Robert Hayamizu, executive secretary of the Nisei Veterans Coordinating Council of Southern California, testified before the Commission on behalf of a coalition of Japanese American veterans’ posts and organizations. His statement honored the long but often overlooked history of Japanese American military service and demanded that their loyalty and sacrifices be fully recognized.

• Representing Veterans: Spoke for the 442nd Association, Disabled American Veterans, American Legion Nisei posts, and others. Declared their mission was to tell the story of evacuation and service to the American public.

• Service Across Wars: Highlighted Japanese Americans who fought in the Spanish-American War (nine on the Maine, seven killed), World War I Hawaiian Guard units, and World War II in the 100th Battalion, 442nd RCT, and the Military Intelligence Service.

• Unrecorded Histories: Noted veterans’ contributions erased from textbooks, fueling ignorance and prejudice before WWII.

• Betrayal in Uniform: Recalled veterans being forced into camps, some wearing their American Legion uniforms as silent protest while herded onto buses.

• Military Intelligence Service (MIS): Emphasized 6,000 Nisei who served as interpreters, interrogators, and translators across the Pacific. Told the story of Sergeant Frank Hachiya of Oregon, removed from his town’s honor roll because he was Japanese, later killed while carrying vital maps that saved American lives.

• Women in Service: Remembered Japanese American women who served in the WACs, WAVES, and Nursing Corps.

• Unbroken Loyalty: Despite camps, prejudice, and erasure, Japanese Americans served in every theater of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.

• Call to the Commission: Stated Japanese Americans were the only group of U.S. citizens forced into concentration camps who then had to prove loyalty through bloodshed in war. Urged the Commission to ensure their story is told and recorded for future generations.