Yesterday was Veteran's Day. A day to remember. I think sometimes we don't realize enough the sacrifices of life that were given for us, our freedoms...
Tyson's school has a Veteran's Day Program that they put on yearly for the rest of the school and for parents and grandparents. Tyson's essay was chosen to be presented out of many. I believe he said that one was chosen from each class. His teacher picked his. He and Spence worked on this together and made a phone interview with Spencer's father who was a WWII veteran in the 442nd infantry. He fought in Italy and France.
As we got to the school, the 5th grade hall was filled with these essays and the first names were all arranged alphabetically. Above is Tyson's paper. I had a close up, but everytime I uploaded it, it was "sideways". So his is the first red star on the right. The gold stars represent their family veteran. He did a good job presenting his paper. He had at first been asked to be a narrater until his essay was chosen to read. I think he was quite happy about it, although probably nervous to speak in front of a big crowd of people.
This program kind of reminded me of a similar program Jamie did in school at about the same age. I know that I have a video of that somewhere, too.
When we walked into the auditorium, from somewhere in the back in the cafeteria area we heard, "Grandma, Grandpa!" Now this could have been anyones "name", right, but the voices were so familiar! And we got to see 1/2 our grandkids as soon as we arrived. Brecklyn wanted to make sure I saw her "space" in front where she had just recently lost her first tooth. To me, as a child, losing a tooth was always "trauma". But she seems quite happy about the whole thing. Notice she is sitting next to her brother and surrounded by lots of boys. Interesting.
Go for Broke!
My great-grandfather, Arthur Nishimoto, was a WWII
veteran. He is from Honolulu, Hawaii and
he went and joined the United States Army in Hawaii as a young man of 18 years
of age.
He was in the 442nd combat infantry. Their motto was “Go for broke”. He was an infantryman or also known as a foot
soldier. This regiment of soldiers was
all of Japanese descent and they were not only from Hawaii but other parts of
our country including Utah. Some soldiers
were also from the detainment camps here in Utah where Japanese-American
citizens were living during the War.
My great-grandfather’s unit trained on the East coast and
then they were shipped out to Europe. The
first battle that my great-grandfather fought in was on June 26, 1944 at the
city of Belvedere. They won this very
hard battle. The next battle was on July
4, 1944. He fought on the shores of
Italy and France.
When he went to France, he and his outfit battled the German
soldiers. Some of the American soldiers in another infantry unit were losing a
battle and many soldiers were wounded and killed. This group of soldiers was known as “The lost
battalion”. My great-grandfather and
his men went to rescue them and were successful. However, there were many casualties and many of
the Japanese-American soldiers were killed from the 442nd infantry. My great-grandfather’s unit was also credited
for saving many citizens of a town in France called Bruyers which the German
soldiers were occupying. As the
Japanese soldiers came into this town to liberate it, the French people were
grateful and relieved. Some said, “Who
are these soldiers?” We thought they
would be “Tall Texans”. And they were
surprised to see all the Japanese soldiers.
A while ago they had a 50 Year Reunion and celebration and memorial
service for all the soldiers. This
celebration in Bruyers also had a War monument built in their town in honor of
the soldiers that saved them. This event
lasted a week in France. My
great-grandfather was able to go here with my great-uncle. It was a very emotional experience for him.
During a military Regimental Review, all of the soldiers in
my great-grandfather’s company were given medals by a general. The general was a little upset because there
weren’t a lot of soldiers who were there.
The officer who served under the general , who was over the company,
told the high ranking officers that this is all there was because most of the
men had died in combat.
My great-grandfather is mentioned and has his story told in
the book Saints At War written by Robert C. Freeman and Dennis A. Wright.
He now lives in Las Vegas.
In his office at his home are many medals and commendations from the
War, including the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, and also of post War duty. The Purple Heart is given for battle wounds
during combat. He remained in the US
Army and retired as a Colonel. He spent
most of his career in the military intelligence branch of the Army.
When I talked to my great-grandfather the other day, he also
told me that he and his war buddies were being presented with the Congressional
Gold Medal in Washington, DC. The
article was in the Salt Lake Tribune on Nov. 1st of this year. The first person to receive this medal was
George Washington.
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