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The U.S. Postal Service has announced that the “Go for Broke: Japanese American Soldiers of WWII” stamp will be unveiled at a virtual ceremony on June 3, 2021.
This will be first day of issue and honors the
33,000 Japanese American men and women who served in the U.S. military during World War II. The Stamp Our Story campaign was started in 2005. It has been a long and uphill journey, but it paid off last year when the Postmaster General finally approved the “Go For Broke” stamp. JAVA along with other organizations actively supported this effort over these many years.
With more people being vaccinated, we can now move forward to plan our activities for this year. We postponed JAVA’s annual membership meeting normally scheduled for January. We have set July 24, 2021, as the date for this year’s annual membership meeting. The Harvest Moon restaurant has permanently closed so we have found a new location. This year, we will hold our membership meeting at the Peking Gourmet Inn, 6029 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA starting at 11:30am. We anticipate that the cost will be $30 per person. We have a full agenda. We will ask the membership to approve revisions to JAVA’s by-law to change JAVA’s election procedures. The program will also include announcing JAVA’s scholarship award recipients and winners of JAVA’s awards. We still need to identify a keynote speaker for this event.
Originally, the JAVA evening reception at the newly opened National Museum of the U.S. Army was set for July 15, 2021. The Museum informed us that there likely will still be COVID restrictions in place in July that could limit attendance. To avoid this, we decided to move the date. The new date is Saturday, July 16, 2022. We are arranging for tours of the Museum for JAVA members and friends during the day with an evening reception with a short program.
On March 27th, JAVA participated as a co-sponsor of the “23rd Annual and First Virtual Annual National Cherry Blossom Freedom Walk.” Since the program was virtual, I was asked to lead one of the breakout sessions instead of giving the usual welcoming remarks. My session was entitled “The Memorial and JAVA – Role of the Military in WWII and the Names on the Wall.” We had good participation and interest in the JAVA session.
The annual Memorial Day Service at Arlington National Cemetery will be held on Sunday, May 30th. JAVA will again be a co-sponsor.
We will hold the Day of Affirmation ceremony on July 15, 2021 at 12 noon at the National World War II Memorial which JAVA started last year. The program will again be live streamed via Facebook. This will commemorate the 75th anniversary of President Truman’s salute to the Nisei soldiers as loyal Americans.
JAVA’s annual Veterans Day Program will again be held at the National Japanese American Memorial on November 11 at 2pm.
Thank you for your continued support of JAVA’s activities.
23rd Annual and First Virtual Freedom Walk
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On Saturday, March 27th, the Japanese American Memorial Foundation along with JAVA and JACL-DC held the 23rd Annual and First Virtual Freedom Walk. The program which revolved around the significance of the National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II kicked off with rotating images of photos taken at Freedom Walks held over the years as well as a recording of Nen Daiko Japanese Taiko Drummers. Both NJAMF Board Member Martha Watanabe and JAVA Board Member LTC Marty Herbert, USA (Ret), welcomed viewers to the unique format followed by a moving narration of the symbolism captured in the Memorial given by NJAMF Board members. David Yao, who is currently Festival Director at the Asian Pacific American Film in DC, shared his early efforts to promote the first Freedom Walk in order to raise money for the Memorial to be built. Yao also commented on the significance of the Memorial after the 9/11 attacks. In many ways, the Memorial became a sacred space for Americans to reflect on the importance of upholding civil rights for all. Next, Minister Kenchiro Mukai, Head of Chancery, Embassy of Japan, noted that the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from the Mayor of Tokyo to Washington, DC, as a gesture of the growing friendship between the two countries continues to affirm the affinity today. Minister Mukai remarked that as a Japanese citizen he feels a special pride in the story of Japanese Americans. Although it is a painful story – one of sacrifice and service – it is also an uplifting and inspiring story. Secretary Norman Mineta also spoke, telling his painful story of family internment but his unremitting pride in being an American.
After the formal program, participants had the opportunity to gather in virtual breakout sessions on the following topics: The Memorial and Tsuru for Solidarity; The Memorial and 9/11; The Memorial and NJAMF; The Memorial and JAVA; JACSC/NPS; HR 40; and Crane Making. JAVA President Gerald Yamada led the breakout session on The Memorial and JAVA (see remarks below). As the different breakout sessions concluded, participants were encouraged to join a general chat in a “lobby” or join a different discussion. All agreed that while they missed the beauty of the cherry blossoms and the serenity of the Memorial, the new platform offered participants a way to gather from around the country and discuss important issues.
