction Battalion. It is scheduled to be held on the date closest to the anniversary that the first American soldier of Japanese ancestry was killed in combat, according to the news release.
Minda Yamaga, board president of the Japanese American Citizens League’s Honolulu chapter, will be the event’s keynote speaker. Yamaga’s mother was born in the Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, where Japanese Americans were incarcerated after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
The ceremony will also include participation from the 11th Army Band, student presenters and Junior ROTC cadets.
The service is free to attend and will begin at 9:30 a.m. A livestream of the service will also be viewable that day on ‘Olelo, channel 53.
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Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
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