Posthumous medals awarded to Japanese parents

I love gathering and keeping artifacts from the war, especially photographs that may otherwise get thrown away. I have a whole display of photos of GIs or taken by GIs during the war, while not knowing who any of them are. However, when known and if possible, I try to help artifacts and photos find their way to their proper owners.

I came across several papers from my late great-grandfather, Corwin Olds, a few years ago. Frankly, there was not much worth saving but then I came across a treasure: US Army Signal Corps photographs of him, as the senior Army Chaplain in Hawaii at the end of the war and after it, awarding medals to parents of members of the 442^nd Infantry Regiment. The 442^nd, formed partly in Hawaii, was made up nearly entirely of second-generation Japanese Americans. The 442^nd is the most decorated unit in US military history.

The medals, of course, were presented to the parents because their sons were KIA. Knowing my great-grandfather, he took each one of these personal ceremonies very seriously. He would visit the parents in their home, speak very kind and noble words, and present the medals to the parent(s) while likely fighting back tears.

I had 13 of these photos. I kept one. I gave the rest to the Japanese American Veterans Association for their internal publication with the condition that if relatives of the KIAs come forward, those people receive the actual photographs. The last time I checked, at least one family came forward to claim an important piece of their family’s WWII history that they didn’t even know existed before.

“Go For Broke!” - the motto of the 442nd.

Partial caption on reverse of official U.S. Army Signal Corps photo: “March 10, 1946…Chaplain (COL) Corwin Olds and Mr. K. Togo as Mr. Togo receives Bronze Star Medal from Chaplain Olds in honor of his son, S/SGT Shiro Togo who was killed in action in France on October 24, 1944. Togo also received the Purple Heart and five battle stars.”