By PATTI HIRAHARA

On Friday, July 26, 2024, the 40th Infantry Division celebrated the 71st anniversary of the Korean War Armistice at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos.

The event paid tribute to Korean War veterans and the long-lasting partnership between the Division and Korea for more than 70 years. The Korean War ended with the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement on July 27, 1953.

The event was attended by 250 people and presented by the California Army National Guard, the Association of the Republic of Korea Army-Los Angeles, the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Association of the United States Army, and Korean War Veterans Association. Korean War veteran Norio Uyematsu was the only Japanese American veteran in attendance.

Uyematsu has been active this year to preserve the Japanese American Korean War veteran’s legacy by donating his Japanese American Korean War Veterans (JAKWV) Royal Blue Jacket, his JAKWV Garrison hat, and his Republic of Korea Ambassador for Peace medal, along with other post JA Korean War and VFW memorabilia from his activities with the JAKWV and the Kazuo Masuda Memorial VFW Post 3670 to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s Military History Collection on Feb. 19, 2024.

The story of his donation was published on the front page of The Orange County Registeron Feb. 18, 2024. Uyematsu was surprised at how many people read the Registerarticle, by the response he received on social media and by mail.

The 93-year-old was the only veteran to be a supporter of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s Day of Remembrance program on Feb. 19, 2024 in Washington, D.C. This event was a collaboration between the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, and the Japanese American Citizens League.

His sentimental journey to Misawa Air Base in Japan in 2023 was published in the GraybeardsNovember-December 2023 magazine issue by the Korean War Veterans Association as a featured article.

In being the only Japanese American Korean War veteran attending the Korean War Veterans Memorial “Wall of Remembrance” unveiling in Washington, D.C. in 2022, Uyematsu has found a new sense of purpose to highlight this time in history, and his motivation continues to inspire others to remember those that fought and served in this “Forgotten War.”

Each time he goes out, someone says, “Thank you for your service,” and he is surprised and touched that people say that to him to this day for what he did to serve his country as a member of the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service as an interrogator of prisoners of war.

Last Sunday, he rode in the 82nd Nisei Week Japanese Festival Parade as one of the surviving Japanese American Korean War veterans. This was an honor for him since he last rode in the Nisei Week Parade in 2013 as a Nisei Week Pioneer from Orange County.
He hopes that the more limelight that is placed on these veterans and this time in history will bring more opportunities for exhibits, educational materials, and remembering those that made the supreme sacrifice.

“We need to honor these Japanese American Korean War veterans before they pass away since many of us are in our 90s and who knows how much time we have left,” Uyematsu said.

“We were honored to follow in the footsteps of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Battalion but we also lived in incarceration camps as the Nisei generation during World War II and our service needs to be recognized as our WWII heroes who came before us. As my friend Bob Wada said, ‘To Forget Would Be a Dishonor, To Remember Will Be Everlasting,’ and I feel these words tell it all,” Uyematsu concluded.

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