became Hawaii's first congressman in 1959 when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Inouye, a native of Honolulu, was re-elected to a full term in 1960 and won election to the U.S. Senate in 1962.

3 out of 22 were for 'Lost Battalion battle'

The 20 other veterans scheduled to receive the Medal of Honor are:  

• Staff Sgt. (later 2nd Lt.) Rudolph B. Davila, 7th Infantry, for actions on May 28, 1944, at Artena, Italy. 
   
• Pvt. Barney F. Hajiro, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for actions in October 1944, at Bruyeres and Biffontaine, France. 
   
• Pvt. Mikio Hasemoto, 100th Infantry Battalion, for actions on Nov. 29, 1943, at Cerasuolo, Italy (posthumous). 
   
• Pvt. Joe Hayashi, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for actions in April 1945, at Tendola, Italy. 
   
• Pvt. Shizuya Hayashi, 100th Infantry Battalion, for actions on Nov. 29, 1943, at Cerasuolo, Italy. 
   
• Tech. Sgt. Yeiki Kobashigawa, 100th Infantry Battalion, for action on June 2, 1944, at Lanuvio, Italy. 
   
• Staff Sgt. Robert T. Kuroda, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for actions on Oct. 20, 1944, at Bruyeres, France (posthumous). 
   
• Pfc. Kaoru Moto, 100th Infantry Battalion, for actions on July 7, 1944, at Castellina, Italy (posthumous). 
   
• Pfc. Kiyoshi K. Muranaga, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for actions on June 26, 1944, at Suvereto, Italy (posthumous). 
   
• Pvt. Masato Nakae, 100th Infantry Battalion, for actions on August 19, 1944, at Pisa, Italy (posthumous). 
   
• Pvt. Shinyei Nakamine, 100th Infantry Battalion, for actions on June 2, 1944, at La Torreto, Italy (posthumous). 
   
• Pfc. William K. Nakamura, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for actions on July 4, 1944, at Castellina, Italy (posthumous). 
   
• Pfc. Joe M. Nishimoto, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for actions on Nov. 7, 1944, at La Houssiere, France (posthumous). 
   
• Sgt. (later Staff Sgt.) Allan M. Ohata, 100th Infantry Battalion, for actions in November 1943 at Cerasuolo, Italy. 
   
• Tech. Sgt. Yukio Okutsu, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for actions on April 7, 1945, at Mount Belvedere, Italy. 
   
• Pfc. Frank H. Ono, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for actions on July 4, 1944, at Castellina, Italy (posthumous). 
   
• Staff Sgt. Kazuo Otani, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for actions on July 15, 1944, at Pieve di S. Luce, Italy (posthumous). 
   
• Pvt. George T. Sakato, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for actions on Oct. 29, 1944, in Biffointaine, France. 
   
• Tech. Sgt. Ted T. Tanouye, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for actions on July 7, 1944, at Molina a Ventoabbto, Italy (posthumous). 
   
• Capt. Francis B. Wai, 34th Infantry, for actions on Oct. 20, 1944, at Leyte, Philippine Islands (posthumous).

A 22nd Medal of Honor was favorably considered for another Japanese American, James Okubo, under a separate provision of the law. The decoration can't be formally approved, however, until Congress waives the statutory time restriction in his specific case, Army officials noted.

“Deceit and Lying about the Medals of Honor”

The below message, edited and condensed, was accepted for publication by the Army Times, the paper of record for the regular army. I had sent a picture to accompany the article. Then the paper, owned by Gannett Newspapers decided not to run what I wrote. The editor, Brian McKiel, who previously talked to me would not come to the phone. My letters and phone calls went unanswered. I had crossed the line. bmackei@armytimes.com

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One Japanese Regiment receives 20 Medal of Honor I write perplexed and angered from the perspective of the lower and middle classes that have long felt national politics has passed them by. Awarding the Medals of Honor to 20 Japanese-Americans for gallantry in World War II some 50 years afterwards must strike the tastemakers of America as appropriate. Yet reviewing some hard facts lead to differing conclusions. In 1940 the population of America was 131 million to include 13 million African-Americans, some 5 million Jewish-Americans and about 113 million others, largely white. In that war some 292,000 Americans died under battlefield conditions and 116,000 under conditions other than combat.

Dial Press in 1947 published American Jews in World War II: The Story of 550,000 Fighters for Freedom. This book used information and numbers compiled by the Jewish National Welfare Board that assigned rabbis to the military. (Kaufman, American Jews in World War II: The Story of 550,000 Fighters for Freedom (2 volumes), p349 (Vol I), Dial Press, 1947) Its caveat that the record was not complete as it used data available as of July 1, 1946 should be weighed against the fact the war ended almost one year earlier and the Board had access to military records. This book claimed that the 11 percent of Jews who served were 3.5 percent of the total armed forces of the United States and was followed by the assertion: "This approximates their ratio in the total population". Then the claim was made that 10,500 Jews died in military service with 8000 in combat. These figures were the ones accepted by the Encyclopedia Judaica edition printed in 1972 for participation by American Jews in World War II. . (Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol 15, p1634 (Kefer Press, 1972)) Jews of America died at the rate of 2.1 per 1000 Jews with 1.6 dying in combat.

