U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) issued the following statement on President Clinton's approval of the Army nominations of 21 Asian Pacific American World War II veterans to receive the Medal of Honor:
I am pleased that the review of service records of Asian American and Native American Pacific Islanders who received the Distinguished Service Cross during World War II is coming to a conclusion. President Clinton's approval of the Medal of Honor for these 21 men who served with valor in World War II--19 from the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and 100th Infantry Battalion--is long overdue recognition of the heroic service and bravery displayed by these Asian-American soldiers and their comrades in arms. As we honor these patriots let us also remember the thousands of young men, living and dead, whose courage, sacrifice and spirit proved that patriotism is a circumstance of the heart, not a consequence of the skin.
The number of nominations made by the Army and approved today underscores the reason I sought this review: to dispel any doubt about discrimination in the process of awarding the Medal of Honor. The 100th/442nd fought with incredible courage and bravery in Italy and France. Its members won 1 Medal of Honor, 53 DSCs, and more than 9,000 Purple Hearts. The unit itself won 8 Presidential Unit Citations. The fact that the 100th/442nd saw such fierce and heavy combat, yet received only one Medal of Honor award, and then only posthumously and due to Congressional intervention, raised serious questions about the fairness of the award process at the time.
Unfortunately, Asian Pacific Americans were not accorded full consideration for the Medal of Honor at the time of their service. A prevailing climate of racial prejudice against Asian Pacific Americans during World War II precluded this basic fairness, the most egregious example being the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans. The bias, discrimination, and hysteria of that time unfortunately had an impact on the decision to award the military's highest honor to Asians and Pacific Islanders.
The Army has done a tremendous job conducting the DSC review. I commend Secretary Caldera and all the Army personnel who conducted this review in a thorough and professional manner. They have carried out the difficult task of identifying and reconstructing the records of more than one hundred veterans with diligence, sensitivity, and dispatch. The stories documented for each of the 104 DSC recipients will astonish and humble all who read them and underscore our faith in a nation that produces such heroes.
