A bill to grant the congressional gold medal, collectively, to the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, United States Army, in recognition of their dedicated service during World War II.

I thank the gentleman from Indiana.

Madam Speaker, I rise to urge my colleagues to support S. 1055, which honors the thousands of Japanese-American veterans who served during World War II, and I thank my colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff), for introducing the legislation in the House and for his eloquent words today in support of the Senate bill.

At a time when many of their fellow Americans questioned their loyalty to the United States, these Japanese-American soldiers enlisted and put their lives on the line to defend our freedoms overseas while fighting against fear and discrimination at home. S. 1055 awards the Congressional Gold Medal to the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the Military Intelligence Service in honor of their military service.

Many of the soldiers comprising these units were Nisei, the American- born sons of Japanese immigrants. Some served in the University of Hawaii's Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), which aided the wounded, buried the fallen, and helped defend vulnerable areas in Hawaii after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In spite of these acts of loyalty and courage, the U.S. Army discharged all Nisei in the ROTC unit, changed their draft status to ineligible, and segregated all Japanese Americans in the military on the mainland out of their units. During this time, more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes to internment camps.

Undaunted, members of the Hawaii Provisional Battalion joined the 100th Infantry Battalion in California to train as soldiers. The sheer determination and pursuit of excellence displayed by this battalion in training contributed to President Roosevelt's decision to allow Nisei volunteers to

serve in the U.S. military again, leading to their incorporation into the 442nd.

Members of the 100th and the 442nd risked their lives to fight for our country and allies in Europe. The 442nd ``Go For Broke'' unit became the most decorated in U.S. military history for its size and length of service, with its component, the 100th Infantry Battalion, earning the nickname ``The Purple Heart Battalion.''

In addition, the 6,000 or so Nisei that comprised the Military Intelligence Service made vital contributions to wartime successes by conducting critical classified intelligence operations. Only in recent years has their invaluable service come to light, and it is long past due to acknowledge and honor the MIS's critical role during the war.

In the spirit of celebrating these courageous soldiers, I would like to share the stories of three men from Hawaii who overcame humble beginnings and adversity to become successful scholars and community leaders in Hawaii.

Kobe Shoji was a junior at Pomona College when he and his family received orders to go to an internment camp in Arizona. They brought nothing more than a suitcase with them to the camp. Kobe enlisted the next year and went to Germany to fight as a member of the 442nd. Although he was wounded twice, he came back to the States, never complaining about the discrimination that he and his family had faced, or about the wounds he suffered in the war. Kobe returned to complete his studies as though ``nothing had happened. . . . except we were all much more mature due to the wartime experience. We all had the feeling we must do something to make the world a better place to live.''

Kobe earned his doctorate in plant physiology from UCLA and moved to Hawaii thereafter to teach at the University of Hawaii and work as a respected agricultural expert. He later enjoyed watching his oldest son, Dave, coach the university's Rainbow Wahine volleyball team to many national championships.

Ken Otagaki is another example of resilience and success. As the second son of a field laborer on the island of Hawaii, Ken left home at the age of 12 to work in Honolulu on the island of Oahu as a houseboy before putting himself through college. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Ken enlisted and joined the 100th Infantry Division, serving overseas as a litter bearer. In January 1944, Ken was near Cassino, Italy, when he and six other litter bearers were called upon to help soldiers in front of them. Ken and seven other soldiers faced a barrage of mortar shells from the enemy. Three were killed. Four, including Ken, were seriously injured and were not evacuated until nearly a day later.

Ken recuperated at Walter Reed Hospital and later received the Combat Infantry Badge and the Purple Heart. Ken wrote to his sweetheart, Janet, telling her that he had lost his right leg, two fingers on his right hand, and the sight in his right eye. Their daughter, Joy, recalled that her mother thought that her father ``wasn't going to sit around feeling sorry for himself.'' Ken and Janet married later that year.

Because of his war injuries, Ken had to give up his plans to become a medical doctor, instead earning a PhD in animal science. The Otagakis began their life together on the mainland and had five children before moving back to Hawaii, where Ken taught at the University of Hawaii and later led the Hawaii State Department of Agriculture. Ken never let what others perceived to be his physical disabilities stop him from being active. He climbed trees to pick ripe mangoes and taught his kids how to swim and ride a bike.

The last veteran I would like to talk about is Yoshiaki Fujitani who Pauwela, Maui.

