The celebration did double duty as a recognition of Kam as a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor awarded by Congress.
“You could see the joy in my dad’s face during the call,” his son, Steve Kam, said in an email. “Although my dad didn’t say much, his smile and body gestures did the talking for him.”
Roughly 20,000 Chinese Americans served in the Armed Forces in World War II, and Congress passed a recognition act for them in 2018. The Congressional Gold Medal was to be awarded collectively to the veterans in an April ceremony in the nation’s capital, but the pandemic put that on hold.
Over 3,000 of these veterans nationwide have been approved for the medal, with more expected to be added to the list, according to retired Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, a former Hawaii state adjutant general and co-chairman of the Chinese American World War II Recognition Project-Hawaii.
Lee, who hosted Wednesday’s celebration, said Kam is among 300 Hawaii recipients of the Congressional Gold Medal.
“When I first heard about the Chinese American WWII Veterans Recognition Project from a friend, I immediately submitted an application for my dad as a way of showing him how much we appreciated his service while in the Army,” Steve Kam said. “Growing up in Hawaii, he frequently talked to my brother and I about his deployment to Guadalcanal but we didn’t know where this was. Neither my brother nor I served in the military but we were always grateful to those who served, served to protect our freedom and our way of life.”