Never Too Late

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Honolulu at Peace

"Gratitude is the memory of the heart."

  Jean Baptiste Massieu, 

translated from French

Honolulu in Wartime, WWII

This evening

 in site of the iconic Aloha Tower,

  on the deck of French naval ship

 PS Prairial during  port call here,

  A local man, retired attorney

Genro Kashiwa, 87,

 will be awarded France's highest civilian honor:

 the Legion of Honor

 and rank of chevalier (knight). 

He will be

 the second member

 of the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team

 to be so honored by a grateful French nation.  

Nisei World War II veteran

 Genro Kashiwa

courtesy Honolulu Star Advertiser

"Why me?"

 He asked a reporter.

"There were lot of other people

 doing more heroic things."

Courtesy Midweek.com 

Kashiwa said

 he'll accept the award

 for "his old gang."

While serving with the "Go For Broke"

442nd Regimental Combat Team

in France and Italy, 

Kashiwa earned two Silver Stars,

 a Bronze Star

 and a Purple Heart.

 The Army unit was made up mainly of

 Japanese-Americans

 who volunteered to prove their loyalty.

 Kashiwa's own father, 

Ryuten Kashiwa, a minister at Oahu's

 Waialua Hongwanji

was sent to an internment camp

 in Crystal City, Texas, as an enemy alien.

Mr. Kashiwa told a reporter,

that he remembers the details of battles

 that happened so long ago,

 and that

 "receiving the Chevalier Legion of Honor

 is almost a surreal experience - 

that events of over 65 years ago

 are being remembered today

 by the French government."

In his personal history of the French campaign,

 Kashiwa said following the famous "Banzai Charge" 

by fellow soldiers of the 442nd, 

his company ran into a German machine gun nest 

on the ridge line of a mountain in November 1944.

Kashiwa assumed command of his platoon 

when its sergeant was wounded 

and had to be evacuated.

According to his Silver Star citation,

Kashiwa took his platoon through a minefield,

 surprised the Germans and killed three enemy soldiers, silencing the machine gun.

Two of his soldiers were wounded in the firefight. Kashiwa is credited with treating their wounds under fire and directing their evacuations.

He received his Silver Star Oak Leaf Cluster, signifying a second award of the nation's highest medal for valor, during the Italian campaign in Mount Fologorito.

In Italy in April 1945,

 Kashiwa was in charge of a platoon

 assigned to clear the summit of a mountain

 to prevent a German counterattack.

After a personal reconnaissance, 

he directed one squad to attempt to move around

 the base of the summit

 and take the enemy from the rear

 while he led the other squad

 in a frontal assault.

His squad was able to almost reach the top

 before it was detected.

 Catching the enemy soldiers

10 yards away from their machine guns,

 Kashiwa rushed forward and cut off the Germans

 from their weapons. 

Kashiwa's tommy gun jammed 

after firing one shot,

 but the German soldiers, 

apparently confused, fled.

Kashiwa grabbed a German machine gun

 and fired it on the fleeing soldiers,

 forcing them to seek shelter in a reinforced bunker.

  Then he crawled alone to within grenade range

 and threw two grenades

which forced the remaining six Germans

 to surrender, the Silver Star citation said.

After the war,

 Kashiwa attended University of Michigan law school

 and practiced law in Honolulu

from 1951 to 2005.

 Cpl. Jonathan Faircloth was 22 years old. 

"Gratitude is the least of the virtues,

 but ingratitude is the worst of vices."

Thomas Fuller

 This young man,

a U.S. Marine

 was killed Tuesday night 

when his CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter

 performed an emergency landing

 and crashed

 in the middle of Kaneohe Bay here on Oahu.

He hailed from Mechanicsburg,Pennsylvania

but all Hawaii military

are our people.

  His three fellow Marines

 remain hospitalized in stable condition

 at the Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu.

Cpl. Faircloth was married last January to the sister of a fellow marine.

 He and his wife Alicia lived in Kailua and enjoyed spending time outdoors

 hiking and at the beach.

Jon's father recalled his last trip from Pennsylvania to Hawaii in October.

"We were very blessed in that the last time we were with Jon 

we had three weeks uninterrupted with him,"

 said Dean Faircloth.

He says the last time he spoke with his son by phone

 was the day the helicopter went down.

"His last words were ‘I love you, dad,'" 

said an emotional Faircloth.

  "It was nice. 

He was only 22, but he didn't waste his life. 

He built something with it.

 We're proud of him.

  We are immensely proud."

Hawaii News Now

"On a windswept hill
by a billowing sea,
my destiny sits
and waits for me."

Robert Brault