U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D - Hawaii) will participate in a ceremony to posthumously award the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM), the nation's third highest military award, to the late Lt. Colonel Richard Motoso Sakakida. United States Army, Pacific will conduct the award and retreat ceremony at Palm Circle, Fort Shafter on February 17 at 4 p.m. Colonel Sakakida's widow, Cherry, will accept the medal. The DSM is long overdue recognition for a true American hero and his amazing wartime service to our nation.
The award ceremony culminates eight years of work by Senator Akaka, in concert with the Hawaii Congressional delegation, to honor the heroic wartime service of Colonel Sakakida, a U.S. Army undercover agent and intelligence officer during World War II. Colonel Sakakida, a second-generation Japanese American and former Hawaii native, was recruited by Army military intelligence before the attack on Pearl Harbor to conduct undercover activities in the Philippines. Then-Sergeant Sakakida served in the Philippines from 1941 to 1945, first as a covert operative spying on the Japanese community, subsequently as a military intelligence staffer for General MacArthur, and still later, after giving up a seat on an escape aircraft to a fellow nisei, as the only Japanese American prisoner of war captured by the Japanese during that conflict.
Last year Senator Akaka offered an amendment to the 1999 Defense Authorization Act that would waive current statutory time limitations for award of the Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Distinguished Service Medal to certain deserving veterans.
The amendment seeking due recognition for Colonel Sakakida follows a provision of law (section 526 of Public Law 104-106) that requires the Services to review the merits of an application for an award, regardless of statutory time restrictions, if a member of Congress submits such an application. Under the measure, if the military determines that such an award is merited, it may request a waiver from Congress to make the award. In March, 1998, pursuant to section 526, Senator Akaka made application to the Army asking review of Colonel Sakakida's record to determine if he deserved the DSM. In May, the Army responded positively to the request and officially recommended that Congress grant the late veteran a waiver from all time limits pertaining to the award. The Akaka amendment grants this waiver, clearing the way for the Army to confer the DSM to honor Colonel Sakakida's meritorious service.
"This is long overdue recognition for a true American hero and his amazing wartime service to our nation," Senator Akaka said. "For the late Colonel Sakakida and his wife Cherry, this day has been long in the making. This award means a great deal not only to his widow, but to nisei veterans, the military intelligence community, the Japanese American community and all those who honor military service to their country.
"This ceremony crowns the efforts of many nisei veterans, including members of the all-nisei Military Intelligence Service, and other supporters whose enthusiasm sustained Sakakida's case. I want to single out three individuals without whose hard work the Army would never have considered Sakakida's case: Wayne Kiyosaki, who wrote the definitive biography of Colonel Sakakida; Ted Tsukiyama, who served as a key historical resource; and, most importantly, Colonel Harry Fukuhara, whose tireless advocacy in behalf of the late hero reflects his own dedicated service to his nation."
