Veterans Salute

A  L  O  H  A !

“Here is your country. Cherish 

these natural wonders, cherish the 

natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. 

Do not let selfish men or greedy interests 

skin your country of its beauty, 

its riches or its romance.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Japanese-American veterans

of World War II, including 60 honorees from our Hawaii received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2011, awarded collectively

to the 100th Infantry Battalion,the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service.

They  served this country with much-noted heroism despite the fact that some had parents and siblings confined to internment camps at a time when Japanese Americans faced distrust unmatched by anything directed towards German Americans.

Jack Nakamura, 88, who was wounded twice

told a Honolulu reporter: 

"That's one reason why I joined, volunteered, too.They were calling me 'Jap' and stuff like that. My mother said, 'No, don't join up.'

But I joined up anyway."

And:

"After all that we went through and all that,

and to be recognized for what we did 

and all that, I'm grateful to the government

for awarding us this medal."

said Takashi Shirakata,

a 442nd Regimental Combat Team veteran.

Many of our aging heroes aren't able to attend the Washington events, so a celebration parade was held

for them here in Waikiki 

in December 2011:

Link

Thank You

to the men and women

who care enough

to stand on the wall.

Love You,

                        cloudia

Set Of Attitudes

A  L  O  H  A !

 "False words are not only 

evil in themselves, but they 

infect the soul with evil."

           Socrates

 Marin [Calif] Hills

“Love is the only thing 

that can touch our soul 

and change our heart.” 

            Lailah Gifty Akita

"A happy person is not 

a person in a certain set 

of circumstances, but 

rather a person with a 

certain set of attitudes."

                 Hugh Downs

⍾⍾⍾⍾⍾⍾⍾⍾⍾⍾⍾⍾⍾⍾⍾

Thank YOU

Friend!

              Warmly, cloudia

⍫⍫⍫⍫⍫⍫

Hawaii Photo of the Day

A  L  O  H  A !

Veteran

Hawaii Hero Photo of the Day

A  L  O  H  A !

Learn About These

True Heroes

HERE

Remember the movie about them with Van Johnson?

Hawaii Photo of the Day

A L O H A !

Bus Mural touts Pearl Harbor Historic sights

Visitors to Honolulu may visit
the [Battleship] Arizona Memorial*
where WWII began for the USA,


The Battleship Missouri
where the Japanese surrender
was signed and accepted,
ending the war,

 Pacific Aviation Museum
and a WWII submarine,
the USS Bowfin.

Hands-on history
at a working, modern
US Naval Base
where active ships
come and go.

*Elvis Presley hosted a benefit concert on March 25, 1961
 at Pearl Harbor’s Bloch Arena, raising over $64,000 for the Memorial!

Linking to Monday Mural

Here

Thanks for visiting!
                             Cloudia

Honoring Veterans Worldwide - Hawaii Chapter

Aloha SALUTE!

Originally posted: November 2, 2011

Today, proud, elderly, Japanese-American veterans

of World War II,

including 60 honorees from our Hawaii

finally
received
their Congressional Gold Medal.

  More than 400 Nisei veterans took part

  in Congressional Gold Medal events.

Today's ceremony took place

in Emancipation Hall

at  the U.S. Capitol.

The medal was awarded collectively

to the 100th Infantry Battalion,

click on the photos to be awed

the 442nd Regimental Combat Team

and the Military Intelligence Service.

They  served this country with much-noted heroism despite the fact that some had parents and siblings confined to internment camps at a time when Japanese Americans faced distrust unmatched by anything directed towards German Americans.

Jack Nakamura, 88,

who was wounded twice

told a reporter last week: 

"That's one reason why I joined, volunteered, too.

They were calling me 'Jap' and stuff like that.

My mother said, 'No, don't join up.'

But I joined up anyway," recalled Nakamura,

a 100th Infantry Battalion veteran.

"After all that we went through and all that,

and to be recognized for what we did 

and all that, I'm grateful to the government

for awarding us this medal,"

said Takashi Shirakata,

a 442nd Regimental Combat Team veteran.

