HANAPEPE — As refreshing as the winds that blew through the auditorium at the Hanapepe Veterans Cemetery, the thought that the legacy of the 100th Battalion would live on comforted those in attendance at the 59th Annual Memorial Service held Sunday.
Ken Morikawa, whose father Muggsy was the last 100th battalion veteran to serve as president of the Kaua‘i Club 100, served as the day’s host in his role as the new president of the Kaua‘i Club 100.
Muggsy enjoyed the day in the care of Ken’s wife Deedee, joining less than a dozen surviving veterans in the audience of about a hundred people that consisted of veterans’ wives as well as representatives of other military organizations and agencies.
Coinciding with the closest Sunday to Sept. 26, the day the 100th Battalion suffered its first war casualty (Killed in Action, or KIA), the annual memorial service honors those who have passed on, and allows surviving veterans an opportunity to gather and reflect.
Over the years, the veterans formed the Kaua‘i Club 100, and hosted events throughout the year where children of the veterans got to know each other, Morikawa remembers.
But, as age began to overtake the veterans, there was a growing concern over the continuation of the 100th’s legacy, and when the younger Morikawa stepped in to take the presidency of the club, a collective sigh of relief silently filtered through the veterans and their wives.
Morikawa said the transition to the younger generation is not yet complete, as the Club 100 is still seeking out people to fill in the slots of club secretary and treasurer.
Tony Elliott, the keynote speaker for the service, outlined the history of the nationally acclaimed battalion, and finished by talking of the lesson taught to the nation’s people by the veterans’ fervent love of and dedication to the country.
Following the days after the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese soldiers serving in the Territorial Guard were discharged from service, despite strong arguments by the Japanese soldiers about their desire to serve their country.
Additionally, about 110,000 Japanese living in the United States and Hawai‘i were corralled into internment camps which, for the Japanese, brought the battle to the home front, where they fought fear and prejudice from the country they lived in.
Elliott, Kaua‘i veterans services counselor with the state Office of Veterans Services attached to the state Department of Defense, continued his saga by saying the military finally agreed to let the Japanese serve in a support capacity, where the soldiers were assigned menial tasks.
The dedication and fervor demonstrated by the young Japanese soldiers impressed the military commanders, who finally agreed to form a special group of about 1,300 soldiers. This was the birth of the 100th Battalion.
In July, 1943, the group formally received its colors, and were shipped off to Italy where, within the first week, the battalion suffered 78 KIA and 243 wounded, their first casualty coming on Sept. 26.
Within four months, the battalion was down to about 800 soldiers, and earned the nickname as “The Purple Heart Battalion” for all the members who were wounded in combat. In 1945, the future of free Europe was guaranteed by the efforts of the men from the 100th Battalion, Elliott said.
Following the passage of the Civil Liberties Act in 1988, Elliott said there were 20 men who were 100th Battalion veterans whose medals deserved upgrades to Purple Hearts, some receiving their honors posthumously.
In the days following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the East Coast, Elliott pointed out that it was the Japanese who stepped up the fight against discrimination and prejudice against Iraqi people living in the United States, the primary statement saying, “If the rights of one are threatened, the rights of all are at stake.”
Elliott said the memorial services are always emotional, as they remember those who never came home, but whose thoughts were always of home.
Elliott closed with a passage from a parent’s letter to a 100th Battalion soldier n “Live as you can; die if you must, but never bring shame.”
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
