Staff Sgt. Joseph Kamikawa.

More than four decades ago, in a virtually unknown country, the United States got involved in what it called a “police action.” News of this event was hard to come by, as television was not a regular household item yet, and newspapers kept the stories hidden somewhere in the back pages.

Today, more than 40 years later, that police action–now known as the Korean War–is still only vaguely remembered. Some refer to this event in history as the “forgotten war,” overshadowed by World War II and the controversy of the Vietnam War.

“But for the servicemen who served in that bloody conflict, it was just as deadly and real,” said Renton resident Joseph Kamikawa, an Army veteran who served two years in the battlefields of the Korean War and a total of seven years in the Army. As a paratrooper and medic for the 11th Airborne’s 187th Regimental Combat Team, he knew first-hand how real the war was.

Hiroshi Miyamura, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions as an infantryman with the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division during the Korean War agrees. “We went through the same thing as the World War II veterans. We went hungry, got cold and were shot at,” said the retired Gallup, N.M., resident.

Even with the building of the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C., veterans of that conflict don’t think enough has been done to remember those who served. “When the Korean War Memorial was dedicated ion 1995, I looked in our newspapers,” said Kamikawa. “It was on the next to the last page. I was really heartbroken. I thought, for the number of men that died, that it would be somewhere on the front page.”

Robert Wada is another Japanese American who volunteered to go. Currently a Buena Park, Calif., resident, he enlisted in the Marine Corps during the Korean War. “The term ‘forgotten war’ has a special, ugly connotation for myself and for many Japanese American Korean War-era veterans,” he said. “we should not allow anyone to ever forget the war or those who died. It is our obligation to perpetuate their memory.”

Korean War veterans remind the younger generation that the war, its veterans and the fallen servicemen should not be forgotten. The dead, said Kamikawa, are a reminder of the price paid for democracy. For Japanese American Korean War veterans, the importance of remembering the contributions of their fallen comrades carries yet another dimension.

During World War II, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were uprooted from their homes and placed into relocation centers. Imprisoned without a trial, many Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans) joined the Army’s segregated 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Military Intelligence Service to prove their loyalty to a country that stripped them of their constitutional rights as American citizens.

History now records the 100th and 442nd as two of the most highly decorated Army units in American history. Moreover, the MIS played a critical role in the disarming of the Japanese military at the end of WWII. Today, veterans of these units are celebrated within the Japanese American–as well as the Asian American–community.

Hiroshi Miyamura receives the Medal of Honor.

By the time the Korean War broke out in 1950, the U.S. government had desegregated the Armed Forces. Many of the Nisei WWII veterans, as well as Nisei who were too young to fight in the earlier war, volunteered to fight. Many of them still had something to prove.

Many Nisei felt that it was necessary to prove their allegiance to the country of their birth by once again heeding the call to arms. “Japanese Americans were one of the most educated groups in America,” said Kamikawa. “And we couldn’t get jobs as educators. Boeing wouldn’t hire us. Most employers wouldn’t hire us. We accumulated a war record, suffered a high cost to prove loyalty–way beyond for what was necessary for a rational person to say, “Yeah, they’re okay.”

Now that the war records have been well documented and the loyalty of Japanese Americans proven, the Nisei veterans want that history to be remembered by future generations. For the last nine months, efforts have been made by Nisei veterans of the Korean War to construct a war memorial in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo.

“Our purpose in [building the memorial] was quite simple, very necessary and long overdue,” said Wada. “The Korean War was being forgotten by our nation and even by our Japanese American community.”

The project was sparked in Los Angeles by Wada and two other Nisei veterans who formed an organization called the Japanese American Korean War Veterans. “I agreed to be the president for this group if there was enough interest,” said Wada. “I told myself that if there were only a few people coming to the first meeting, I would go back home and watch TV.”

As it turned out, there was a great interest in the project, and instead of going back to his television, Wada has taken the lead to raise the necessary funds and coordinate the effort to build the monument. “Everything fell into place,” he said. “We had the right people to cut through all the red tape and get this project completed on time.”

Kamikawa has been heading up the efforts here as the Pacific Northwest coordinator. Collectively, the veterans’ group has been raising funds to build the memorial, which will have the names of Japanese American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who lost their lives in the Korean War.

