Political Quotes

“I thank Mr. Takano and the chair for allowing me to speak today in support of S. 475, which Senator Heinrich and I introduced. It would designate the Veterans Affairs clinic in Gallup, New Mexico, as the Hiroshi ``Hershey'' Miyamura VA Clinic. Corporal Hiroshi, or ``Hershey'' as those in New Mexico called him early on, was born in 1925 to Japanese immigrants in Gallup, New Mexico. Beautiful Gallup, New Mexico, is in my district and it is surrounded by beautiful mountains, mesas, the Navajo Nation, the Zuni Pueblo, and others. It is a tremendously, achingly beautiful place, but from Gallup, he answered the call to serve not just once, but twice in his life--first in World War II and then in the Korean war. He wanted to fight for his country in World War II but was ineligible because of his ancestry until 1945. He then served in the 442nd Infantry Regiment, a unit entirely composed of Japanese Americans because we must remember that at the time that he was answering the call to service, we were suffering in the United States a period of hatred and xenophobia toward Japanese Americans, which makes his answer to the call of service even more extraordinary and for which we are even more grateful. In 1951, Corporal Miyamura held off enemy soldiers that threatened his machine gun squad. He faced them in hand-to-hand combat. He single- handedly held the line giving his squad time to reach safety. Corporal Miyamura would spend the next 28 months as a prisoner of war.…”