442nd memorial tomorrow at Punchbowl

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

Members of the Army's 442nd Regimental Combat Team will commemorate the 61st anniversary of the famed unit with a memorial tomorrow at the National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, followed by a private luncheon banquet on Sunday in Waikiki.

Last year, for its 60th anniversary, more than 800 veterans from around the country, along with members of their families, attended a weeklong reunion honoring the 442nd in Honolulu.

"This one will be much smaller," said, Ed Ichiyama, co-chairman of last year's reunion. "It is pretty much local."

Ichiyama said the 442nd Veterans Club in Hawai'i has 26 chapters, but no one knows how many veterans from the combat team live in the state because some are not active in the organization.

Formed in 1943 as a segregated Army unit, the 422nd was comprised of volunteer Japanese Americans from Hawai'i and the Mainland as a way to prove their loyalty after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

The unit saw combat for the first time on June 26, 1944 in Italy. By the end of the war on May 7 of 1945, the 442nd had become one of the most decimated units in U.S. military history. More than 9,400 Purple Hearts were given to the approximately 10,000 men who served in the unit.

Following World War II, the 422nd was recognized as the most decorated unit in U.S. history for its period of service. Those decorations include 9,486 Purple Hearts, 587 Silver Stars, 33 Distinguished Service Awards and 21 Medals of Honor.

The hourlong memorial tomorrow begins at 9 a.m. and is open to the public.

Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038 or whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com