RIP Lawson Ichiro Sakai: WWII hero dies at age 96

Flickr Creative Commons by Coreyc23

LAWSON ICHIRO SAKAI, 1923-2020

ASAM NEWS

One of the best known members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the founder of Friends and Family of Nisei Veterans, has died.

Lawson Iichiro Sakai is dead at the age of 96, Rafu.com reports.

A resident of Morgan Hill, CA, Lawson earned a Bronze Star and four Purple Hearts along with a Combat Infantryman Badge and participated in the rescue of the “Lost Battalion” in France in 1944. Wounded more than once, Lawson was almost killed in this crucial battle.

He has spent much of his years sharing his story and educating the young about a sad chapter in US history, the racism encountered by Japanese Americans and the forced incarceration of an entire community during World War II because of their race.

“I was so mad,” he said. “I thought, ‘How dare they attack my country?’” he recalls thinking after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

He told the East Bay Times he only became angrier when the U.S. Army refused to let him enlist because he had been declared an “enemy alien.”

“Now I was really mad! After all, I was born right here in the United States!”

“We have only few chances to meet a hero in our lives,” said Etienne Pourcher, former mayor of Bruyeres whose town in France was liberated from the Nazis by the 442nd. “Lawson Iichiro Sakai is one of them. He’s my hero. I had the chance to meet him. American, Japanese Americans, his family, all can be very proud of what he did, with other veterans, specifically in Vosges region,” said Pourcher in a memorial tribute to Sakai, reported Rafu.

He is survived by his children Kenneth (Lynda) Sakai, Joanne Sakai (Dallas Foster), Janet (Noriaki) Ito, and Dennis Sakai (Linda Durrin), grandchildren, Kelly (Francesca) Sakai, Nicholas Sakai, Mika Ito (Byron Yamada), Gaku Ito (Aya Ino), Kisa Ito (Erik Fujinami), Stephen Sakai, Kimberlee Sakai (Morad Alvarez), great-granddaughter Mie Yamada, and many other relatives.

He is predeceased by his wife Mineko Hirasaki Sakai and by sisters Misako (Perry) Sumida and Mieko Sakai.

Private funeral services were held on June 27, 2020. A memorial service will be held later this year after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.