A series of events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the formation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team will be held this weekend.
A remembrance service will be held at 9 a.m. today at Fort DeRussy, followed by a tour of the U.S. Army Museum.
On Sunday a 70th-anniversary luncheon will be held at the Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom beginning at 11 a.m.
The banquet will feature a special tribute to the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, with his widow, Irene Hirano Inouye, as special guest. Inouye served with the 442nd in France and Italy and was among unit members given the Medal of Honor decades later by President Bill Clinton.
The state Senate and House of Representatives will honor the veterans at the state Capitol on Monday, beginning with the Senate at 11:30 a.m. and the House at noon.
Other activities include the screening of the documentary "Valor with Honor" at the Honolulu Museum of Art’s Doris Duke Theatre at 6:30 p.m. Monday. A question-and-answer session with writer and director Burt Takeuchi will follow.
For further information, call Gwen Fujie at 691-9693 or 888-9374, or the 442nd Veterans Club at 949-7997.
The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was organized on March 23, 1943, in response to the War Department’s call for volunteers to form the segregated Japanese-American Army combat unit. More than 12,000 nisei (second-generation Japanese-American) volunteers answered the call.
Ultimately, 2,686 nisei from Hawaii and 1,500 from U.S. incarceration camps assembled at Camp Shelby, Miss., in April 1943 for a year of infantry training.
The 442nd, including the 100th Battalion, has been recognized by the Army as the most decorated unit for its size with seven Distinguished Unit Citations, more than 4,000 Purple Hearts, seven Presidential Unit Citations and a large number of individual decorations for bravery, including 21 Medals of Honor, 29 Distinguished Service Crosses, 588 Silver Stars and more than 4,000 Bronze Stars.