A second generation Japanese-American, Yoshiaki was taught ethics at Japanese language school, where he learned about honesty and perseverance by hearing stories about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. He was also taught what is known in Japanese as ``kuni no on,'' or gratitude to one's country, America.

After serving in ROTC at the University of Hawaii, Yoshiaki rose through the ranks in the Hawaii Territorial Guard, becoming squad leader. Of course the guard was later disbanded without any explanation, but they believe it was because the Japanese Americans in the guard were viewed as potential traitors.

On December 7, 1941, while preparing to play softball, Yoshiaki saw smoke and planes flying above Pearl Harbor before learning about the attack on the radio. He volunteered for the civilian Varsity Victory Volunteers but quit when he learned that his father was being held at a Department of Justice camp for being a potentially dangerous enemy alien.

When his friends joined the 442nd, Yoshiaki's initial anger about his father's incarceration subsided, and he decided to join the MIS. Yoshiaki served in Tokyo on assignment for the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section. After the war ended, he got married, raised a family, returned to Maui as a minister of the Buddhist faith, and he focused on fostering interfaith cooperation, eventually becoming the bishop of the Hawaii Kyodan. In 1976, he established a program called the ``Living Treasures of Hawaii'' to recognize the cultural contributions of individuals in Hawaii.

The life stories of these three men serve as an inspiration for all of us, and they certainly exemplify the history and the courage and the Americanism, the love of America, exhibited by the people we are honoring.

This legislation also honors Senator Daniel Inouye and the late Senator Spark Matsunaga, who served in the 442nd and 100th units, and of course they later went on to serve the people of Hawaii for many decades, and the people of our country.

Again, I urge all of my colleagues to vote in support of S. 1055. It is long overdue.

I do not plan to take that time except that, because I am retiring this year, I will take every bit of time I can get as an outgoing Member to still speak on anything. It's just an inside joke for those of us who have been accustomed to being listened to for a long time. I am sure it's not going to hold true once I leave Congress.

Madam Speaker, one thing we all need to listen to is our hearts when it comes to treating each other as we, ourselves, would want to be treated. When we think of something like this resolution and what it means to record history, we record history so that we learn from those aspects of history we do not want to repeat and by acknowledging the people who need to be acknowledged as amazing Americans, as this bill does.

They had the fortitude to fight, as all brave Americans have who serve our Armed Forces, whether in peacetime or wartime, never knowing whether their lives are going to be called to be donated to this country. Every single servicemember may be called to make the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country when they sign up and serve our country, never knowing.

But in this case, we had a group of Americans who signed up to fight for freedom when their own was being challenged here at home.

It's reminiscent of the stories of the Buffalo Soldiers in World War II, African Americans who were being denied the very rights that they were fighting to protect and uphold around the world, and they were doing so on behalf of a country that had refused to treat them as coequals.

In this case, Asian Americans, Japanese Americans who, because of the perception of who they were as Americans simply by what they look like, were being judged as whether they were American enough. Why is that important for us to remember today? Well, because last time I checked, we have Arab Americans right now making the ultimate sacrifice in the war against terrorism, Arab Americans who are being stigmatized, stereotyped, and wholesale bigotry against anybody of a different faith or ethnicity, somehow they are judged to be less American in their opportunities. And basically the requirement that they be treated the same as every other American, those rights are being challenged. And in spite of that, they are still out there defending our country.

Native Americans, who have been denied in one of the great shames on this country's history of the way our country treated its indigenous peoples who serve at greater numbers on behalf of this country than any other group in this country, Native Americans, and it is quite extraordinary when we think about heroes to think about those who are not only willing to lay their life on the line for freedom and this country, but are willing to do so in spite of the fact that they are being denied the very same rights that they are fighting

for here in America. That is why they deserve gold medals, because they fought two fights. They fought the fight for liberty around the world, and they fought the fight against bigotry that is denying them those same freedoms here at home.

And why else do we remember this? Because we're talking about the fact that no matter what you look like, we are all Americans, because that's America. We're the greatest country on the face of the Earth. Why? Because there's no other country in the world that has peoples from every other part of the world, and yet we're still divided by race, by color, and by creed by those who would like to foment fear and prejudice and use that as electoral victories, using the oldest wedge issue that we have ever known, and that's fear of difference, when actually the strength of our country is our diversity as a Nation.

