California City Honors Square to WWII Japanese-American Hero

An intersection in a city in a suburb of Los Angeles has been named after the first Japanese-American soldier to win the highest award in the U.S. military for his service in WWII.

The city office in Glendale named the area "Sadao S. Munemori Memorial Square" to honor Sadao Munemori. On Saturday, his family, veterans from Munemori's infantry unit, and other people attended a ceremony.

Glendale's Veterans Memorial is also in the square. It has statues with the names of all the city's soldiers who died in battle, including Munemori.

"Honored, grateful, hopeful, and proud," said James Nakakihara, 64, Munemori's grand nephew. He also said that he hopes Munemori's memory will inspire "love and good deeds."

WWII Japanese-American soldierPhoto bymainichi

Munemori grew up in Glendale and joined the Army when he was 19. He was in the war and was in the 100th Infantry Battalion, which was mostly made up of Japanese-American men.

In April 1945, Munemori was fighting in Italy. He used grenades to destroy enemy machine gun posts, then jumped on and covered an enemy grenade that was still going off. At age 22, he gave up his life to save the lives of other troops.

The Medal of Honor was given to Munemori after his death in 1946. Before June 2000, he was the only Japanese-American to receive a medal from the war. That month, President Bill Clinton gave the medal to 20 more Japanese-American soldiers who had served in the war.

The Munemori family had a veggie farm in Glendale before the war. During the war, they were sent to Manzanar, a camp for Japanese Americans.

The Source:

kyodonews