John Tsukano was a member of a swim team on Maui in the late 1930s — the 3YSC, or 3-Year Swimming Club — that captured a national title and had its sights on making the U.S. team and the 1940 Olympic Games.

The games were canceled and Tsukano headed in a different direction: off to war.

Tsukano, part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and a replacement soldier for the 100th Battalion after it suffered serious casualties, received a Purple Heart in Europe, and for the rest of his life was an ambassador for the famed unit and its Nisei soldiers.

The "unofficial" historian for the 100th and 442nd died July 20 at age 80.

In 1985, Tsukano published "Bridge of Love," his book about the units' legacy.

"That was his avocation all his life. He loved to write," said his wife, Judy.

In a 1999 Advertiser story, Tsukano's son, Tod, remembered his father flying around the United States for 20 years in search of documents for the book.

"He did a tremendous amount of research, going through all the archives for material. His feeling was there were so many guys who wouldn't say anything about what they did in the war, and what they did is going unrecognized," Tod Tsukano said at the time.

John Tsukano made regular trips to Italy and France with fellow Nisei veterans; was active in a sister-city program with Biffontaine, France; contributed articles to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin; and wrote about the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.

The family said that in 1992, U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, a fellow 442nd veteran, wrote: "John Tsukano has been an effective and compassionate voice of the Nisei in Hawai'i, in the United States and abroad. Beginning with his service to our nation during World War II, and continuing on as the 100th and 442nd veterans returned home, John persevered tirelessly, helping to shape Hawai'i's destiny."

Tsukano, who grew up in Mill Camp in Pu'unene, Maui, moved from Kane'ohe with his wife about six years ago to the Washington, D.C., area. He lived at the Armed Forces Retirement Home.

Burial will be in Honolulu at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. A memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m. at Nuuanu Mortuary.