My uncle, President Kennedy, in giving the National Civil Rights Address, first of any American President in American history, said it's a moral question at its base. Who amongst us would be willing to change the color of their skin? Who amongst us would be willing to change the color of their skin and abide by the counsels of patience and delay in terms of civil rights? Well, you know, if you're white and you're accepted as looking like an American, this might not seem like a big issue to you. But think about trading the color of your skin for a day and living like Americans who are Latino in a culture like today that stigmatizes people with brown skin as somehow less than Americans because maybe they got here illegally just because of the perception of the color of their skin. Set aside the fact that in my area of the country the biggest illegal immigration are people that look like me, with red hair and freckles on their face; that's the biggest illegal immigration, Irish overstays. It's an interesting battle that's been the battle for the heart and the soul of America since the beginning of time.

I propose that the final question of our time for our veterans is whether we are going to abide by the counsels of patience and delay in setting our veterans free from their war injuries. Because how many of us suffering at home now from traumatic brain injury and PTSD would be willing, because the Congress is not ready to put the money into biomedical research that it needs to because they say that's not government's job to do medical research; that's someone else's. I don't know whose job it is, but if I'm a veteran coming back from fighting for this country and I'm trapped behind the enemy lines of stigma and shame, trapped behind the enemy lines of indifference because you can't see my wound--my wound is an invisible wound; it's brain injury--think about what it must be like for them to know that our country has the wherewithal to save those with TBI and rescue them from being prisoners of their war injury if we put the money behind it, if we match our action with our rhetoric. We're not going to leave those veterans behind, okay. Then let's do something that makes sure we don't. Let's invest in the kinds of stem cell research, the kinds of genetic biomarkers that are going to allow us to make sure that they are going to be saved from enemy territory, prisoners of their war injuries.

You could say, oh, well, it's going to take 10 years before we are able to repair spinal cord tissue and allow those veterans to stand up out of their wheelchair because they were paralyzed. Well, if you're 25 years old, I should hope that they get an indication from this Congress, from this country, from this President that we are in it to win it when it comes to saving them, because you know what? We would put our full might of military power to go get them if they were held by al Qaeda. Why aren't we doing the same when it comes to them being held hostage by their TBI and PTSD?

If we think of each other as human beings and advancing the great cause, or the fact that we all breathe the same air, drink the same water, live on the same planet, want the same things for all of our families, why would we ever treat each other differently, discriminate against one another, when it's the very strength of our country?

These Japanese Americans, they fought the roughest fights. They were put in the biggest harm's way, just like the Buffalo Soldiers were in the European theater as well. Why? They wanted to take it on to demonstrate they weren't about to be cowering in the fear of those with bigotry in their hearts.

Let's pass this legislation and set all Americans free, because we're all human beings, all Americans, irrespective of color, creed, or the way we look.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of legislation granting

the Congressional Gold Medal to the Japanese American 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, commonly known as the ``Go for Broke'' regiments, as well as veterans of the Military Intelligence Service, for their dedicated service to our Nation during World War II.

It is an honor and a pleasure to offer humble thanks to this storied and inspirational group of men who answered their country's call in the face of tremendous adversity. Today, through final passage of a bill that will grant these regiments Congress' highest honor, we recognize those who have served our Nation at great risk, as well especially those who sacrificed all for our freedom.

These men served the Nation at a pivotal moment in our history, displaying their heroism and courage on two fronts--abroad in the fight against an absolutist fascism and at home in the face of the intolerance of racial injustice.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor incited many doubts about the loyalty of Japanese Americans, these men who enlisted to protect our Nation were faced with segregated training conditions, family and friends relocated to internment camps, and repeated questions about their combat ability. It has been said many times about this group: to answer the call of duty requires exceptional courage and sacrifice, but to respond with a vigor and persistence unaffected by those who sought to malign and impede their every achievement reveals an incredible spirit and indomitable will.

Six weeks after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the internment of tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. But even as xenophobia gripped the country, Japanese Americans were already lining up to join the war effort.

In June of 1942, 1,432 members of the Hawaii Provisional Infantry Battalion were shipped from the Hawaiian Islands to Oakland, California, where the 100th Infantry Battalion was activated on June 12, 1942, and then were shipped to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, for training. Thanks to the excellent training record of the 100th Infantry Battalion and petitions from prominent civilians and military leaders, President Roosevelt and the War Department reopened military service to Nisei volunteers.

