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Our Board
Byrnes Yamashita
President & Board Director
Byrnes Yamashita
President & Board Director
Byrnes Yamashita is the President of the Nisei Veterans Legacy and also serves as the Chair of the Education Committee. He is a retired Navy engineer with over 30 years of military engineering and planning experience in the Indo-Pacific Area.
His father Victor was a Nisei soldier during World War II, serving with the 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team in Italy and France.
A charter member of the Sons & Daughters of the 442nd RCT, he has been actively involved with Japanese American organizations preserving and promulgating the Nisei soldiers’ legacy for over ten years.
In 2014/2015, he took an exhibit on the Nisei soldiers around the State of Hawaii. In 2017/2018, he curated an exhibit on Hawaii Nikkei (Japanese Americans) history and culture that toured Japan and the State of Hawaii as part of the celebration of initial Japanese immigration to Hawaii.
He chaired the memorial service to honor the Nisei soldiers for three years and supports Japanese media and researchers seeking to learn about the Nisei soldiers. He has made numerous presentations to students, civic organizations and visitors from Japan. He serves on the board of directors of the United Japanese Society of Hawaii
“I look forward to furthering the mission of the NVL to educate our younger generations on the Nisei soldiers’ story. We will focus on the post-war contributions of the Nisei veterans to shape modern Hawaii into a more democratic and egalitarian society making it an example for societies around the world.”
Micah Benavitz
Vice President & Board Director
Micah Benevitz
Board Director
Micah Benavitz is a Board of Director of the Nisei Veteran Legacy. Currently a high school history teacher at Mililani High School, and President of the Wahiawa Community Business Association (WCBA). He earned his Bachelor's degree in History and Political Science, a Masters in Education at Chaminade University, and a Masters in World and European History at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
He had the opportunity to live in Italy for three years and visited various historical sites including areas associated with the Nisei soldiers. His grandfather was in the MIS, and his granduncle was in the 100th Battalion who was killed in action near Monte Cassino in January 1944. The past two years he has collaborated with the JCCH and NVL with incorporating curriculum into the classroom. He has a strong interest in helping to keep alive the legacy of the Nisei soldiers.
Mark Matsumura Place holder
Treasurer & Board Director
Patrick Suenaga
Board Director
Steve Migdol
Board Director
Steve Migdol
Board Director
Steve Migdol grew up in the Kansas City, Missouri area and graduated from Central Missouri State University in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. After working as an ER nurse in Kansas City, he took a travel assignment at Straub Medical Center in Honolulu in 2006, where he met his late wife, Sherrie Okunami. Sherrie’s great-uncle Shinkyo Kuniyoshi was in the MIS and participated in the liberation of Okinawa. His interest in the Nisei soldier experience came primarily from caring for elderly vets in the ER.
He formerly served as the Vice President of another Nisei veterans group, working on several projects and events.
He is the first volunteer at Honouliuli National Monument and on the Board of Directors of Water Hands Hope, a nonprofit that provides prosthetic limbs, water filtration systems, and medical supplies and education in developing countries. He is heavily involved with Nurses Creating Aloha, which conducts various activities aimed at improving quality of life for local residents (such as school supply and food drives, domestic violence retreats, and more).
He is the emergency medicine educator for Hawai‘i Pacific Health, and recently earned his Master’s in Medical Anthropology from the University of North Texas.
“I appreciate NVL’s approach to perpetuating the legacy of the Nisei soldiers by engaging future generations and showing them the relevance of the soldiers’ sacrifices to current events. Beyond having young people memorize dates of battles and names of heroic soldiers, I think it is important to help them make the connection to present day struggles for freedom and equality. I would like to support these efforts in any way that I can.”
Mark Matsumura
Treasurer & Board Director
Mark Matsumura
Board Director
Mark Matsumura, has worked in the financial services industry for over 20 years. He is currently with Central Pacific Bank as an Investment Officer with the Trust Services Department. He is married with two daughters.
His interest in the Nisei Veterans Legacy is tied to his ancestry. Although he has no direct tie to a Nisei veteran; his grandfather was a Nisei-Kibei and he and his family, including a wife and four children, were interned during WWII.
“I would like to learn more and educate the public about the Nisei-Kibei and their role with the Nisei veterans in both the American and Japanese armies.”
“I hope to further the NVL Mission by looking for imaginative ways to increase awareness to the public. Although there has been recent publicity surrounding the Nisei in general, I feel the story is largely untold, mainly due to the ’gaman’ attitude, or quiet endurance, of Japanese. I would like to see the Nisei Veteran story told and linked to the many other struggles Japanese Americans endured. Also extending to other minority immigrants.”
