Family of soldiers from Hawaii who died near end of WWII receive overdue honors
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Retired Maj. Lawrence Enomoto emceed the medals event.
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Family members of the soldiers stood during Friday's ceremony.
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Purple Heart medals are displayed with photos of the nisei soldiers who died in a plane crash on Okinawa.
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Ed Kashiwamura, left, Wilfred Ikemoto, David Fujii, Wilfred Masao Motokane Jr. and James Sogi are family members who accepted Purple Hearts of several Hawaii soldiers who died in the 1945 crash of a transport plane on Okinawa.
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The U.S. Army on Friday gave five Hawaii families long-overdue recognition for their relatives who died in the last days of World War II.
On Aug. 13, 1945, a plane carrying troops from the Philippines to Okinawa crashed into a cliff as it tried to land amid poor visibility. The crash killed everyone on board: the plane's four-man aircrew, 12 paratroopers of the 11th Airborne Division, a five-man counterintelligence team and 10 Japanese American nisei linguists.
Five of the linguists — Joseph Kuwada, Haruyuki Ikemoto, Kazuyoshi Inouye, Wilfred Motokane and Masaru Sogi — hailed from Hawaii. But just 40 hours after the crash, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender. The end of the war overshadowed the crash and their deaths.
Nearly eight decades later, researchers in Minnesota and Hawaii uncovered records that some of those killed in the flight were listed as killed in action while others were listed as noncombat. Only two received posthumous Purple Hearts.
"That didn't seem right," said Daniel Matthews, a Minnesota military historian who looked through the records along with Mark Matsunaga, a retired Honolulu journalist-turned-historian. The two contacted the Army, which launched a review that concluded each of the men should have received Purple Hearts.
"Awarding Purple Hearts demonstrates respect for those who have suffered injuries or lost their lives in service to our country and also ensures that their sacrifices are remembered and honored by future generations," said retired Army Gen. Paul Nakasone during a ceremony held at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial.
Nakasone is himself the son of a nisei veteran from Hawaii who served as a linguist.
The nisei from Hawaii and the mainland who fought in Europe against the Nazis as members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team were celebrated after the war in films and books. But stories of the nisei linguists who served in the Pacific and Asia as members of the Military Intelligence Service were much less known — much of what they did remained top secret for years after the war.
The linguists were key to the Allied victory over Japan. They listened in on Japanese radio communications, translated captured documents and helped interrogate prisoners, often while on the front lines dodging enemy fire. After the war they played a key role in the U.S. occupation of Japan.
Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Chester Nimitz would later famously say that "before World War II, I entertained some doubt as to the loyalty of American citizens of Japanese ancestry in the event of war with Japan. From my observations during World War II, I no longer have that doubt."
"Despite the prevailing suspicions and racial prejudices of that era, the sacrifices of those like Kuwada, Ikemoto, Inouye, Motokane, Sogi and so many others helped pave the way to greater understanding and integration of Japanese Americans into American society postwar," Nakasone said. "Without the services and sacrifices of those nisei, the doors that were opened up more broadly for Japanese Americans would have been limited."
On the day of the crash, the pilots were nearing their destination of Naha, Okinawa, at about 9 p.m. when an air raid alert went out. Matthews said ships had been under kamikaze attack, so ships near the harbor put out smoke screens and the airfield on the island shut its lights off. The plane made two attempts to land before crashing into the cliff.
"I had been doing my own research and writing for several years," Matthews said. "I didn't really know much about the airplane; I want to know the serial number. So I tried to call some people that I thought might know, and nobody knew."
He eventually connected with Matsunaga, who is a board member of the Military Intelligence Service Veterans Club of Hawaii, and learned that he too had been trying to find answers about the crash. They dug through Air Force records, but there was no official accident report. Eventually, they learned through looking at Navy records that naval personnel were the first ones to find the crashed plane.
When they learned of the award discrepancy, they sent their findings to the Army and enlisted the help of U.S. Rep. Ed Case, who threw his support behind their request to review the records. The military has over the years been reviewing the records of troops from minority backgrounds who may have had awards withheld or been given lesser awards due to the bigotry of senior military officials during past wars. But the researchers say in this case it doesn't seem that was a factor.
"This was not a racial issue," Matsunaga said. "Most of the men killed in the crash were Caucasian. The Purple Hearts for the Hawaii men are being presented first because we were already in contact with the families, and the Army processed them first."
Matthews managed to also locate the niece of Capt. John Marion, leader of the counterintelligence team on the plane, and another ceremony is planned later this year in his home state of South Carolina.
Wilfred Motokane Jr. was just 7 years old when his father died in the crash. He said he was happy to finally see his father recognized, but added, "There's a little bit of that feeling of 'What took you guys so long?'"
Before the war his father and Kuwada had worked together at a post office in Honolulu. As postal workers they were exempt from the draft because mail delivery remained a critical job during the war, but they volunteered for duty.
"They were together at the post office, they were together through training, they were together through part of the Pacific War and they were together on the plane going down, unfortunately," Motokane said. "I think it says a lot about the people here. They didn't have to go, (but) they volunteered to go because they felt obligated that they should do something."
