Salute to Service
By GWEN MURANAKA
RAFU ENGLISH EDITOR IN CHIEF
Saturday, May 31, 2008

Japanese Americans pause to pay tribute to veterans at services held during the Memorial Day weekend.

Photos by MARIO G. REYES/Rafu Shimpo
Ken Hayashi, president of the Japanese American Vietnam Veterans Memorial Committee, delivers the keynote address during Memorial Day services held at Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights on Monday.

Frank Tanaka, commander of the San Fernando Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4140, places a flower at the Japanese American National War Memorial Court during the All Wars Memorial Service on Saturday at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Little Tokyo.

Veterans salute the American flag during the retiring of the colors at the conclusion of the Memorial Day services at Evergreen Cemetery on Monday.

Vince Okamoto.

Their numbers may be dwindling, but Japanese American veterans and their families joined together over the Memorial Day weekend to remember their fallen brothers in arms. At Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights and the Japanese American National War Memorial Court, the sacrifice of Japanese American soldiers was honored with bugle calls and trib­utes of flowers.

At Evergreen, the graves of Nisei veterans were deco­rated with flowers and American flags. The markers of Medal of Honor recipients Joe Hayashi, Kiyoshi Muranaga, Sadao Munemori, and Ted T. Tanouye were decorated with wreaths in red, white and blue.

Standing at the podium in front of the monument to Munemori, who died saving his fellow soldiers in April 1945, Ken Hayashi, a veteran of the Vietnam War, noted that the crowds were getting smaller with each passing year. He encouraged the gathering of nearly 200 to each bring someone who has never been to next year’s service.

“Simply say to a friend or family member, please join me for the Memorial Day services at Evergreen. Could you say no to your best friend if he said that to you? If we continue this every year, simple math will get us to overflowing crowds again in five years,” said Hayashi.

He also suggested placing flowers on unattended gravesites and thanking the men and women who are now in the armed services.

“They deserve our thanks now and they deserve our appreciation now. They are the veterans of tomorrow, they will lead the Memorial Day services of to­morrow,” said Hayashi.

Gold Star mother Mary Jane Mayemura and Bob Hayamizu, chairman of the Nisei Veterans Coordinating Council, led a procession of floral tributes placed at the Munemori memorial.

On Saturday, Mayemura was joined by Gold Star mothers Yoko Nakamura and Emiko Sonoda, whose sons Paul Nakamura and Mike Shinoda died in the Iraq War, at a tribute at the War Memorial Court in Little Tokyo. The court lists the names of more than 1,200 Japanese Americans who have died in combat since the sinking of the USS Maine in 1898 up to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Superior Court Judge Vince Okamoto, a member of the Army Ranger Hall of Fame, lauded the men whose names appear on the memorial wall and said the tributes aren’t meant to glorify combat.

“No one hates war more than the veterans who have to fight. And the memorials aren’t built to glorify war, just the opposite. They serve as a cautionary signal reminding us of the terrible price we pay when we send our young people to fight,” said Okamoto. “In that sense they are thank you cards etched in stone forever expressing our gratitude and respect to those who sacrifice their lives defending our country. They tell the parents of those who were killed that we remember and honor their sons and share the pain of their loss.”

Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura, Medal of Honor recipient from the Korean War, drove from his home in Gallup, N.M., to attend both services.

“It makes you think about the people who lost their lives, some of my buddies who will never be here again,” said Miyamura. “I’m so happy that they are remembered and I just hope that it continues this way. I would like to see more young people because they are the ones we want to leave the impression with so they will try not to go to war unless they really have to. And I hope they don’t have to go to war.”