FREEDOM WALK REMARKS
By
Gerald Yamada
President
Japanese American Veterans Association
March 27, 2021
On behalf of the Japanese American Veterans Association, I welcome you to the Annual Freedom Walk. My name is Gerald Yamada, and I am President of JAVA. We are again proud to be a co-sponsor of this event.
The National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism in World War II and the Freedom Walk tell the American story of how the government, motivated by prejudice, illegally restricted the freedoms and equality of persons of Japanese ancestry, and how the Nisei soldiers served to restore those fundamental rights.
The Nisei soldiers who served in World War II fought on the battlefields in Europe and in the Pacific. They fought against America’s enemies but also were fighting the war against prejudice at home.
They put themselves in harm’s way to prove their loyalty to the United States, while their family and friends were unjustly imprisoned at home. Those, who served, put country first.
They restored the dignity of all persons of Japanese ancestry with their personal courage.
Since the Memorial was dedicated in 2000, JAVA has hosted every year a Veterans Day program there to honor our veterans. We especially remember the 800 Japanese Americans soldiers who died during World War II. Their names are inscribed on the granite walls of this Memorial. Last year, the Department of Veterans Affairs selected JAVA’s November 11th program as one of the “Veterans Day observances throughout the country that represents a fitting tribute to America’s heroes.”
Today, we celebrate the legacy forged by the 33,000 Japanese Americans, who served in the US military during World War II. They served to restore freedom and equality as American values. The legacy of their sacrifices, and their spirit, must be remembered and honored.
The Memorial reminds us that we must guard against racially motivated governmental policies and decisions. We must promote programs to deter hate-motivated attacks aimed at any minority group. The war against prejudice is still on-going.
That is why the Memorial, the Freedom Walk, and JAVA’s Veterans Day program continue to be relevant, and important, 79 years after Executive Order 9066 was signed.
Thank you.
LTG Bostick Publishes Book
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Lt Gen (Ret) Thomas P. Bostick, USA.
Arlington, VA. Lt Gen (Ret) Thomas P. Bostick’s book, Winning After Losing, Building Resilient Teams is available on book stands nationally and internationally. His strong academic and professional background in government and business supports his thesis that resilience is the key to survival and ultimate success. According to Bostick, “Winning After Losing is a book of stories and lessons about resilience; stories about how leaders and their teams learned how to bounce back even stronger after a loss, then learn how to win.” In the book, he asks the tough questions and provides the best answers:
- How does a person or an organization plan for the challenges ahead?
- How do leaders absorb an impact and bend but not break?
- How do an organization and its leadership recover rapidly from an impact, then adapt to become even stronger in preparation for a future challenge?
In considering his reasons for writing Winning After Losing, Bostick stated, “there is an additional part of my personal leadership story that inspired me to write this book and sustained me through the months of research, writing, and re-writing. And that’s my background. My personal history.” Bostick continued, “like so many others I grew up in a unique family. My mother was born and raised in Japan. My father was an African American soldier from Brooklyn, New York. I had one sister and three brothers – five of us growing up as ‘Army Brats’ moving from base to base, having to deal with change, and learning to value every dollar. That is where my leadership lessons really began. My father, who was an athlete and champion runner, taught me the importance of self-discipline. Because there wasn’t enough money to send five kids to college, I learned to think creatively–and that’s when I first considered the military as the way to a career. That’s also when I was introduced to my first mentor—a man who showed me how to overcome seemingly insurmountable roadblocks and started me on a lifetime of mentorship – both being mentored and becoming a mentor. So in several ways, many of my earliest lessons were foundational to both my successful careers in the military and in private industry.”
A retired 3-star General with over thirty-eight years of service, Bostick commented, “Over the span of my military career, I served in many leadership roles and each one taught me valuable lessons. Sometimes these lessons were learned when serving in the trenches. Sometimes while at the Pentagon. There were lessons learned in complex public-private-partnerships. And sometimes the most important lessons were learned during seemingly impossible missions leading a platoon of thirty soldiers whose greatest mission was to pass a maintenance inspection. And finally, some of my most rewarding lessons were learned while I was leading large teams of over 1M troops and 330,000 civilians as Director of Human Resources responsible for policy for the U.S. Army to Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the largest public engineering organization in the world. Many of the lessons in this book are the result of many factors. They are the distillations of the lessons I learned alone and with others. They are the strategies our teams employed and the tactics we tested. And finally, they are the successes and even failures our teams experienced. That is the Army part of this leadership book.”
