PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — The households of 5 Hawaii males who served in a unit of Japanese-language linguists throughout World Struggle II acquired posthumous Purple Coronary heart medals on behalf of their family members on Friday, almost eight many years after the troopers died in a airplane crash within the closing days of the battle.
“I don’t have phrases. I’m simply overwhelmed,” Wilfred Ikemoto stated as he choked up whereas talking of the belated honor given to his older brother Haruyuki.
The older Ikemoto was amongst 31 males killed when their C-46 transport airplane hit a cliff whereas trying to land in Okinawa, Japan, on Aug. 13, 1945.
“I’m simply pleased that he received acknowledged,” Ikemoto stated.
Army information point out solely two of the 31 ever acquired Purple Coronary heart medals, which the army awards to these wounded or killed throughout motion towards an enemy.
Researchers in Hawaii and Minnesota lately found the omission, main the Army to conform to problem medals to households of the 29 males who had been by no means acknowledged. Researchers situated households of the 5 from Hawaii, and now the Army is asking members of the family of the opposite 24 males to contact them so their family members can lastly obtain recognition.
The older Ikemoto was the fourth of 10 kids and the primary in his household to attend faculty when he enrolled on the College of Hawaii. He was a photographer and developed movie in a makeshift darkroom in a bed room at house.
“I keep in mind him as most likely the neatest and most proficient in our household,” stated Wilfred Ikemoto, who was 10 years previous when his brother died.
On board the airplane had been 12 paratroopers with the eleventh Airborne Division, 5 troopers in a Counter-intelligence Detachment assigned to the paratroopers, 10 Japanese American linguists within the Army Intelligence Service and 4 crew members.
That they had all flown up from the Philippines to spearhead the occupation of Japan after Tokyo’s give up, stated Daniel Matthews, who regarded into the ill-fated flight whereas researching his father’s postwar service within the eleventh Airborne.
Matthews attributed the Army’s failure to acknowledge all 31 troopers with medals to administrative oversight within the waning hours of the battle. The U.S. had been getting ready to invade Japan’s essential islands, however it formulated various plans after receiving indications Japan was on the point of give up. Complicating issues additional, there have been 4 completely different models on the airplane.
Wilfred Motokane Jr. stated he had blended emotions after he accepted his father’s medal.
“I’m very pleased that we’re lastly recognizing some individuals,” he stated. “I believe it took a very long time for it to occur. That’s the one half that I don’t really feel that good about, if you’ll.”
The Hawaii 5 had been all a part of the Army Intelligence Service or MIS, a U.S. Army unit made up of principally Japanese People who interrogated prisoners, translated intercepted messages and traveled behind enemy traces to collect intelligence.
They 5 had been inducted in January 1944 after the MIS, determined to get extra recruits, despatched a workforce to Hawaii to search out extra linguists, historian Mark Matsunaga stated.
Altogether some 6,000 served with the Army Intelligence Service. However a lot of their work has remained comparatively unknown as a result of it was categorized till the Nineteen Seventies.
In the course of the U.S. occupation of Japan, they served essential roles as liaisons between American and Japanese officers and overseeing regional governments.
Retired Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, who lately stepped down as head of U.S. Cyber Command and the Nationwide Safety Company, introduced the medals to the households throughout the ceremony on the banks of Pearl Harbor. Nakasone’s Hawaii-born father served within the MIS after the battle, giving him a private connection to the occasion.
“What these Army Intelligence Service troopers delivered to the occupation of Japan was an understanding of tradition that might take what was the vanquished to work with the victor,” Nakasone stated. “I’m very happy with all of the MIS troopers not solely throughout fight, but in addition throughout the occupation.”
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