Ellington

Pride and honor, two of the fundamental tenets of Japanese culture, took center stage with about 150 World War II veterans at a Meany Hall ceremony honoring Japanese-American veterans Friday.

The World War II tribute was sponsored by Densho, the Japanese American Legacy Project. In the ceremony's opening speech, Densho executive director Tom Ikeda spoke of the importance of preserving the memories of these Japanese Americans before they fade away.

The Japanese-American veterans were honored for their military service, which took place more than 60 years ago.

"By bringing lessons of the past to the future Densho hopes to make people understand what happened in the past to make more informed decisions in the future," Ikeda said, pointing to the treatment of Middle Easterners in America. "These mistakes must not be made again."

Some audience members pointed to the men on stage. "That's my uncle," one said. Family members looked just as proud as the men on stage.

Ikeda told the audiences that 110,000 Japanese Americans were put in internment camps around the country during World War II -- whether they were American citizens or not. Japanese Americans living in Seattle were sent to Camp Minidoka in southern Idaho, leaving their lives and belongings behind.

Many first-generation Japanese immigrants, told they could bring only one suitcase, lost everything they owned. Second-generation Japanese, many of whom were teenagers or young adults at the time, were left with a feeling of limbo and displacement.

"I never thought that the second-generation Japanese would be incarcerated," said 86-year-old Hiro Nishimura, who was a sophomore at the UW when the war broke out in 1941. "It never even crossed my mind that I'd have to go."

Despite heavy discrimination and mistrust of Japanese Americans, many men decided to prove their allegiance to America in the ultimate way -- by joining the war effort. More than 1,200 Japanese-Americans volunteered to leave the camps and fight for the U.S. In Hawaii, where there was no mass evacuation or internment of Japanese Americans, 10,000 men volunteered to fight in the Army.

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, who volunteered for the war effort as a young man, said he wonders if he would have made the same choice had he been sent to the camps first.

"In Hawaii [volunteering to fight] was the thing to do. From the camps, that's something else," he said.

Gov. Christine Gregoire also spoke at the ceremony, thanking the soldiers who fought for the country in the past and those who continue to do so today. Gregoire said there are 663 soldiers from Washington State serving our nation overseas, including 228 in Iraq.

Junior Joanne Chang volunteered to usher at the event and watched the speakers over TV monitors in the lobby.

"Since it is Veterans Day, it's important to have this event every year," she said. "It's important for college kids to remember this part of our history."