Acceptance & Opportunity 1945 - Today

100th Infantry Battalion Veterans new clubhouse opens at 520 Kamoku Street in Honolulu.

Original 100th Veterans clubhouse opens in Honolulu at 1444 Nuuanu Avenue. It was sold 3 years later and work began on a new clubhouse that opened in 1952.

Veterans of the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion form a club on Oahu in 1959. It was subsequently dissolved by the members in 2011.

First AJA is appointed to the Hawaii Territorial government cabinet: 100th Battalion veteran Sakae Takahashi.

442nd veteran Daniel K. Inouye becomes Hawaii’s Congressional representative (Photo: Welcome home by his father Hyotaro Inouye in 1945).

Daniel K. Inouye, 442nd veteran, becomes first Nisei senator in US; serves until death in 2012.

442nd RCT Veterans Club leases the Moiliili Young Men’s Association clubhouse at 933 Wiliwili Street, Honolulu. On June 27, 1952, the Moiliili YMA members formally affected a transfer of the property in fee simple to the 442nd Veterans Club.

Welcome Home ceremony at Iolani Palace for 442nd RCT veterans who arrive on Liberty Ship S.S. Waterbury Victory; welcome speech by Governor Ingram M. Stainback.

Ending their occupation duty in Italy, the 442nd sails home on Liberty Ship S.S. Wilson Victory. Their arrival is met with a jubilant New York City welcome. Then it’s on to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, to prepare for a presidential review in Washington, DC.

Surviving 442nd Regimental Combat Team veterans who fought in France are awarded the country’s highest military medal, Légion d’Honneur, with Chevalier rank.

The new clubhouse and apartment building of the 442nd RCT Veterans Club at 933 Wiliwili St in Honolulu completes construction and opens for use.

Congressional Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians established; December 1982 report “Personal Justice Denied” states the mass incarceration of AJAs based on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership” and recommends an apology and payment to surviving internees.

Congressional Gold Medal is awarded to all the soldiers of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 100th Infantry Battalion, and Military Intelligence Service.

President Gerald R. Ford issues Proclamation 4417 rescinding Executive Order 9066: “We now know what we should have known then – not only was that evacuation wrong, but Japanese-Americans were and are loyal Americans….I call upon the American people to affirm with me this American Promise-that we have learned from the tragedy of that long-ago experience forever to treasure liberty and justice for each individual American, and resolve that this kind of action shall never again be repeated.”

Statehood Proclamation signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Honolulu & Bruyères, France, establish Sister City relationship. To this day, they have a big celebration event every year that gives thanks to the Japanese Americans who liberated them from years of oppression by the Nazis. Many veterans, and now their grandchildren, have traveled to France to join in these celebrations.

First internees return to Hawaii from Mainland camps; total incarcerated – about 2,270.

Provisions of McCarran-Walter Act allow naturalization of Japanese immigrants.

20 Nisei belatedly receive the Congressional Medal of Honor in upgrading of medals following review.

President Harry S. Truman presents the Presidential Unit Citation to the 442nd RCT. Awarded for its battle to break through the vaunted Nazi Gothic Line in the rugged North Apennine Mountains of Italy, this is the 7th PUC garnered by the 100/442nd. His words echo over America: “You fought not only the enemy, you fought prejudice–and you won. Keep up that fight, and we will continue to win–to make this great Republic stand for just what the Constitution says it stands for: the welfare of all the people all the time.”

President Harry S. Truman orders desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces. It took the U.S. Army six years to complete desegregation of all its units.

Spark M. Matsunaga, 100/442nd veteran, becomes first elected Nisei member of House of Representatives; ends career in 1990 as US Senator.