Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: George T. "Joe" Sakato Interview
Narrator: George T. "Joe" Sakato
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Denver, Colorado
Date: May 14, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-sgeorge-01-0042

<Begin Segment 42>

GS: Then fifty-five years later, I get this call from the Pentagon and says, "Why don't you come to the White House?" "What for?" (General Kirklighter) from the Pentagon calls and want us to come to Washington. So I says, "What for?" and he says, "Going to upgrade your medal, Distinguished Service Cross to the Medal of Honor." In the meantime, there was fifty-two recipients received the Distinguished Service Cross.

TI: Fifty-two within the 442?

GS: 442. But they only had records of fifty-one; they didn't know who fifty-two was. So all the years, 442 didn't have the record that I received the medal.

TI: Oh, interesting. So when, when you got separated from your records, do you think, in Europe...

GS: That's right.

TI: ...it just got lost?

GS: Seven months before I knew about, that I got, got the Distinguished Service Cross, they didn't know about it. Nobody knew about it.

TI: And so you weren't really listed in the official records as, as being awarded the...

GS: They knew that fifty-two was issued to 442, but they didn't know who the fifty-second was. So the years went by, and my brother was telling the 442 in California that I had received the medal, I got the medal. But they didn't, they couldn't find the records, so then I guess San Francisco started investigating and they says, "Well, you have to go to St. Louis to check the records in St. Louis," so they finally found it and they finally knew who the fifty-second was.

TI: And of those fifty-two, twenty of them were upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

GS: To Medal of Honor.

TI: And so what, what did you think when you got that phone call?

GS: I, he talked to me and I couldn't say nothing, I was surprised. He says, "Well, you're gonna get the medal," but only ten in the family could go. I says, "Well, I got more than ten in the family want to go," so I told him, "Send me my medal." [Laughs] And he says, no, no, he can't do that. He says, "We'll make arrangements somewhere."

TI: [Laughs] Joe, that's good.

GS: So when we finally go there, it so happened that a Saudi prince had come to Washington, so they put up great big circus tent, clear plastic, chandeliers, air conditioned, trees growing inside the tent and everything, bushes on the side, flowers and everything. Five hundred people could get in that place. So guys from California, Washington, and southern California, E Company, Dan Inouye's E Company, they all came to Washington for this dedication. So we got everybody in, and as we went to the gate, then there's five guys from Washington sitting out by the gate, you know. They didn't get an invitation so they, they're waiting to get in. So I told Danny, I says -- he's a senator now -- says, "You have more clout than I have, you get those guys in." [Laughs] So he got 'em all in. So we all was able to go to the ceremony to get this medal. And I says, says, "I'm no hero, but I wear it for the guys that didn't come back." Like I say, I still wear it for the German that didn't make it home. But then when they were talking about giving me the Medal of Honor, the boys, Hawaii, Senator Akaka and Ichiyama, says that I was to get it. I was the only living kotonk that had the Distinguished Service Cross. There was no other living recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross, living.

TI: I didn't know that.

GS: So they knew if all recipients from Hawaii got the medal, there would be nobody to talk about camp. So being in, I'm the living recipients, that's why Ichiyama says that I should get the medal. So that's why I go out and talk about camp, that we went to prison, we were discriminated, we were this, that I want to express that we were put in camp and how much we were discriminated against. If the boys from Hawaii had it, they couldn't talk about camp. So that's why I go on tour. Since I've got the medal, I've been to Washington, Oregon, Texas, New York, Florida, Chicago, I've been everywhere.

<End Segment 42> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.