When these veterans arrived in Washington, D.C. this past Monday morning they received a special honor at the airport as their plane was saluted with jets of water from airport firefighters. 

The medal itself will be archived at the 

Smithsonian Institution.

Each Hawaii veteran will receive their own as well.

Many of these aging heroes aren't able to attend the Washington events, so a celebration is being planned

for them here in Waikiki in December.

 I walk past this memorial on my way

to my Waikiki Post Office

If we 

would put country and family

ahead of self

as these men did,

many losing their lives,

their companions,

then America

would be

America

again.

Amen.

Thank You for sharing in this.

YOUR comment is valued.

                                                 warmly, cloudia

We Are Here Because of D-Day June 6 1944

Thank You

 Brave People Who Were There

History's Greatest Invasion

70 Years Ago

Today.

" I lived 

a thousand years 

that day "

               Wounded D-Day Veteran

[X]

I got to be born,

to grow up,

because of D-Day.

How many of us did!

Dad was in the

 US Army Air Corps.

All of our fathers

and uncles were

veterans.

As were

the cop on the beat,

the school principal,

the mail-carrier

and the guy

 pumping gas

[they also washed your windshield

and checked your tires!]

All the grown men

had been in 

The War.

The British, Dutch,

French, Chinese,

Filipinos, Australians,

NZ, and others

were our allies

and friends.

Germany was chastened,

Japan likewise,

but we were rebuilding 

them, infrastructure

and people,

as constitutional 

Democracies in our

image

and as friends.

My parents' friends

up the block,

I played with their kids,

displayed the 

living room photo

of Mrs. Schwartz's

handsome brother

in his US Navy pilot's uniform.

Action in the Pacific.

His body was never found.

Mothers, Fathers

 grandparents, siblings

sweethearts

grieved

and always would.

But 

they never talked about it.

The bereaved, 

or the veteran fathers.

"Real men" didn't.

Everyone was John Wayne.

But every family

processed the 

world's great pains.

We were the children

of a saved world,

children of Democracy.

It was a bright new day.

I grew up in a new house

purchased on great terms

with a VA loan.

(Veteran's Admin)

We would never understand

how the world suffered,

how our fathers

and mothers

suffered.

"Clean your plate

[ingrate] children

in Europe are starving."

And on some level

we felt their 

unintended resentment.

They saved the world.

How could we live up

to THAT!?

Fathers were tough then.

We didn't know why.

Perhaps they toughened us

in case of another

unthinkable challenge.

We needed to study

math to beat the Russians,

not carry a gun up the beach.

I am horrible with numbers.

The adults also whispered

about relatives

"coming over"

all very hush hush.

We kids didn't need to know

that they had been in

concentration camps.

I saw the numbers

tattooed on the wrists

of old people

who spoke with accents

but looked like us.

Laying in bed

I asked myself

if I could survive

hundreds of miles

crammed into a closed

boxcar with hundreds

of others, but no

toilet.

Today-

Outside my window

here in Honolulu

I see one of the globe's

great WWII military cemeteries,

Punchbowl

National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

Link

President Obama's grandfather

Stanley Dunham

is buried there.

The President grew up

in Stanley's home a mile from

here for many years.

The Obamas

and their girls

have visited Stanley's

grave more than once

" My landing craft

was full of boys.

Approaching the shore

I could hear

 rapid machine gun fire

hitting the front of the boat.

I knew when I lowered that ramp

those bullets would be

hitting flesh

instead of metal.

We hit the beach,

I got the order.

I lowered that gate."

US Navy Veteran

[in his 90's today]

at Omaha Beach

"Live your freedom.

That's what we did it for."

D-Day Veteran

70 Years Ago

Today

Hawaii's Vets: Proud Election Firsts

A  L  O  H  A  !

 

Article Six

 of the U.S. Constitution

 includes the guideline,

 "no religious test 

shall ever be required

 as a qualification

 to any office or public trust

 under the United States."

In 2006,  a Muslim, Keith Ellison, D-Mich.,

 and two Buddhists, Johnson, D-Ga.,

 and Hirono from Hawaii,

 were elected to the US House.

