On Wednesday, November 10, 2010, the fourth and fifth graders of Matsunaga Elementary School, located in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., treated nearly 1,000 guests to their tenth annual Veterans’ Day concert.

Matsunaga Elementary School is the only school in the country named for former Hawaii Senator Spark Masayuki  Matsunaga, a World War II veteran who went on to become a U.S. representative and senator, and worked tirelessly to found the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). The school’s principal, Judy Brubaker, makes sure to involve and stay in contact with veterans who served with Matsunaga, as well as his former senate staffers and others connected to her school’s namesake.

Spark Matsunaga was part of a very storied band of brothers. Because he knew war from personal experience, it is especially meaningful that he led the charge to establish USIP. Matsunaga served in the U.S. Army’s 442nd Infantry Regiment, a segregated unit created by the Army during World War II and composed of Japanese-American men (whose families were in internment camps). Because of the distrust many Americans felt for Japanese-Americans after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, this regiment was sent to Italy so it would not “aid and abet” the Japanese in the Pacific Theater.  This overt racism prompted the men to decide they would be the hardest fighting American unit in the war – and indeed they became the most decorated American unit ever. Its soldiers (including future Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye) earned 21 Medals of Honor, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, 560 Silver Stars, and more than 4,000 Bronze Stars, in addition to an incredible eight Presidential Unit Citations. 

At least two of Matsunaga’s fellow soldiers attended the Veterans’ Day concert at the Maryland elementary school. Both Raymond Murakami and Terry Shima remain active in Japanese-American veterans’ organizations, and were recognized and honored at the concert.

Decades after his military service, and as a U.S. senator, Matsunaga was still influenced by his battleground experience. He picked up and led the pursuit for a new organization that would complement our nation’s military academies and teach peace.

For several decades, grassroots organizations and members of Congress had lobbied, discussed and proposed dozens of bills to create a national organization for peace. In 1981, after years of trying to introduce legislation to create an American peace institute or department and after grassroots campaigns were unsuccesful, Senators Matsunaga and Randolph Jennings persuaded the president to authorize a commission to study the various proposals for a peace organization. Matsunaga led this commission, called the United States Commission on Proposals for the National Academy of Peace and Conflict Resolution. Matsunaga and his fellow commissioners held public hearings all over the country, read every proposal from citizens and Congress – more than 100 bills alone – and issued a report to the president and Congress.

The commission’s report detailed its work and went so far as to draft new legislation that, with minor edits, became The United States Institute of Peace Act, the law that created USIP. In his introduction to the report, Matsunaga wrote that he believed that making peace is as much an art as making war, and that “[t]he United States has no interest greater than international peace.” In 1984, President Reagan signed the USIP Act into law.

Matsunaga’s legacy was honored with songs both somber and celebratory, from a high school student playing “Taps” to a choreographed rendition of “Yankee Doodle Boy Kid From the USA” The audience erupted in applause when student Maddie Zapor introduced her father, U.S. Army LTC Michael Zapor – who had just returned from Afghanistan – to lead the pledge of allegiance. The program listed the names of each student who has or had a relative in the military and included that person’s name, rank and service. There was a slideshow presentation featuring photos of servicemen and women who are alumni of, or parents of students at, Matsunaga Elementary - several of whom were in the audience. Service members past and present stood to sing their own portions of the “Military Medley.”

Part of Senator Matsunaga’s dream and vision for USIP was that it should have its own permanent headquarters building, and in 2011, fully three decades after he led the Commission, USIP will move into its new facility at the corner of 23rd St. and Constitution Ave., at the edge of the National Mall. In fact, through the trees, visitors to USIP’s building will be able to see the World War II memorial, a poignant coincidence Matsunaga could not have foreseen.

[Photo: From Left-Right: World War II veterans Raymond Murakami and Terry Shima enjoy a Veterans’ Day concert organized by Matsunaga Elementary School principal Judy Brubaker and performing arts teacher Terry Potterson.]