Overview
- U.S. Army Pacific and the University of Hawaiʻi held a Jan. 26 ceremony at Keʻehi Lagoon Memorial State Park to confer second-lieutenant commissions on seven Japanese American cadets.
- Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll approved the rank upgrades last fall, capping a multiyear effort launched in 2023 by Lt. Col. Jerrod Melander and supported by veterans’ groups.
- The men’s commissioning was derailed after Pearl Harbor when Japanese Americans were barred from service, leading them to the Hawaii Territorial Guard and Varsity Victory Volunteers before enlisting in the 100th/442nd.
- All seven were Hawaii-born U.S. citizens who died in 1944 fighting in Italy and France after serving with the highly decorated 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
- The ceremony featured traditional first salutes, including the silver-dollar salute, and followed the University of Hawaiʻi’s 2012 conferral of posthumous bachelor’s degrees to the same soldiers.