HANAPEPE — More than a hundred people made time on Sunday to participate in the annual memorial service for the 100th Infantry Battalion at Kauai Veterans Cemetery.
HANAPEPE — More than a hundred people made time on Sunday to participate in the annual memorial service for the 100th Infantry Battalion at Kauai Veterans Cemetery.
Presented by the West Kauai Club 100, the attendees included many descendants of the 100th Infantry Battalion veterans, the Kauai Veterans Council, including commander General (retired) Mary Kay Hertog and adjutant Johnette Chun, Pacific Missile Range Facility Commander Capt. Brett Stevenson, and more than two dozen representatives of the Waimea High School JROTC program who participated in the 80th anniversary of D-Day in France.
The memorial service pays tribute and honors not only the 100th Battalion veterans from Kauai that came from the plantation camps, but pays tribute to the achievements of the unit that are recorded in history books.
It also recognizes the legacy of the unit that is carried on by the descendants of the veterans of the unit that Capt. Stevenson said, “They had to fight to fight,” due to the prevailing prejudice against the Japanese following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
When the Waimea High School JROTC contingent visited France to participate in the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the unit received a lot of help from the Club 100 because the students represented, not only their country, state and unit, but the legacy of the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Highlights of the day included descendants of veterans helping Kaleo Carvalho complete the tribute wreath by placing flowers onto the wreath as each 100th Battalion veteran’s name was recited by Ken Morikawa, the son of Club 100 president and 100th battalion veteran Mugsy Morikawa.
The service is held the closest date to Sept. 29 when the battalion suffered its first Killed in Action after Sgt. Shigeo “Joe” Takata died on Sept. 29, 1943.
