Family members, veterans and local leaders gathered at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific to mark the annual memorial for the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd RCT, 1399th Engineer Battalion and the Military Intelligence Service.
The annual Nisei Soldiers Memorial Service at Punchbowl commemorates four predominantly Nisei units: the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the 1399th Engineer Battalion and the Military Intelligence Service.
Speakers emphasized passing the story to descendants as World War II veterans grow fewer, framing stewardship of memory as a family and community responsibility.
On the Sunday closest to Sept. 29, family members of Japanese American World War II veterans gathered at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl crater for the annual Nisei Soldiers Memorial Service. The ceremony recognizes the service and sacrifice of four units formed largely of American-born children of Japanese immigrants: the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the 1399th Engineer Battalion and the Military Intelligence Service.
What happened at this year's ceremony
Family members, local dignitaries and veterans' descendants attended. David Turner, grandson of Lt. Col. Farrant Turner — the 100th Battalion's first commander — delivered the invocation and framed the remembrance as an obligation for descendants: "the day comes now as the breaths of the survivors become fewer and fewer, and the story of those men of the 100th, the 442nd, the MIS, and the 1399th becomes our story."
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, whose father served in the 100th Battalion, reinforced that veterans' example continues to guide later generations: "They may no longer stand beside us, but their example still guides us."
After the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, people of Japanese ancestry in the U.S. faced immediate suspicion and reclassification as "enemy aliens," and many were interned. Despite that, thousands of Japanese Americans sought to serve.
Speakers and attendees at Punchbowl stressed that with the mortality of World War II veterans, responsibility for preserving personal stories and historical detail is shifting to family members and community groups in Hawaii. The ceremony serves as an annual focal point for remembrance and for passing specific wartime experiences and life stories to younger generations.
Punchbowl's memorial service keeps the names and events of these units in public memory and connects current leaders and descendants with tangible artifacts of the past — photographs, veterans' accounts and ceremonial observances. For Hawaii's families of Nisei veterans, the event is both a tribute and a practical step toward sustaining an oral and documentary record as survivors age.
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