Erika Barr-David
Board Director
William Wright
Board Director
William Wright
Board Director
Dr. Wright entered military service in 1956, going from high school to Ft Jackson, SC for basic training. In 1957 he entered the US Military Academy at West Point, NY, graduating with a BS in Engineering in 1961, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lt in the USAF. He served in intelligence operations in various locations, and commanded a joint service intelligence team during the Vietnam War. He was awarded the Bronze Star and U.S. Army Unit Award for Valor for action during the Tet Offensive of 1968.
Returning from the war, he attended Texas A&M University and received a PhD in Computer Science with Operational Analysis. Subsequently he was engaged in space operations roles, retiring in 1981. Dr. Wright then served in management positions at the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company in Seattle, WA, retiring in 1995 as the Chief Computing Architect.
He then worked as a consultant to Microsoft and other companies in the computing technology, manufacturing, electrical power, transportation and oil and gas sectors. In 2000, he headed a start-up software company, which he sold in 2005 to became a full time consultant to the Department of Homeland Security, focused on counter nuclear terrorism. He retired from this service in 2015, and has since devoted his time to veteran organizations for Americans of Japanese ancestry, principally the Sons and Daughters of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Nisei Veterans Legacy of Hawaii. Dr. Wright is the son of 442nd RCT veteran, Col William P Wright.
The results of some of his work can be seen on the NVLChawaii.org website. He also gives talks and presentations on the background and history of the WWII Nisei contributions to America, with emphasis on the core values that make their legacy compelling.
Warren Yamamoto
Board Director
Warren Yamamoto
Board Director
Warren M. Yamamoto is a Board Director of the Nisei Veterans Legacy (NVL). He is the son of original 100th Infantry Battalion soldier Richard F. Yamamoto.
Warren graduated from Kaimuki High School where many of his classmates were also descendants of veterans from the four nisei units. He received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and his Masters of Science in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began his career as a consultant and then went to the City and County of Honolulu Department of Transportation Services from where he retired.
In the early 1990’s, Warren was asked to form a descendant’s unit of Club 100, the veterans’ organization for the 100th Infantry Battalion. He and his group of veteran’s descendants formed the Sons and Daughters of the 100th Infantry Battalion as the successor group to Club 100, with Warren serving as the Sons and Daughters’ initial President. The Club eventually changed from a Veterans Club tax status to a social club status and the Sons and daughters’ role changed to more education oriented. The Sons and Daughter renamed themselves the 100th Infantry Battalion Legacy Organization. Warren has been administering the Organization’s scholarship program for the last several years.
Erika Sato Bar-David
Board Director
Erika Sato Bar-David
Board Director
Erika Sato Bar-David is originally from Philadelphia and has been teaching violin since moving to Oahu in 2019. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Temple University and a master’s degree from West Chester University, both in music performance.
She has performed at award ceremonies for Japanese American veterans and the “Defining Courage” show at Hawaii Theater, in addition to substituting with Hawaii Symphony Orchestra.
Her mother is from Tokyo and her great grandfather was a manager for Sumitomo Bank in California and incarcerated in Fort Missoula, Montana, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma during WWII. She has also been learning about her family’s history in Japan.
She is a member of the Honolulu JACL chapter and volunteers at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii. While holding a paid internship with the Honouliuli National Monument and Pearl Harbor National Memorial she researched the story of the Japanese American history in Hawaii and assisted with tours and commemorative events.
Her interest and activism in Japanese American history and culture is inspired by Ms. Nobu Miyoshi, a close family friend and psychologist who dedicated her life to helping families impacted by the incarceration during WWII to heal.
“I hope to advance the mission of the NVL by drawing from my experience as a performer & music educator, exploring music, poems & stories related to the Japanese American experience of World War II and how these cultural treasures could help preserve these significant historical events.”
Our Advisors
Tom Coffman
- Noted author and film producer
- Modern Hawaiian Historian
Wesley Deguchi
- Past President, Nisei Veterans Legacy
- Member, Sons & Daughters of the 442nd RCT (past President)
- Design Principal, Alakea Design Group
Warren Haruki
- Former President, Grove Farms, Inc.
- Former President, Hawaiian Telephone Co.
- Serves on several boards of directors
Lynn Heirakuji
- Past President, Nisei Veterans Legacy
- Retired Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manpower & Reserve Affairs (Personnel Oversight), U.S. Army
James Hirai
- Former Deputy Executive Director, Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies
- Retired Brigadier General, U.S Army with over 30 years of command and leadership experience
Gary Okuda
- Civil and Commercial Litigation lawyer
- Partner, Leu Okuda and Doi
- Former Member, State Land Use Commission
Barbara Tanabe
- Former television news anchor
- President, Hoakea Communications
Suzanne P. Vares-Lum
- President, East-West Center
- Retired Major General, U.S. Army — Mobilization Assistant to the Commander, USINDOPACOM