Eventually, their exemplary training record convinced the doubters, and the 100th Infantry Battalion was deployed to the Mediterranean where they entered combat in Italy in September of 1943. Due to their bravery and valor, members of the Battalion were honored with six awards of the Distinguished Service Cross in the first 8 weeks of combat.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team arrived in Italy in June 1944, where the 100th Infantry Battalion was formally integrated as a part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. As a unit, these regiments fought for the last 11 months of the war with selfless distinction in Italy, southern France, and Germany. Their performance in combat demonstrated their ability as remarkable soldiers; however, their poise, courage, and patriotism showed they were also remarkable men. They looked to support from their interned families, friends, and communities. And in turn, their service and commitment inspired their supporters back home to pursue aspirations of their own.

Today, we also honor the Military Intelligence Service, known as MIS, who were made up of several thousand Japanese American soldiers who conducted highly classified intelligence operations that proved to be vital to U.S. military successes in the Pacific theater. These men fought alongside U.S. and Allied combat units where they translated radio transmissions and enemy documents, interrogated prisoners, and completed reconnaissance and covert intelligence missions. Often they were faced with peril from both enemy and friendly forces--unrecognized by allies and attacked by enemies.

Their contributions continued during the Allied postwar occupation of Japan, and MIS linguistic skills and understanding of Japanese customs were invaluable to occupation forces as they assisted Japan in a peaceful transition to a new, democratic form of government.

The ``Go for Broke'' regiments and the MIS were not the only servicemen of Asian Pacific Islander descent to serve in World War II. I also want to recognize those groups who faced similarly daunting conditions at home and abroad--the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, the 1399th Combat Engineer Company, the Women's Army Corps, the Filipino Scouts, and other heralded units. The ``Go for Broke,'' MIS, and other Japanese American men and women who have served deserve our continual rededication and appreciation. The debt we owe them is immeasurable.

Their aggregate service record speaks for itself and drove me to introduce legislation last year--this legislation--which recognizes these regiments with the Nation's highest and most distinguished civilian award--the Congressional Gold Medal. My colleagues in the House of Representatives saluted the valor of these regiments by voting unanimously last year on my bill to honor them with a Gold Medal. Recently, the Senate passed the bill authored by Senator Barbara Boxer with the same unanimous approval. With this vote today, we can begin to truly express our appreciation for a group of men who left a segregated country to fight and defend an America with no guarantee that their own freedom would be defended in return. Their true heroism lies in how they fought for values of America, equality, justice, and opportunity, even when those values were not fully extended to them.

We will continue to look towards their example to provide hope to our communities, to look past our differences, and to unite around our common bonds. Men and women are able to serve their country today without regard for ethnicity, race, or nationality because of what these men endured and accomplished.

It's an honor to be part of this moment, Madam Speaker, and I urge you to join me in recognizing these courageous men by supporting the granting of a Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the U.S. Army's 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service.

Madam Speaker, I did not come over to the floor to speak on this issue; I came for the next issue. But I am an honorary Nisei vet. I have been involved with the Nisei community and with the Nisei vets of the 442nd in Seattle for a number of years.

Two weeks ago, we dedicated a wall at the Nisei vet hall on which the names appear of all the people from Seattle. It was an extremely moving event to have not only some of the old vets but to also have the young sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters get up and talk about their relatives and what they did.

I found out about the Nisei when I was in college. I had a roommate named Dave Sukura. One day, he told me about having been in a prison camp when he was in elementary school. I couldn't believe it. I was a kid from Chicago, and had never heard of such a thing; 127,000 people were rounded up for no other reason than we were panicked about the Japanese, and we put them in concentration camps.

Now, you can imagine having a store or having a hotel or having a farm and suddenly being told you have 1 week to get your stuff together and get out of here. They lost all their land. They lost all their holdings. They lost everything. They were sent to these camps. Someday, when you're in Idaho, go out to Minidoka, and see the national monument that we have created. We call it a ``monument'' now, but it was a concentration camp then. There was nothing there. They came and put up barracks very quickly and said to the people, Move in.

In a room of 20-by-20, you had seven people living with no running water and with no hot water for 4 months, and they were trying to deal with babies and diapers and with all the things that go on in ordinary living. Then the people who have put you there turn around and say, We will accept you into our Army to go and fight for us in Italy. Now, you can imagine among these Japanese families the discussions that went on about whether or not they should participate in this.

David's grandfather came from Japan and started the Japanese Baptist Church in Seattle. He told his sons, We are Americans, and we will support our country no matter what.

This was long before the war, so he was dead when that happened. They were then taken off to the camps.

The mother--her name was Misa Sukura--had four sons. She said to her boys, You must go.

