November 6, 2011
Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony - Part 1
Click to see CGM Ceremony Part 2
Bronze Star Ceremony
Congratulations to the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Military Intelligence Service on the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal. It was a proud moment for our nation to see the three units being recognized for their valiant service and sacrifices by our nation's leaders on November 2, 2011.
It is our pleasure to announce that several regions across the United States will be holding regional celebrations to commemorate this historic occasion. Please see the list below and feel free to contact these individuals below to get more information. Please note that this is a partial list. More dates will be added as information becomes available.
- State of Hawaii (Honolulu)- December 17, 2011
- State of Washington (Seattle) - January 14, 2012
- State of Texas (Houston) - February 19, 2012 (Gary Nakamura - jaclhouston@gmail.com)
- State of Utah (Salt Lake City) - February 18, 2012 (Jeanette Spencer - jeanettespencer@me.com)
- State of Oregon (Portland) - February 26, 2012 (Mari Watanabe - mari@oregonnikkei.org and Setsy Larouche - larouche@msn.com)
- State of Illinois (Chicago) - April 22, 2012 (Howard Hieshima - hhieshima@sbcglobal.net)
- February 19, 2012 - Central California District Council of the Japanese American Citizens League and its Pinedale Assembly Center Memorial Project Committee (Dale Ikeda - daleikeda@att.net)
- February 23, 2012 - Japanese American Museum of San Jose (http://www.jamsj.org/)
- March 4, 2012 - Monterey Chapter of the JACL (contact: Larry Oda (twuneo1@msn.com Tel: (831) 758-7107) and the Monterey Peninsula Nisei Memorial Post 1629 (contact: Jim Suzuki, Post Commander, (Jsuzukivfwvod@comcast.net. Tel: (831-384-8493)
- March 11, 2012 - San Diego Japanese American Historical Society and San Diego JACL (Linda McLemore lhmclemore@yahoo.com or Robert Ito rpito@cox.net)
- April 14, 2012 - Sonoma JACL, Sebastopol, CA (Mark Hayashi - mhaya@comcast.net)
- April 22, 2012 - CGM Regional Northern CA Tribute (VFW Nisei Memorial Post 9879, SF Nikkei Club, and National Japanese American Historical Society, co-hosts). Event will start at 11:30am at the Japanese Cultural Community Center of Northern CA. To register, go to www.njahs.org For more information, please email the NJAHS at njahs@njahs.org
- June 9, 2012 - Go For Broke Monument, Los Angeles, CA (Cathy Tanaka, cazspaz@aol.com)
The Congressional Gold Medal replica is now sale on the United States Mint web site at http://www.usmint.gov/. The replicas are $44.95 each, $8 for a presentation case. We recommend you place your replica order early. For background on the medal design, please read the U.S. Mint's announcement of the medal.
The National Veterans Network is selling a very limited number of Commemorative Booklets that commemorates the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal celebration in Washington DC. Each booklet is $12.00 that includes shipping and handling. Maximum of 5 booklets per individual order. All sales are final and we cannot guarantee the quality of the booklet resulting from shipment. Payment can be made via Paypal or by writing a check payable to NVN's fiscal sponsor, the NJAMF (please see donate page for address). Please allow two weeks for shipment. Please click on the order form to place your order.
The National Veterans Network will be working on producing a DVD of the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony and celebratory events, and will make it available at a cost TBD. Please check our web site periodically in the upcoming month for more information.
We have posted the videos of the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony, Bronze Star Ceremony and speeches given during the three-day celebration. NVN also encourages you and your friends to follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/NationalVeteransNetwork) as we post photos and updates in the upcoming weeks.
Our special thanks to all of our honorees for attending the three-day celebration in Washington DC. We sincerely hope you enjoyed the festivities. We encourage you to check our web site periodically for updates on the upcoming traveling exhibit in 2012 in partnership with the Smithsonian.
Christine Sato-Yamazaki
Chairperson, National Veterans Network