Honolulu Star-Bulletin from Honolulu, Hawaii • 8

A-8 Friday, Much 19, 1993 THE NATION House posses Clinton uclgGt bills Associated Press WASHINGTON President Clinton today called House passage of his budget and jobs bill "a wonderful beginning" and immediately turned his attention to the Senate, where it could be a tough couple of weeks. We still have a great deal of work to do," Clinton said as he welcomed House members who had backed his bill to the White House for a festive morning-after breakfast of coffee and pastries. "Let's urge the people in the Senate to join hands with us and move forward quickly now," he said. "All eyes will be on whether they will eive President Clinton a chance." said marathon session, the House passed Clinton's five-year, $500 billion deficit reduction plan an amalgam of proposed energy and income tax increases, military cutbacks and a shift in domestic spending toward education, job training and construction. The measures passed by nearly Identical votes mostly along party lines, 243-183 on the budget and 235-190 on the spending bill.

"The great debate took place. The Republicans won the debate and the Democrats won the vote," Rep. Richard Armey, R-Texas, said this morning. The legislation passed just over a month after Clinton requested action in his economic speech to Congress. Of the late-night victory for Clinton's economic programs, Rep.

Mike Synar, said today: "I think there will be a fight in the Senate, but the victory last night was an important first step." Clinton and the Democrats won an early test in the Senate today. An effort by Sen. Charles Grassley, Iowa, to freeze discretionary domestic spending programs ranging from education to the courts was rejected, 54-42. The House early this morning completed its version of Clinton's economic legislation by passing a $16.3 billion "emergency" jobs bill, including money for summer youth jobs, highway projects and other work programs. Only a few hours earlier in the ff Clinton voivs A-l choice for nation's high court Star-Bulletin news services WASHINGTON President Clinton vowed today to nominate a "truly outstanding American" to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Byron R.

White's retirement. Clinton's selection is sure to be made under pressure from abortion-rights groups, feminists and others who helped elect him. "I did not anticipate having the opportunity to make an appointment at this early stage, so we don't have a big bank of potential nominees," Clinton said. He promised to "begin work on this tomorrow" in finding a successor. "I used to teach constitutional law and I think that there are few decisions a president makes which are more weighty, more significant and have greater impact on more Americans than an appointment to the Supreme Court," Clinton said.

"And I'm going to try to pick a person that has a fine mind, good judgment, wide experience in the law and in the problems of real Eeople and someone with a big eart." The president would not respond directly to a question of whether he would pick an individual who supports abortion rights. But he said: "Do I believe there's a constitutional right to privacy? Yes I do." During the campaign, the only potential nominee Clinton ever mentioned was New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. Others considered potential nominees: Federal Circuit Court Judge Richard S. Arnold of Little Rock, a longtime Clinton friend.

Marian Wright Edelman, head of the Children's Defense Fund and a close friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Amalya Kearse, a black U.S. appeals court judge in New York. Abner Mikva, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington.

Laurence H. Tribe of Harvard, a well-known legal scholar. Jose A. Cabranes, chief judge of the federal court in New Haven, Conn. Clinton is the first Democrat since Lyndon Johnson with a chance to nominate a Supreme Court justice.

As such, he will be under pressure to name a liberal who is also a woman or a minority group member and who supports abortion rights. FDA fakes evidence on promising VIS drug Associated Press ROCKVILLE, Md. The first new drug in more than 20 years to offer the promise of slowing the crippling effects of multiple sclerosis is being considered by a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee. Results of a three-year drug study on 372 patients with multiple sclerosis are up for analysis and discussion today at a hearing by a panel of outside experts assembled to advise the FDA. Committee members were expected to vote later on whether to recommend that the FDA approve the new drug.

The agency generally follows recommendations of advisory committees. The drug, a form of an immune system chemical called beta interferon, is thought to work by blocking the action of other immune system chemicals that are involved in MS attacks. Chiron Corp. and Berlex Labs have applied to the FDA to market a genetically engineered form of beta interferon called Betaseron. It's the first new drug proposed in 20 years that seeks to alter the course of MS by preventing attacks.

