UNDATED (WSAU) It was 70 years ago today when Japan pulled off its surprise attack on the U-S fleet at Pearl Harbor. And the attack which started World War Two left a number of Japanese-Americans from Wisconsin in the middle. 89-year-old Tom Suyama of Milwaukee said he volunteered for the Civil Defense Corps to try and serve his country. But because his parents were Japanese, he and others like him were originally rejected for the military. Suyama told the Journal Sentinel they were treated like spies and saboteurs.
Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered American citizens of Japanese descent to internment camps. Suyama, who was 19 at the time, was sent to an armed camp in Idaho where he made cabinets and drove an ambulance. Eventually, Japanese-Americans were allowed to join the Army. And Suyama was sent to Europe, where he was among the U-S troops who liberated a Nazi concentration camp. He said it was ironic that members of one concentration camp were freeing those in another such camp. Suyama said he wanted to join the Army to prove he was a loyal American. He recently was given the Congressional Medal of Honor for his efforts – and he joined other Japanese-American survivors at a medal ceremony in October in Washington.
Today Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and state Veterans Affairs Secretary John Scocos will hold a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. That event is set for late this morning at the State Veterans Home at King in Waupaca County.
