Theodore Shigeru Kanamine (August 29, 1929 – March 2, 2023) was a United States Army brigadier general and the first Japanese-American active duty general in the United States military. Serving in the military police, he led the investigation of the Mỹ Lai Massacre in 1968.Born in California, Kanamine and his family were sent to an internment camp when he was 12-years-old.
Richard Motoso Sakakida (Japanese: 榊田 元宗, November 19, 1920 – January 23, 1996) was a United States Army intelligence agent stationed in the Philippines at the outbreak of World War II. He was captured and tortured for months after the fall of the country to Imperial Japan, but managed to convince the Japanese that he was a civilian and was released. Employed by the Japanese Fourteenth Army (though still under suspicion), he gathered and passed along valuable information to the Philippine resistance. He also planned and participated in the mass escape of about 500 Filipino prisoners.
Allan Masaharu Ohata (Japanese: 大畠 正春, September 13, 1918 – October 17, 1977) was a United States Army soldier. He is best known for receiving the Medal of Honor because of his actions in World War II.
David Mekaele Akui (January 16, 1920 – September 15, 1987) was an American soldier who became famous for capturing the first Japanese prisoner of war in World War II. At the time, Akui was a corporal in Company G, 298th Infantry Regiment of the Hawaii Territorial Guard.
Ted Tatsuya Tsukiyama (Japanese: 築山 達哉, December 13, 1920 – February 13, 2019) was a Japanese American attorney and bonsai enthusiast. During World War II he was a member of the Varsity Victory Volunteers, 442 Regimental Combat Team, and the Military Intelligence Service. He was the first Japanese American to graduate from Yale Law School.
Lane Nakano (March 16, 1925 – April 28, 2005) was a former American combat soldier turned actor.
Taro Yamamoto (October 29, 1919 – June 12, 1994) belonged to the New York School Abstract Expressionist artists whose artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized across the Atlantic, including Paris.
Kenje Ogata (Japanese: 緒方 健二, June 1, 1919 – January 18, 2012) was an American soldier and one of five documented people of Japanese descent to serve in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II.
Riki Kobayashi (1924–2013) was a chemical engineer and a long-time professor of chemical engineering at Rice University. A native of Harris County, Texas, he attended Rice University (then known as Rice Institute) and earned the Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering at the age of 19. After serving in the U.S. Army, he went to the University of Michigan, where he earned the Master of Science degree in 1946 and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1951, both in chemical engineering. He became a member of the Rice faculty in 1951 and remained there until he retired in 1994. He died July 19, 2013, in Houston, Texas.
Spark Masayuki Matsunaga (October 8, 1916 – April 15, 1990) was an American politician and attorney who served as United States Senator for Hawaii from 1977 until his death in 1990. Matsunaga also represented Hawaii in the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the Hawaii territorial house of representatives. A member of the Democratic Party, Matsunaga introduced legislation that led to the creation of the United States Institute of Peace and to reparations to Japanese-American World War II detainees.