Rape suspect ccught in N.Y. sting NEW YORK Police captured an alleged rapist after lie discussed his crime with his victim on a videotape in a sting operation set up by New York officials, the Manhattan District Attorney's office said today. Police arrested Thomas Lucidore, 37, of Pittsburgh on Wednesday as he left a Manhattan restaurant. He had been invited to there by his victim so police could record his confession on a secret camera. He told the 27-year-old woman, "I know what I did to you was horrible.

But there's a dark side to me. Both my father and grandfather were manic depressives." The attack occurred in a New York hotel while Lucidore was in the city on business. Court bcrs 'religion' sex ed course SHREVEPORT, La. A state judge yesterday barred Shreveport schools from using a national sex education program stressing abstinence, saying it promoted religion. Planned Parenthood had challenged the program on several grounds, including that it violated state law because it involved religious teachings and questions about students' beliefs.

The Planned Parenthood attorney said the opinion probably will be used in challenges in other states where sex education laws are less conservative than Louisiana's. Abortion protest hits Notre Dome A hundred anti-abortion protesters knelt in prayer inside Notre Dame's landmark golden-domed Administration Building today, promising to stay until they meet with the school's president. Members of Collegians Activated to Liberate Life gathered at the school to protest the university's decision last year to honor Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who favors abortion rights. Group director Peter Heers said the protesters would stay in the hallway outside the office of the Rev.

Edward Malloy, Notre Dame president, until he agreed to meet with them. A university spokesman said Malloy had no immediate plans to do so. i From Star-Bulletin news services Associoted Press Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Muslim cleric denies role in N.Y.

bombing Assocoted Press NEW YORK Breaking two weeks of silence, a Muslim cleric whose name has surfaced repeatedly in the probe of the World Trade Center bombing denied any role in the attack and said he doesn't know the suspects under arrest. Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman preaches at a Jersey City, N.J., mosque where two of the suspects worshiped. "I had no knowledge of this explosion and I'm not responsible for it," the blind Egyptian cleric said. "I came to America as an immigrant in order to attack the Egyptian regime. It doesn't stand to reason that I would like for the place in which I live to be unsafe." Egyptian authorities say Abdel-Rah-man, 55, is the spiritual leader of a violent band of fundamentalists that wants to overthrow the Egyptian government and install an Islamic regime.

The sheik was on a U.S. list of suspected terrorists but was mistakenly allowed into the United States in 1990 and has preached at a mosque attended by two men of Palestinian descent who have been indicted in the bombing: Mohammed Salameh and Nidal Ayyad. The sheik, speaking through an interpreter, denied knowing them or another suspect still at large, Mahmud Abou-halima, identified in news reports as his driver and assistant. "I never had a car so he couldn't drive for me," Abdel-Rahman said. Abdel-Rahman also said he didn't know Ibrahim Elgabrowny, charged with obstruction of justice in the bombing case, or El-Sayyid Nosair, now jailed on charges connected to the assassination of anti-Arab extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Oops! A newspaper reporter surveys a company car crushed by a tank that tried to push it while he was covering the Waco cult standoff. Standoff may end, FBI says hour-long tape was aired on radio. But Koresh reneged on that promise, saying he was waiting for a message from God. Koresh told negotiators that certain astrological events are taking place that would meet his need for a sign from God. "He is relaying to us that certain events have occurred which he takes to be at least a sign and he believes that other things are in motion that would fulfill his desire to have a sign," Ricks said.

Followers of Koresh believe he is the Messiah and that the end of the world is near. The cult has been barricaded since a Feb. 28 shootout with federal agents. Reuters WACO, Texas The FBI said today that cult leader David Koresh has indicated he appears close to receiving a sign from God, signaling an end might be near to his 20-day standoff with federal agents. "I got the idea he was not talking in terms of weeks but was talking in terms of days," said FBI agent Bob Ricks.

