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Following the presentation of the Resolution in the Maryland House of Delegates chamber on April 1, 2016, JAVA representatives were invited across the hall to the Maryland Senate Chamber of the State House.  It was said this is the first time an Asian Pacific American military unit was honored in this history-laden chamber.   Senator Thomas Mike Miller, Jr., President of the Senate welcomed the JAVA delegation and Senator James Rosapepe, spoke about the Nisei experience during WW II.  This was followed by the presentation of the Resolution to Dr. Ray Murakami and Terry Shima.  On the invitation of President Miller to speak,  Shima addressed the Maryland Senate   He told the 47 senators,    

“On behalf of 100th Battalion, 442^nd Regimental Combat Team, the Military Intelligence Service, the 110,000 persons of Japanese Ancestry who were confined in internment camps for the duration of WWII, the 800 we left on the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific, and the Japanese American Veterans Association, I wish to thank the State of Maryland for this extraordinary recognition.   It is a great honor to receive this Resolution in the Senate Chamber that served as the US Congress from November 1783 – August 1784, where General George Washington resigned his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army on December 23, 1783, and where the US Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris on January 14, 1784 that officially ended  the Revolutionary War thus making Annapolis the first peace time capital of America.  

We are proud to be contributing citizens to the Greatness of Maryland and America. God Bless Maryland and the USA.”

JAVA Vice President LTC Mark Nakagawa, USA (Ret) presented inscribed JAVA coins to Senate President Miller and Senator Rosapepe.  Nakagawa said the significance of the recognition in the State House is that it linked the Nisei patriots to the patriots who saved America during the Revolutionary War.    Standing, front row, L-R:  Senator Rosapepe, Shima, Murakami, Nakagawa, Senator Douglas Peters, Chair of the Senate Democratic Party Caucus.  Rear: seated is _____________ and standing to her left is Senate President Miller.  Photo  from Nakagawa.