Vincent Okamoto

Vincent Okamoto (b. 22 November 1943 in Poston relocation camp in Poston, Arizona) is an American Army officer.

Biography

Okamoto was born to an American family of Japanese origin that was interned during the Second World War. He is the youngest of the ten children Henry and Yone Okamoto.

Following the family's release they moved to South Chicago, where his parents ran a small grocery store. The family later moved to Gardena, California, when he was twelve years old. He attended Gardena High School, where he served as senior class president. He was a three year letter man in track and football and belonged to the Men's Honor Society.

US Army and career in Viet Nam

Vincent attended El Camino College from 1962 to 1965. From 1965 to 1967 he attended U.S.C. receiving a BA in International Relations in 1967. He enrolled in the ROTC and was the first non-UCLA student to be commissioned through the UCLA ROTC program. He earned his commission as a Army 2nd Lieutenant.

After receiving Ranger training he was given orders to report to Viet Nam. In 1968, Lieutenant Okamoto was assigned as the intelligence-liaison officer for 2 months for the Phoenix Program while attached to Company B of the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Division.

Second Lieutenant Okamoto distinguished himself on 24 August 1968 while serving as a platoon leader with an infantry unit near Dau Tieng. A ground attack was launched against his battalion’s night location by three reinforced North Vietnamese and Viet Cong companies. The initial assault destroyed a strategic section of the perimeter.  Under heavy automatic weapons, small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire, Lieutenant Okamoto moved five of his men to restore this vital position.

Realizing the need for supporting fire, he ran to a partially destroyed armored personnel carrier and manned its machine gun. After the weapon malfunctioned, he dashed through the fusillade of enemy fire to a second and then a third carrier to place suppressing fire on the aggressors.

Civilian life

After returning to civilian life he enrolled in college and attained his law degree at USC. On 15 April 2002, Governor Gray Davis appointed civil attorney Vincent H. Okamoto to the Los Angeles Superior Court bench. He was honored as the 2006 UCLA Veteran of the Year. Judge Okamoto has continued to serve the community on various Veterans boards, in Gardena city government. He is still active with the law firm he co-created, Okamoto , Wasserman & Torii , LLP.

Japanese-American Memorial

In the summer of 1987 a group of JA Vietnam veterans met in Los Angeles and formed the Japanese American Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Committee to erect a memorial to honor the Americans of Japanese descent who fought and died in Vietnam or were still listed as missing in action. The initial group consisted of Duane Ebata, Gary Hayakawa, Ken Hayashi, Dennis Ishiki, Victor Kato, Dave Kobyashi, Lance Matsushita, Mike Nagaoka, Mel Nakashima, Vince Okamoto, Tom Okamura, Ed Sakihama, and George Tanaka.

Enlisting the aid of other Japanese-American Vietnam veterans, they organized a joint fund-raising dinner with KEIRO Health Services and CEO Edwin Hiroto. The event held on 2 June 1988 at the Bonaventure Hotel was a smashing success. Over 900 guests turned out to honor and support the Japanese American Vietnam veterans. Armed with the funds generated by the dinner the committee set out to compile a list of the Japanese Americans killed or having went missing in action Vietnam.

Unlike World War II, the U.S. military had been racially integrated by the time of the Vietnam War. Consequently, there was no definitive list of Japanese Americans who served in Southeast Asia during the War. In the 1960s a soldier's dog tags or ID discs listed his racial origin as: "Caucasian, Negro, Mongoloid" or "Other." The committee members contacted the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., the Military Personnel Center at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and the Casualty Resolution Center in Hawaii to obtain a listing of Japanese American deads, but the information provided was woefully incomplete or inaccurate. Some names that were of obvious Japanese derivation were listed under "Other" or "Indonesian" even "Eskimo" as well as "Asian."

Finally, in 1988, the Committee purchased a dozen copies of the booklet from the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C. which listed all the Americans who died in Vietnam and began the pain-staking task of underscoring all Japanese names. The committee placed ads in local Japanese vernacular newspapers on the west coast, Hawaii and Chicago, but received only a tepid response. Many of the dead were "Hapa," soldiers of mixed blood. Many had non-Japanese names making it impossible to determine if they were of Japanese ancestry.

Because of this inherent inability to determine the Hapa soldiers, the committee decided to limit the names on the memorial to those of Japanese surnames. The committee was contacted by a woman whose grandson was a quarter Japanese and asked that be listed on the memorial. It was felt that a consistent policy had to be maintained rather than including some while inadvertently omitting others. Based on the Japanese surnames taken from the memorial in Washington DC the committee came up with 99 Japanese American killed and 14 missing from the Vietnam War.

Having compiled a list of names, the committee began searching for a suitable location to build the memorial. It took nearly seven years to find a home for the memorial. The Japanese American Cultural and Community Center of Los Angeles, under then president Min Tonai, allowed the memorial to be erected on the east side of their property at 244 S. San Pedro street.

On Veteran's Day, 11 November 1995, the Japanese American Vietnam Veteran's Memorial was formally dedicated. It replicates the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington DC, and consists of three black granite panels etched with the names of 116 Americans of Japanese ancestry killed or lost in the Vietnam War. A quote is inscribed at the base of the memorial:

Honors

Okamoto is the highest-decorated Japanese-American veteran of the Vietnam War. His medals include

* Distinguished Service Cross
* Silver Star
* Bronze Star
* Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry
* Purple Heart with three oak leaf clusters

He was inducted Into Ranger Hall of Fame on 1 September 2007. He is the fourth Japanese American (and first since WWII) to receive the honor.