Associated PressPEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — The families of five Hawaii men who served in a unit of Japanese-language linguists during World War II received posthumous Purple Heart medals on behalf of their loved ones on Friday, nearly eight decades after the soldiers died in a plane crash in the final days of the conflict.
Researchers in Hawaii and Minnesota recently discovered the omission, leading the Army to agree to issue medals to families of the 29 men who were never recognized. Researchers located families of the five from Hawaii, and now the Army is asking family members of theThe older Ikemoto was the fourth of 10 children and the first in his family to attend college when he enrolled at the University of Hawaii. He was photographer and developed film in a makeshift darkroom in a bedroom at home.
They had all flown up from the Philippines to spearhead the occupation of Japan after Tokyo's surrender, said Daniel Matthews, who looked into the ill-fated flight while researching his father's postwar service in the 11th Airborne. They five had been inducted in January 1944 after the MIS, desperate to get more recruits, sent a team to Hawaii to find more linguists, historian Mark Matsunaga said.
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