Residents Koji Ozawa and Ron Yoshida who served in the U.S. Military Intelligence Service in WWII are being honored at the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor Ceremony in Washington D.C. on November 2, 2011.

General Douglas MacArthur’s Chief of Staff said, “The Nisei, second generation Japanese Americans, saved countless Allied lives and shortened the War by two years.” After spending time to learn Japanese U.S. Military Language Schools at Fort Snelling, Minnesota and in Monterey, they were sent to major battlefields in the Pacific, against Japan, to work with combat units interrogating Japanese prisoners, translating intercepted documents and using their knowledge of the Japanese culture to aid the U.S. occupation after the war.

The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian award bestowed by the U.S. Congress. It is awarded to an individual or unit who performs an outstanding deed or act of service the security, prosperity, and national interest of the United States.