The camp people were mad at her. How can you send all of your sons to this?

She said, They are Americans. We are proud and we will serve.

Now, you have to understand what it took then to be thrown into the toughest part of the war. They didn't become the most decorated unit in United States Army history because they were sent out to some easy deal. They were sent into the toughest fighting in Italy. They are the ones who went in when they couldn't find the lost battalion. They said, Send in the 442nd--and they found them. A simple medal hardly speaks to what they did for us, but what they did beyond that is to say, if you're in America and if you're an American, we treat you all the same.

We are at a time now when their example needs to be carefully looked at because panic among the American people says suddenly, Oh, those people are to be feared. We can't stand those people. They're not like us. What happened in 1941 can happen again if we do not honor those Nisei vets and their families who stayed at home. They lived through without fathers, without mothers, with all the people who got killed, and everything else.

Several years ago, it was my honor to name the courthouse in Seattle, Washington, after a young man named William Nakamura. He went at 19 years old, out of Garfield High School, and won the Medal of Honor. The family never got the medal because the medals were buried. Nobody wanted to demonstrate and distribute them until President Clinton went back and reviewed the records and found these Medals of Honor. They were then given to the families of the fallen.

We have much to be proud of in this country, but the Nisei vets have more than most of us because they overcame the racism and the attitudes that put them in concentration camps, and they came out and stood tall. For that reason, I am very proud to be here today. I commend Mr. Schiff and the other members of the committee who brought this gold medal. It's about time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of S. 1055, sponsored by Senator Boxer and recently passed by the Senate.

At this time I want to say to Congressman Carson that I have many fond memories of his grandmother. Julia Carson and I served as cochairmen of the Zoo and Aquarium Caucus. She was a real lady, and I know she is very proud that you have taken her place representing the good citizens of Indianapolis. I would just like to acknowledge what a fine lady she was, and that's a heritage you can be proud of.

This legislation, as Congressman Carson said, would award a Congressional Gold Medal collectively to the United States Army's 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in recognition of their exemplary service during World War II.

This bill makes minor additions to its House companion bill that Mr. Carson mentioned by adding language in the findings and the existing Sense of Congress section that points out the contributions made by the Military Intelligence Service, which was made up of 6,000 Japanese American soldiers.

The House bill was cosponsored by 296 Members and agreed to by this Chamber in May of last year. I urge my colleagues to again support this legislation.

As we all know, the world changed instantly after the dreadful attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. I think for the first time, on 9/ 11, many Americans could get some sense of what it must have been like to have lived during those times. And though its impact was felt by every American, Japanese Americans were hit particularly hard.

Six weeks after the attack, the U.S. Army discharged all Japanese Americans in the Reserve Officers Training Corps and changed their draft status to ``enemy alien.'' Active military Japanese Americans were segregated out of their units. We all know what happened afterwards. The U.S. and Canadian Governments gathered Japanese Americans in all the Western States and moved them to internment camps.

In June of 1942, the 1,400 members of the Hawaii Provisional Infantry Battalion were shipped from the Islands to Oakland and formed into the 100th Infantry Battalion, and then they were shipped to Wisconsin by train for training. Eight months later, based on the battalion's excellent training record, the President and War Department agreed to let second-generation Japanese Americans into the service, and they were formed into the 442nd Regimental.

Madam Speaker, the 100th Infantry Battalion was deployed the next year to the Italian front in September 1943, and while it encountered heavy fighting, it handled itself so well that its members earned six Distinguished Service Crosses in their first 2 months of action. The 442nd arrived in Italy 9 months later, after which the two units joined forces, fighting with distinction in Italy, France, and Germany to the war's conclusion.

Together, they received seven Presidential Unit Citations, 21 Medals of Honor, 29 Distinguished Service Crosses, 560 Silver Stars with 28 Oak Leaf Clusters, 4,000 Bronze Stars with 1,200 Oak Leaf Clusters, and more than 9,000 Purple Hearts.

This bill recognizes their service and appropriately provides for the collective awarding of a Congressional Gold Medal. It would be given to the Smithsonian Institution for display and for research purposes.

Madam Speaker, this award is long overdue. I urge its immediate passage.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to reclaim my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Djou).

Madam Speaker, I yield the gentleman such additional time as he may consume.

Madam Speaker, I will make the offer that if additional time is needed on the majority side, I would be willing to yield time to Mr. McDermott or to others.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield to the gentleman such time as he may consume.

Madam Speaker, I yield 9 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Kennedy).