Mazie Hirono, 

my former Leutenant Governor,

and fellow University of Hawaii grad,

  has now been elected 

to be MY next US senator!

  

She will be the Senate’s first 

Japanese-born Asian-American,

 as well as the first Buddhist

 to hold that position.

 courtesy: MauiFeed

 Born in Fukushima Japan,

 the 65-year-old Hirono moved

 with her mother 

here to Hawaii

 as a shy eight-year-

 old speaking no English.

  Mother was escaping

 an abusive marriage;

  Her snug little barber shop,

 where Mazie did  homework, 

was a fixture for many years

 here in our Honolulu.

 Mazie attained US citizenship

 in 1959,

 the very year our Hawaii

 became a U.S. state.
 

 31-year-old 

female Iraq War vet 

Tulsi Gabbard 

will succeed Hirono in Congress,

 as one of 2 (see below)

  "first female combat vets"

  to serve as US Representatives.

 

Tulsi will also be 

the first Hindu 

in our Congress as well,

 likely to take her oath

 over the sacred Hindu text

 the Bhagavad Gita.

 Born in American Samoa

 to a Catholic father 

and a Hindu mother,  

Tulsi was brought to Hawaii 

at two years of age.

 

 In 2002, at age 21, 

she was elected

 to the Hawaii state legislature.

        The next year, 

she joined the Hawaii National Guard,

and in 2004 was voluntarily 

deployed to Baghdad 

as a medical operations specialist.

 After completing officers’ training 

she deployed to Kuwait in 2008 

where she trained counter-terrorism units. 

Tulsi was the first woman

 in the history of the 

Accelerated Officer Candidate School

 at the Alabama Military Academy 

to be designated a

 ‘distinguished honor graduate’

!

 

Her name 'Tulsi' 

 refers to a tree sacred to Hindus,

 and a healing herb.  

Embracing her mother's Hinduism

 as a teenager, Tulsi is a devotee

 of the Vaishnava branch

 [ believing in the Supreme Lord Vishnu,

 and his 10 primary incarnations.] 

 "Her primary scripture is the 

 Bhagavad Gita, 

whose themes include

 selfless action, 

spirituality, war, 

and serving God 

and humanity. "

Huff Post

Our new Congressional

 representative 

  hopes her faith will help

 to encourage stronger ties 

with India.

  'It is clear 

that there needs to be 

a closer working relationship 

 between the United States

 and India.

 How can we have

 a close relationship 

if decision-makers in Washington 

know very little, if anything,

 about the religious beliefs, 

values, and practices 

of India's 800 million Hindus?'

 Ms Gabbard quoted by: Religion News Service.

    TULSI GABBARD'S FAVOURITE VERSES FROM THE BHAVAGAD GITA:

 
        'That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul.' (2:17)

The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can he be burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind.'(2.23).

 Gabbard said her faith

 helped her through military service in Iraq,

 where there were daily reminders 

that she could be killed any time, 

according to the Huffington Post.

 Newly elected US Representative

 Tammy Duckworth  (D-Illinois)

 was nominated by President Barack Obama

 to serve as 

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

 Assistant Secretary and

confirmed by the Senate

 on April 22, 2009.

  Interestingly, she was sworn in

 by ANOTHER Hawaii guy, 

and favorite son:

the Secretary of Veterans Affairs,

 Eric Shinsek. 

A decorated and disabled

 combat helicopter pilot

 and veteran, 

Tammy is biracial, trilingual. 

She is also a Hawaii gal, 

graduating from McKinley High 

a mile away from where I write this

 in Honolulu!

For a tiny group of islands,

 once an independent kingdom 

that joined the USA 

under troubling circumstance,

Hawaii has contributed 

much to our nation!

Did you know 

that our President Barack Obama 

was born here in Honolulu, 

went to Punahou School here,

 buried his family members here, 

and brings the First Family

 'home' to this island 

every Christmas?

His re-election

has made me SO proud

of our country! 

God Bless America,

all our friends

ALL

 around the world;

Especially, Y O U!

How does this

make YOU feel?

Share in comments.

                               Warmly, cloudia