The U.S. Army plans to open the National Museum of the United States Army — NMUSA — near Washington, D.C., in 2019 that will include recognition of World War II AJA soldiers of the Military Intelligence Service, 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Work on the three-story, 185,000-square-foot facility is underway on 83 acres at Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia, located about 20 minutes by car from the nation’s capital. See https://armyhistory.org/
Information about the project was presented by officials of the National Veterans Network and NMUSA at a July 26 briefing at the 100th Infantry Battalion Veterans clubhouse. About 70 people attended, including World War II MIS veterans Herbert Yanamura and Ted Tsukiyama, both of whom initially volunteered for the 442nd RCT and were then transferred to the MIS.
Speakers included retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki, a board member for the Army Historical Foundation, which is raising $200 million for the museum; NVN executive director Christine Sato-Yamazaki; NMUSA director Tammy Call; and Dr. Charles Cureton, chief curator for the Army’s Center for Military History.
Call introduced a brief video about the museum and described its layout. She said the Nisei soldiers would initially be featured in three locations within the museum. One location is a set of 10 pylons, each telling the story of an AJA soldier. Dick Hamada, who served with the Office of Strategic Services in Burma and China, has been selected to represent Hawai‘i MIS soldiers. Another Nisei special exhibit will highlight the Congressional Gold Medal, which was awarded to the veterans of the 100th, 442nd and MIS in 2011. That exhibit will have additional display space for artifacts the museum hopes to obtain from the AJA community
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