“I found out about the [memorial project] through a Los Angeles paper and sent them a donation,” Kamikawa said. “They wrote me back and said they needed a Northwest coordinator and asked if I would serve.”

Although Kamikawa describes himself as one who doesn’t normally volunteer, he said he felt an obligation to get involved. Kamikawa teamed up with Dr. Ben Uyeno, who has been the attending physician at Keiro Nursing Home for the last 20 years, to do their part in raising the $150,000 needed to construct the granite wall.

“It’s time to remember,” said Uyeno, who served for 18 months as an Army doctor in a field emergency medical hospital just south of Pyongyang, Korea. “Very, very few of the younger generation know anything about the war.”

Although it seemed like an insurmountable goal, Kamikawa said he drew inspiration from a letter and donation sent by a local woman who wrote, “I’m not a Korean War veteran, but I believe that these men should be remembered and have their place in history. Thank you for what you are doing.”

“I felt there must be many other people like her,” said Kamikawa. “And if we could get them all to give a small donation, we should have the memorial wall up–no problem.”

Through hard work and determination of all involved, said Wada, their initial monetary goal to construct the monument in the courtyard of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center has been realized. The monument, which will have approximately 249 names on it, is scheduled to be presented to the public during Memorial Day weekend this year.

U.S. Marines (l-r) Hank and Robert Wada and Robert Madrid.

Finding the names for the memorial wall has been a painstaking mission for the veteran’s group, as all Asians were classified as “Mongoloids” at that time, said Wada. Thus, names to be engraved on the 18-foot granite memorial wall were complied based on those killed or missing in action with Japanese surnames.

Although the initial goal of constructing the granite wall memorial has been obtained, the Nisei veterans are quick to remind the public that their mission is not yet over. After the presentation of the memorial wall, the veterans’ group will begin Phase II of their campaign: historical preservation.

This will entail building a smaller, light-weight version of the granite wall that can be transported easily to schools and museums across the country. Moreover, they will begin working on a CD-ROM project that will give dimension to the names engraved on the memorial wall.

“We are getting old,” said Wada. “When we pass away and our grandchildren have grandchildren, they won’t know who we are.” The CD-ROM, he said, will preserve the history of those who lost their lives in the Korean War for future generations.

So, why has it taken so long for the Nisei warriors to speak up? According to Kamikawa, after more than four decades of silence, he said his fellow war veterans “realize that history will walk right past them.”

After the war, Kamikawa said, the average person didn’t want to think about the war. “Everyone was excited about the post-war world, how they could get their new home,” Kamikawa reflected. “The young GI coming back home–he was more concerned about education and family than he was about the war he fought in Korea.”

Since the government called the war a “police action,” said Kamikawa, those coming home didn’t think it was a “legitimate” war. GIs such as Kamikawa decided to take their well-earned GI Bill and get an education and raise their families. They kept their ribbons and medals safely tucked away–out of sight, out of mind.

“I thought I was going to go over there for a police action, and would be armed with a billy club,” said Miyamura. “If I thought that, what would the average American think?”

The Nisei veterans also attribute their silence to the upbringing they received from their Issei (first-generation Japanese American) parents. “You don’t go around talking about these things,” Miyamura said. “You’re not supposed to be a braggart.”

According to Miyamura, his own children had to read about his Medal of Honor due to his own reluctance to talk about it.

Today, if there is one thing that the Nisei veterans want the younger generations to remember, it is the price paid for their place as Americans. “We did go through a period in history, I think, that will be an important foundation for other Asian Americans to understand,” said Kamikawa. “For example, when it comes to a question of loyalty.”

The memorial wall, the Nisei warriors hope, will stand as a reminder to all Americans of the price of freedom–not only of the ever-budding democracy in the Republic of Korea, but the freedom for Americans of Japanese descent to call themselves, “American.”

“Freedom is not free,” said Miyamura. “A lot of Korean War veterans have paid for that freedom. People tend to forget the veterans when the war is over. This monument is needed as a constant reminder of those who made the supreme sacrifice.”

“We suffered greatly because of our ethnic group, because we were born Japanese,” said Kamikawa. “We went to concentration camps. Now we feel this should never happen to other Asian Americans. It can happen, if we forget, and we don”t talk about the price that we paid for our standing as Americans.”

This article was originally published in the April 1997 issue of Asian Focus.