Japanese-American Veterans Will Receive Highest Civilian Award

Japanese flag

“I didn’t speak Japanese. As a kid, I’d gone to Japanese school on Saturday. I ran a foul of the teacher because I would not bow to a picture of the emperor of Japan. I said, “I’m all American. He is not my emperor. I ran into a couple of people who said “Get the hell out of here, you Jap”, my parents told us after that we have to be very careful,” said George Okamoto, Japanese-American veteran who served in the 100^th Infantry Battalion and Military Intelligence Service.

George Okamoto is scheduled to receive the highest civilian award given by the U.S. government. He remembered being wounded severely in both legs during a combat mission in Italy, Okamoto spent the last two years of his military service in hospitals for soldiers, 1945 is the day when he is finally discharged from the service, he then returned to Chicago where he met his wife and finally settled with his family.

Okamoto also added, “They didn’t care where you moved inland, as long as you didn’t go to the West Coast, then I found a job as an Illustrator in Chicago.”

Tagged with: Americans • highest civilian award • Japanese • Japanese-American Veterans • Veterans

Filed under: World

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!