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Three years ago the Hardwick sisters set out on a journey to find the 442nd soldiers who saved their father during WWII. Now they count many of these men as their closest friends.
By Caroline Aoyagi-Stom, Executive Editor
Published June 19, 2009
Editor's Note: In February 2007 the Pacific Citizen ran a story about the Hardwicks and their quest to find the 442nd veterans. We recently revisited the sisters to see where their journey has taken them.
Penny Webster, 44, had been trying to call her mother all day but she knew she rarely carried her cell phone around with her. By the time she reached her at 4 p.m. that day last March, her excitement was barely contained. She was calling from France atop the Vosges Mountains, she told her mom, on the exact spot where her grandfather, Sgt. Bill Hardwick, had been rescued by the heroes of the 442nd Regiment during World War II.
"These men and their story have taught me a new word - gaman - meaning endurance with grace and dignity in the face of what seems unbearable," said Penny, who lives just outside of Detroit, Michigan. "They have refocused my definition of true patriotism and sacrifice - a story that I tell anyone with the patience to listen!"
Penny's excitement about the 442nd is inherited. Three years ago her mother Janet Hardwick Brown and her aunt Susan Hardwick set out on a mission to thank the Japanese American soldiers who rescued their father and the 211 men of the 36th Division who had been stranded during a battle with the Germans. Now their mission has become a family affair.
In July, all three women will head to France with veterans of the 442nd and their families where they will walk along the same paths the JA soldiers took to reach the stranded soldiers of the "Lost Battalion." There they hope to remember their father and grandfather and to thank the men who have become their personal heroes.
"We want to stand where our father stood — especially with those who were involved - directly or indirectly — with his rescue," said Susan, 64, from Indiana.
"I hope, by my presence, to speak to the souls of those whose hearts are still in the Vosges, whose blood, sweat and tears nourish the soil. And, I want to say to them, their families, their children and grandchildren, that there are those who know what they did, who still care, and who want others to care and know as well."
Sgt. Hardwick passed away in 1972 at the age of 51 before he was able to personally thank the 442nd. He had always wanted to let them know that because of their heroics he was able to return to Indiana to see his two daughters grow up and enjoy 28 more years of marriage with his love Pat. Now, Janet and Susan are passing on that message.
It was over two and a half years ago that the Hardwick sisters left a note of thanks to the 442nd soldiers at the National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism in Washington, D.C. At the time, the sisters did not have any other way of contacting them.
Shortly afterwards, their story ran in the Pacific Citizen newspaper and before long they were receiving e-mails and phone calls from their heroes.
"You don't know how many doors that article opened for us," said Janet, 66, of North Carolina.
Soon, the sisters began forming deep friendships with many 442nd veterans. They are now members of the Friends and Family of Nisei Veterans (FFNV) and have attended several reunion events. And last year they attended an event in Austin, Texas honoring the JA soldiers.
"Literally getting to hug and have physical and verbal contact with the men who saved my father's life ... honestly when I started this I thought it would be a letter writing thing," said Janet. "It has exploded into so much more."
Dr. Sus Ito, 89, of Boston was one of the first 442nd veterans to contact the Hardwicks. As a forward observer with I company he was one of the first to reach the men of the "Lost Battalion." Now he exchanges e-mails with the sisters regularly and they met for the first time last year in Austin. Ito plans to join the Hardwicks in France, making this his fourth visit.
"I really appreciate the thanks the Hardwick sisters express," said Ito, a member of the JACL New England chapter. "They keep saying we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you guys. It's very touching."
"It's heartwarming to hear the thanks from those we rescued," said Lawson Sakai, 442nd veteran and FFNV president, who first invited the sisters to a veterans reunion. "After many hugs and tears, they have become a part of this group of friends and veterans."
During the Vosges Campaign, which included the rescue of the "Lost Battalion," the 442nd lost 216 men and more than 850 were wounded, according to the Go For Broke National Education Center. To this day the combined forces of the 442nd and the 100th Battalion are the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in U.S. military history.
Many of these men chose to fight even while their families were being held in internment camps. But even though they are called heroes, the 442nd veterans who returned from the battlefields are humble, preferring to remember their buddies who didn't return home to their families.
Jim Yamashita, 85, is no different. The Hardwicks' "expression of gratitude has been extra ordinary. I try to imagine the echoes of their voices are being heard by the gallant young men who went down while saving these trapped men," he said.
In their quest to find their personal heroes, the Hardwicks have been embraced by the children and grandchildren of the 442nd vets. Many have approached them in thanks noting that through their journey to find the 442nd, their fathers and grandfathers, many for the first time, have told them of their role in the rescue of the "Lost Battalion."'
"I am very touched by their sincerity and as a descendant I am gratified to know that my dad and his comrades have not been forgotten by people like the Hardwick sisters," said Gwen Fujie, daughter of Toshio Nishizawa, a veteran of the 522nd B Field Artillery Battalion
"Us sons and daughters are truly blessed. I believe no generation of men will ever be the kind of unassuming, heroic, fun loving, quiet and humble men that our fathers were."
On July 10, Janet, Susan and Penny plan to board a plane for Paris, France where they will make their way over to Bruyeres and Biffontaine to mark the 65th anniversary of the rescue of the "Lost Battalion." There they will head to Point 6, the site of the infamous rescue.
It's a trip many of the 442nd veterans have made, and for many of them now in their 90s, it will likely be their last.
For the Hardwicks, it will be a chance to visit the place where their journey first began. A chance not only to remember their father but to thank their personal heroes.
"[Dad] would be pleased with our 'journey' and, likely, a little sorrowful that he had not taken the journey himself," said Susan. "When Janet and I walk the Vosges we will walk with him in our hearts while bathed by the shadows of the spirits of those 'giants' he so admired."
"A Note of Heartfelt Thanks": http://www.pacificcitizen.org/site/details/tabid/55/selectmoduleid/373/ArticleID/316/reftab/0/title/A_Note_of_Heartfelt_Thanks/Default.aspx
Hardwick Sisters Photo Gallery
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