Kaua‘i veterans gathered in Kapa‘a Saturday for the 39th Annual Veterans Day Parade and festivities. Veteran Jiro Yukimura was honored as grand marshall of this year’s parade. Yukimura enlisted with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in March 1943, was sent
Kaua‘i veterans gathered in Kapa‘a Saturday for the 39th Annual Veterans Day Parade and festivities.
Veteran Jiro Yukimura was honored as grand marshall of this year’s parade. Yukimura enlisted with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in March 1943, was sent to the Military Intelligence Language School, and eventually was assigned to General MacArthur’s headquarters in Australia, where he stayed until the liberation of the Philippines. He was also aboard the U.S.S. Missouri when Japan officially surrendered to the United States on Sept. 2, 1945.
Featured guest speaker at the post-parade program was Major General Robert G.F. Lee, who was appointed Adjutant General in 2003. Lee heads the Hawai‘i Army and Air National Guards, State Civil Defense and State Office of Veterans Services.
During the program, Candice Klein, daughter of Jennifer and Steve Klein of Kekaha, was crowned Miss Kauai Veteran 2007-2008.
Tomorrow, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of November, Veterans Day Memorial Services will be observed at Kauai Veterans Cemetery in Hanapepe.
The Veterans Day holiday was first established as Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 1918, and marked the end of hostilities of World War I. In 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day to honor all veterans.
