Sixty World War II veterans will wear red, white and blue ribbon lei from volunteers in the islands at a U.S. Capitol ceremony next month honoring the service of more than 6,000 Japanese-Americans who fought in Europe and Asia.

"It is a labor of love," said Violet Kagawa, 88, a retired Library of Hawaii clerk who wove the first batch of ribbon lei. "You need strength to pull the ribbons together. You can’t hold the strand daintily. You have to boldly grab it and pull them together."

The Japanese-American veterans from Hawaii also will sport dark blue navy blazers donated by island supporters when attending the Nov. 2 unveiling of the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington. The medal, created by federal law adopted in October 2010, honors the service of the 100th Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service.

Leaders of the U.S. House and Senate will preside over the 11 a.m. ceremony in Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol visitor center, which will be followed by an evening banquet. Invitation to the ceremonies is limited to 1,250 — mainly nisei (second-generation Japanese-Americans), veterans or their widows who will be allowed only one guest. An evening banquet will follow the ceremony. Tickets are $175 per guest.

A memorial service is planned for Nov. 1 at the Washington Hilton Hotel.

From Hawaii there will be 27 nisei veterans from the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 14 from the 100th Battalion and the 19 from the Military Intelligence Service. On the pocket of the warriors’ blazers will be their unit patches. Besides the three-strand ribbon leis sewn by Kagawa and her team of 20 volunteers, the veterans will also wear a blue tie.

Each of the red, white and blue ribbon lei will have a card that says: "Handmade with love for someone special," Kagawa said. "On the back of the card, there will be the names of the persons who made the lei."

Tammy Kubo, whose son is a member of the Army Reserves’ 100th Battalion, has been coordinating local efforts to help the veterans and their families attend the Washington event. She said the veterans paid their airfare and hotel room costs, but she and retired Maj. Gen. Bob Lee led the fundraising efforts to pay for the blazers and some of the materials for the lei.

Isao Takiyama, 89, said he’s making the trip at the urging of the "Thursday gang" — 100th Battalion veterans who meet each Thursday at the unit’s clubhouse on Kamoku street.

"For a while I didn’t care," said Takiyama, a member of 100th Battalion’s L Company who worked for 32 years at Pearl Harbor after the war. "But Tammy was so enthusiastic, and the boys finally said, ‘Let’s do it.’"

Takiyama, one of the original members of the 100th Battalion, said he will be accompanied by his two daughters, Gail Takiyama and Darrell Tsukada, and plans to spend time with a grandson who works as an electrical engineer in Virginia.

"I haven’t traveled for so long," added Takiyama, who will be making his first trip to Washington since the end of World War II.

Since the majority of the veterans are too old to travel next month, a celebratory luncheon will be held Dec. 17 at the Hawai’i Convention Center. Lee estimated that up to 3,000 veterans and their guests will attend the event, which will start with a parade from Fort DeRussy to the convention center with the veterans riding on trollies.

Kubo said one of the blazers will be given to Medal of Honor recipient U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, who lost his right arm serving with the 442nd in Italy.

Kagawa, whose brother George Ito served with the MIS, said she decided a month ago that she wanted to do something for "the boys."

Patriotism is her motivation, she said.

"I wanted to do something for them," said the 1941 Farrington High School graduate. "They went into service without question after graduation."

She had learned to make ribbon lei after she took up crocheting nearly three years ago. After several frustrating starts, Kagawa said she eventually improvised, came up with a stitch for the lei and made the first 125 for the Washington delegation.

After completing those lei by herself, Kagawa sought volunteers from a senior citizens group at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Manoa and her line-dance class at Central Union Church. She said that she hopes to make lei for the veterans who will attend the December ceremony, but she acknowledges she might need help with that chore.

The federal law approved by President Barack Obama last year recognizes the service of more than 6,000 nisei. About two-thirds of them were from Hawaii.

On one side of the Congressional Gold Medal are four men in the 442nd’s color guard: Matsuo Kaminishi, Edwin Kokubun, Henry Yamane and Kunito Sadaoka.

Past honorees of the Congressional Gold Medal include the Wright brothers, Rosa Parks, the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen and the Dalai Lama.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Battalion, made up of Japanese-American volunteers, is the most decorated Army unit of its size and length of service in U.S. history. The 100th and the 442nd received seven Presidential Unit Citations, 21 Medals of Honor, 29 Distinguished Service Crosses, 560 Silver Stars, 4,000 Bronze Stars, 22 Legion of Merit Medals, 15 Soldier’s Medals and more than 4,000 Purple Hearts.

The Military Intelligence Service provided the U.S. with valuable language and cultural knowledge, translating intercepted intelligence and helping the U.S. achieve victory in the Pacific.