This year’s Nisei Veterans Legacy Seventeenth Annual Nisei Soldiers Memorial Service on Sunday will be largely youth-focused, with youth guest speakers and a large JROTC presence as the nisei legacy is passed on to younger generations.

“We know that the legacy of the nisei soldiers can only be carried forth if the younger people embrace the story,” said Lynn Heirakuji, president of the Nisei Veterans Legacy, which will host the service at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. “But also, the story has relevance. … There’s still many issues in this country today dealing with discrimination and social injustice,” she said.

When the U.S. declared war on Japan following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the animosity toward Japanese Americans grew significantly.

“The country rejected them,” Heirakuji said. “Yet many of these young men and women, like my father, stepped forward to volunteer, to serve, to choose their loyalty.”

The service will honor nisei soldiers who served in World War II, particularly the men and women of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 100th Infantry Battalion, Military Intelligence Service and 1399 Engineer Construction Battalion. Today the 442nd Regimental Combat team is still considered the most highly decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service.

To Heirakuji, whose father served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the nisei soldier’s heroism continued even after returning home from war.

After having shed blood on the battlefield, the nisei believed they no longer deserved to be treated as second-class citizens, Heirakuji said. So alongside other ethnic minorities, the nisei continued to challenge the remaining discrimination aimed at them after the war.

“They helped to change Hawaii into a more democratic society, into a more open society for everyone,” Heirakuji said.

Brendan Burns, principal of ‘Aina Haina Elementary School, whose grandfather was the late former governor John E. Burns, will be the event’s keynote speaker. The event will also include as guest speakers three youth journalists who worked with the Nisei Veterans Legacy and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser earlier this year to report on the experiences of three nisei veterans, two of whom have died since their stories were published, Heirakuji said.

JROTC from Punahou, McKinley, Farrington and Roosevelt high schools will attend, along with youth cadets from the Hawaii Youth Challenge Academy.

Recent Nisei memorial services have brought some sadness as the number of surviving veterans wanes, Heirakuji said. The last in-person service held in 2019 had 16 veterans in attendance, while only three have confirmed their attendance for this year’s service.

However, Heirakuji said she hopes that the nisei’s accomplishments will be honored for years to come.

“We recognize their bravery, the values they held that compelled them to do what they did at great cost to themselves,” Heirakuji said. “It’s important for us to remember and to honor that legacy, and to remember that it’s still relevant for today’s youth.”

NISEI SOLDIERS MEMORIAL SERVICE

Sponsored by Nisei Veterans Legacy, the annual service honors the nisei soldiers who served in WWII and is free and open to the public:

>> When: 9:30 a.m. Sunday

>> Where: National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl

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Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national serv­ice organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under­covered issues and communities.