LTG Bostick’s career also included time in the private sector where he “served as the Chief Operating Officer of a publicly traded bioengineering company with multiple biotech companies and R&D divisions.” He noted that “these companies and divisions with over one thousand employees–700 with advanced degrees, focused on health, energy, environment, and food,” had goals that were unalike and at the same time alike. “The skills in leading teams to achieve success in fulfilling their mission are very similar whether it be in sales, in research, in new product development, or in mergers and acquisitions.”
A member of JAVA, LTG Bostick has shared his knowledge and wisdom as the principal speaker at JAVA and other Japanese American community events in the Washington, DC, area.
March 29: National Vietnam War Veterans Day
On March 29, 1973, the U.S. ended United States Military Assistance Command, Vietnam and U.S. combat troops left the country. In recognition of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War, the U.S. has established March 29 at National Vietnam War Veterans Day, and over 11,000 organizations around the country remembered and honored the nine million Americans who served. JAVA salutes our Vietnam Vets for their service and sacrifice. For more information about the 50th Anniversary and the U.S.A. Vietnam War Commemoration visit https://www.vietnamwar50th.com/.
Mark Hashimoto
Nominated for Major General
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On March 4, 2020, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III nominated Marine Corps Reserve Brigadier General Mark A. Hashimoto for appointment to the rank of major general. Hashimoto is currently serving as Commanding General, Force Headquarters Group, U.S. Marine Forces Reserve, New Orleans, Louisiana. BGen Hashimoto was born and raised in Honolulu where he graduated from Punahou School. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Stanford University and a Master of Business Administration from UCLA. He was commissioned as a Marine Corps officer through the Officer Candidate Class Ground Program in 1992.
BGen Hashimoto served on active duty as an Infantry officer from 1992 to 1998 and then transferred to the Marine Corps Reserves. He has had three assignments with Force Reconnaissance units and has had other assignments in Hawaii, San Bruno, CA, and Quantico, VA. He was promoted to Brigadier General in 2018 and his first general officer assignment was as the Deputy Commanding General, Marine Forces Pacific (Mobilization). He is a graduate of the USMC Amphibious Warfare School Non-Resident Program, the USMC Command and Staff College Distance Education Program, the Air War College Distance Learning Program, and the Join Forces Staff College Advanced Joint Professional Military Education program.
In his civilian life, Mr. Hashimoto is a member of the Senior Executive Service and is the Executive Director, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific. As Executive Director he is a key strategic leader who provides leadership, managerial direction, and program expertise for all Marine Forces Pacific command functions. He is also his agency’s lead for the Defense Policy Review Initiative and human capital management.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Sye Seichi Terauchi Served in WW II, Korean and Vietnam Wars
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Lahaina, Maui. CWO4 Sye Seichi Terauchi served in the 100th Infantry Battalion during World War II, and also served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars over a 30-year career, retiring in January 1971. Thrice wounded in action in the Italian campaign, Terauchi was sent home after the Monte Cassino campaign. After Terauchi’s discharge, he studied auto repair in Colorado and then returned home to repair his neighbors’ cars in Waipahu, HI. In 1997, he moved to Oregon to live with his son’s family. He died at age 95 and is interred at the Willamette (Oregon) National Cemetery.
His children are Geraldine Terauchi of Hawaii; Terence Terauchi of Los Angeles; Roderick Terauchi of El Cerrito, CA; Gregory Terauchi of Gresham, OR and Bryan Terauchi of Hawaii. There are six grandchildren.
On January 16, 1996, Terauchi sent a two-page letter to his children, presented below, which described his military career and was accompanied by a warm personal note. Terauchi’s letter includes the high points of his assignment as an infantryman with the 100th in Italy, as an operations sergeant with the 69th Field Artillery Battalion in Korea, and as operations sergeant at Headquarters, 3rd Brigade, 1st Air Cavalry Division in South Vietnam.
