Padres catcher Kyle Higashioka receives replica medal for grandfather’s World War II service

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — San Diego Padres catcher Kyle Higashioka received a replica of the Congressional Gold Medal awarded to his grandfather’s World War II unit Monday during a ceremony at the National Museum of the United States Army. The late G. Shigeru Higashioka was part of the 100th Infantry Battalion of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a unit made up Nisei soldiers — second-generation Japanese Americans who demanded the opportunity to joined the armed forces even after President Franklin Roosevelt ordered Japanese Americans on the West Coast to be incarcerated in camps.