What bothers has been not that this number is not discussed, but that the American media code of conduct has forbidden its open knowledge. Harsh truths must be avoided in what the media have sensed as their duty to shape and guide society by presentation of what they perceive as socially acceptable facts.

American ineptitude was not limited to the Afro-American Divisions. The performance of the 92d Division in battle was likened to the all-white 106th Division that bore the initial onslaught during the Battle of the Bulge and also "melted away. As poorly as the black divisions fought, their incompetence did not match that of the all-white 9^th Infantry division at Kasserine Pass. The 9^th Division and the 106^th Division both got another chance. The black divisions did not. African-Americans died at a rate less than 0.5 per 1000 blacks.

This leaves the remaining 113 million including include the Nisei. These Americans died at the rate of 3.4 per 1000 of population. To compare this number with other nations who fought in both World Wars of this century is to appreciate how little America suffered in comparison.

For bravery during World War II some 430 Medals of Honor were awarded. There is some discrepancy on the number. Roughly for every 700 combat deaths one Medal of Honor was awarded. If that proportion held true with blacks, one black would have received the Medal of Honor. However, a beaming Bill Clinton belatedly bestowed a total of 7 to his most faithful constituency. One must now acknowledge that if blacks did not die in proportion to their numbers, those that did die were proportionately 7 times braver than whites. Blacks now claimed one Medal of Honor for every 100-battle deaths. Mr. Clinton knows what people, particularly his most fervent supporters, wish to hear. Honesty and truth matter very little to him. It seems the entire nation now takes his approach to truth and relevance. Blacks did not die in proportion to their numbers of draft-age young men in Vietnam. An American press far more interested in sensationalism than unpleasant facts fomented fragging of officers, mostly by blacks against whites.

For Jews during World War II one Medal of Honor was awarded. (Congressional Record, Vol 96, pp13735-6, Aug 29, 1950) To put this in perspective Senator Warren Barbour of New Jersey on November 25, 1940 noted the pride of Jews of their record during World War I and inserted in the Congressional Record an article that had appeared in the Jewish Times dated 10 days earlier. (Congressional Record, Vol 86, pp6696-7, Nov 25, 1940) This article named six Jews who were awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in World War I. The number of Medals of Honor for the entire American expeditionary force was 120. Jews did perform valorously in that war.

( www.webcom.com/akato/442kia ) Yet the Japanese-American population in 1940 in the continental United States was estimated at 126,947 (16th Census of the United States: 1940, Vol II, part 1, p21, table 6) and on Hawaii at 157,905 (Census of the Population: 1950, Vol II Characteristics, Parts 51-54, table 8, 52-13). The population was skewed with males being almost 155,000 of the total. The death rate of 3.4 per 1000 in the general population should read about 6.8 per 1000 males as very, very few females died in that war. If Japanese-Americans had died at the rate of their white, non-Jewish neighbors over 1050 would have died. Like Jews, their fellow countrymen died at a rate more than 50% greater than they.

What impressed as most striking of all is the claim that for every dead casualty some 15 were wounded. The official record for Army battle casualties in World War II gave some 142,962 infantry dead under battle conditions and other battle casualties at 518,097 wounded. (Army Battle Casualties and Nonbattle Deaths in World War II: Final Report 7 December 1941 – 31 December 1946, p5, (Office of Adjutant General, June 1953) Considering Japanese-Americans fought almost exclusively as infantry, this method of comparison seems appropriate. These supermen were able to sustain wounds and not die at a rate some 4 times their fellow mortals who had less than 4 wounded for every killed. Could anyone outside the media and entertainment circus believe that claptrap? Needless to add they will be recognized as far more valorous than their contemporaries were.

With 22 Medals of Honor awarded for their sacrifice by a beaming Bill Clinton Japanese-Americans are now recognized as the bravest of the American brave. For every 30 of their deaths in combat (or 25 if the lower number is correct) one Medal of Honor was awarded. The rest of American servicemen must dwell on the thought that even if those of Japanese ancestry did not die in the same proportion as they, the Japanese strain is recognized as the bravest. Future generations will regard them 20 times more brave than whites.

In particular their record at Monte Cassino will be remembered. One disinterested observer, the man called by Omar Bradley the General's General, British Field Marshall Alexander commented pithily on the great difficulty the allies had at Monte Cassino. Alexander wrote to Field Marshall Brooke: "Unfortunately we are fighting the best soldiers in the world - what men!". I do not think any other troops could have stood up to it except those para boys". (D'Este, Bitter Victory, p576 (Harper Perennial, 1991)) He was referring to the German paratroopers. In the Pacific Japanese infantry attempted to run through marine machine guns, and one must ask if the second-generation Nisei did likewise in Italy. The lower and middle classes in America will continue to suffer insults and denigration by a media and entertainment industry concerned with pandering to what they perceive as necessary fantasies for their psychic well-being. An American Congress so concerned with reelection and fearful will continue to value lives of American servicemen drawn from the middle and lower classes much less than whatever strikes Hollywood as inappropriate.