MONROE — At age 16, Tom Haji was a star athlete and A student at Monroe High School.
At age 17, the U.S. government sent him and his family to live behind barbed wire at a World War II internment camp.
A year later, he joined the Army to fight for his country.
By 19, he was dead.
Tuesday, his sister and his best friend were presented with the high school diploma Haji never had a chance to earn.
Tom Parry, an amateur historian from Monroe and World War II buff, spent months researching Haji’s life story and encouraged the school district to honor the veteran.
“We tend not to remember the sacrifices people have made for us, especially those who gave their lives,” Parry said.
At this graduation, classmates and friends leafed through yearbooks and swapped stories about an All-American boy who did right for his country, even after it treated him wrong.
His best friend, Sam Mitsui, whose family also was sent to the internment camp, spoke about the need to honor his friend and other Japanese Americans who fought for their country, even after their loyalties were tested.
“Future generations need to know what sacrifices were made so we could hold our heads up high as Americans,” said Mitsui, who wore an American-flag tie.
Haji’s family moved to Monroe in 1938. The family quickly became well-known in the community. Haji’s two older sisters were valedictorians at Monroe High School.
Haji was on his way to being the next valedictorian when the United States entered World War II.
In 1942, the government ordered his family to the internment camp in Tule Lake, Calif. They left most everything behind to live in a 20-by-20-foot barrack for a year.
After they were released in 1943, they moved to Spokane. There, Haji attended what was then Whitworth College and began studying engineering. In his brief time at college, he became known as a standout student, athlete and leader among his peers.
At 18, he joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated unit of Japanese-Americans in the U.S. Army. The unit earned the nickname “The Purple Heart Battalion” for bravery and heavy losses.
Haji had been overseas long before the end came in 1945. The 442nd was trying to crack the Gothic Line in Northern Italy, a last defense for the Germans. Haji, still a teenager, died April 9 rushing a Nazi machine gun nest on Mt. Belvedere.
If he had lived, he would be 83 today.
Who knows what he might have accomplished, Parry said.
“Talk about a person with unlimited scholarly abilities,” he said. “Somebody like Tom could have been a senator.”
Of his immediate family only Haji’s sister, Hiro Ishida, remains. When it was time for the presentation of the diploma, her brother’s best friend cupped her elbow and helped her walk to the front of the room.
“This brings back a lot of memories,” she said, clutching her brother’s diploma. “It’s so nice so many of his friends remember him.”
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com.
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