Capt. Robert Prince, the commanding officer of the Pacific Missile Range Facility, said he never learned about the 100th Infantry Battalion while in school.
Instead, he was briefed on the World War II unit by Capt. Brett Stevenson when he took command of PMRF in June. Prince was left to find out more on his own.
This is why it’s important to remember the stories of the 100th Btn, as well as other groups, he said.
Retired Army Sgt. Major Keith Castaneda, commanding the Waimea High School JROTC Color Guard, said, “Local history. These are people — husbands, fathers, friends, neighbors and relatives — from our communities.”
Rep. Dee Morikawa’s husband, Ken Morikawa, is the son the 100th Btn veteran Mugsy Morikawa, a former president of the West Kauai Club 100 that recently assisted the Waimea Shingon Mission with its restoration of wartime relics, including the Tower Shrine where 40 toba, or memorial, tablets were discovered while performing cleanup for New Year.
On researching the new find, church members discovered that about half of the 69 new names “discovered” were veterans of the 100th Btn. The remaining names were veterans of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Ken Morikawa said the 110th Btn Memorial is traditionally set to fall on the closest Sunday to Sept. 29 when Sgt. Joseph Shigeo Takata, born in Waialua, Oahu, became the first 100th Btn soldier to be killed in action, shortly after the unit’s arrival in Italy.
During the service on Sunday, Rev. Kohtoku Hirao of the Waimea Shingon Mission officiated the short service before an audience that included Prince and honor representatives, the Waimea High School JROTC, retired Gen. Mary Kay Hertog of the Kauai Veterans Council, and a number of descendants of 100th Btn veterans.
These descendants helped build and complete a wreath while names of the Kauai 100th Btn units were read. The completed wreath was presented by Mugsy Morikawa’s great grandchildren, Alyssa and Ariana Garma.
Yasuo Takata of B Company, in a 1976 service, recounted his memories of Joe Takata in a “Message from Joe” that appeared in the Puka Puka Parades.
“Sgt. Joe Takata took his squad up the ridge to get the machine gun from the top,” Yasuo said. “As he climbed the ridge, a German 88-gun unit spotted him and started shelling. The shells followed him as he climbed up and down the ridge.”
“During this skirmish, a shell fragment caught him in the head,” Yasuo said. “Amidst the cried for the medics, I heard him calling to his corporal to take over. Joe gave the corporal his orders and hold him to ‘Carry on! Carry on! Carry on! Three time he cried, ‘Carry on!’ before his voice faded away.”
Spark M. Matsunaga, who was celebrated during the International Peace Day ceremonies last week in Hanapepe, also was a 100th Btn member.
“In his speech at the 1976 Nisei Veterans Reunion, in Chicago, Matsunaga urged us to keep up the fight,” Yasuo said. “He quoted the bicentennial declaration — ‘We have reached a point in our history when a second American revolution is called for, a revolution not of violence, but of fulfillment, of fresh purpose and of new direction.’ Let us remember Sgt. Joe Takata’s last orders — Carry on! Let us keep up the fight.”
Source: The Garden Island