The 19th Annual Joint Memorial Service, honoring the men who served in the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Military Intelligence Service, and 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion, who died in World War II or have since passed on, will be held on Sunday, September 29, 2024 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. The hour-long service will begin at 9:30 a.m., and is open to the public.
On September 29, 1946, the veterans of the 100th Infantry Battalion first held a memorial service to honor their comrades who died in the war, because a formal memorial service or ritual could not be held in the heat of battle. Memorial services were held at Central Union Church in Honolulu, and also at the Church of the Holy Cross in Hilo.
The veterans incorporated its post-war organization, "Club 100," in December 1945, and the club's commitment to participate in an annual memorial service for their fallen comrades, on the Sunday in September closest to the anniversary of the date that the first member of the 100th Infantry Battalion, Sgt. Shigeo “Joe” Takata, was killed in action (September 29, 1943), was written into its bylaws.
Club 100 continued to hold this annual memorial service, and in 1951, the service was co-sponsored by Club 100 and the Military Intelligence Linguist Club, and held at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl for the first time. The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, also known in Hawai‘i as Pūowaina, is commonly translated as "hill of sacrifice," and is the final resting place of those who served courageously in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Held as a joint memorial service since 2006, the service now honors all the men who served in the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Military Intelligence Service, and the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion, that died in World War II or have since passed on. The four units were mainly comprised of American of Japanese ancestry (AJA) men who were Nisei, born to first generation Issei immigrant parents from Japan. Also in the units were Sansei (AJA with at least one Nisei parent), Caucasian officers, and a few soldiers of Hawaiian and other ethnicities.
The 19th Joint Memorial Service is presented by the 100th Infantry Battalion Veterans (Club 100), 442nd Veterans Club, 442nd Legacy Center, Sons and Daughters of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and Military Intelligence Service Veterans Hawaiʻi organizations. We proudly work together while continuing to carry on the identities and traditions established by the veterans of the units we represent.