"He gave us an indication with regard to certain astrological things that are going on if these things came to pass, we're talking in terms of days not weeks." Talks with Koresh were described as the most positive since March 2, when the cult leader said he would walk out of the compound if an LEGAGY442 GOFQRBROKE did what we had to make it livable. You just couldn't sit around and sulk." Some good came out of the internment. Shoji met and wed his wife, Chizu-ko, at Poston. On Sunday, they will celebrate their 49th wedding 100th preceded flio 442nd on five firing lin 442ND: Barbed wires didn't deter many from joining Continued from Page A-l Almost to a man, these soldiers with Asian faces and Japanese names volunteered to prove to their doubting countrymen they were worthy of being called Americans. Until the 442nd was activated, most of them were classified by their draft board as 4-C: enemy alien.

Kashino, now 71, volunteered in 1943 after reading about the formation of the combat team in a Montana newspaper. "We had to prove to America we were good Americans. We had to volunteer to prove that we were loyal Americans and that we were willing to sacrifice our life if it was necessary." Kashino was one of 300 nisei from Minidoka who volunteered to fight. "That was the largest number of volunteers from any camp." Debbie McQuilken, Kashino's second daughter, grew up in Seattle knowing killed and nearly 600 wounded) exceeded the number of men saved. During that campaign, the 412nd also won over the people of Bruyeres, which still has a sister city relationship with Honolulu.

A third group of Japanese-Americans also served during World War IL They came from the ranks of the 100th and 442nd because of their faculty with the Japanese language. The men of the Military Intelligence Service were trained as interpreters, and served in the Pacific theater. The MIS soldiers often had to be protected by fellow American soldiers because they looked like the enemy. Their story has rarely been told in recounting the exploits of the Japanese American veterans of World War II. The 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Infantry Regiment won 18,143 individual decorations for valor, making it the most decorated unit of lis sixe and length of service in the history of the VS.

Army. first of its kind, was designated the 100th Infantry Battalion. These nisei soldiers were the first to see action in Europe. In part because of the lOOlh's battlefield record in Italy it earned the distinction "Purple Heart Battalion" the Army authorized formation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a larger unit than the 100th. The 442nd joined up with the battle-weary 100th in mid-1944 in Italy.

The Army merged them, designating the new unit as the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Infantry Regiment. Later, the unit was attached to the 36th Infantry Division and fought in the Anzio, Rome-Arno, Rhineland and North Appenines campaigns. The 442nd won further recognition when it rescued the 1st Battalion, 141st Regiment from Texas the so-called "Lost Battalion" in the Vosges Forest of France. After the war, the Nisei soldiers were made "honorary Texans" for the battle where their casualties (more than 200 By Cress K. Kcksscko Stoi-Bollatm Tl A fJHILE they are often yf thought of as one, the 100th i Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team were separate units with distinct histories.

Even after the 100th and 442nd were merged, the men considered themselves members of one or the other outfits. They continue to do so to this day. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese-Americans were already serving in the Hawaii National Guard Those soldiers were immediately considered security risks, and were stripped of their weapons. But within a few weeks, they were allowed to assume guard duty in anticipation of a Japanese invasion of the Hawaiian islands.

In early June 1942, the Army shipped all of the Hawaii-based Japanese-American soldiers to the mainland, where their unit, the "All of us had a mission. The reason the 442nd was formed was to prove our loyality to the U.S.," Kobe Shoji said. But many nisei veterans found that when they returned home, some things had not changed. "In 1947, 1 tried to get into the pipefitters union in Seattle so I could get a job. I was told that I wasn't accepted because they had to save all the jobs for returning veterans," remembered Shiro Kashino.

For Kobe Shoji, now 73, even Hawaii was not the promised land. He moved to the islands in 1950 after obtaining a doctorate degree in botany from UCLA to take a job at the University of Hawaii's College of Tropical Agriculture. When Shoji arrived, he discovered the reality of the territory's race-based economy and society. "There were still two different pay scales one for haoles and one for Orientals," Shoji said. "People also forget the reason there are so many Oriental school teachers today is that was the only job Orientals could get for a long time." Shoji left UH in 1960 and joined C.

Brewer Co. as vice president and chief agriculturist. Fifteen years later he was hired by Alexander Baldwin in the same capacity. He has since retired. from discrimination Two years ago, Shiro Kashino and his wife received $20,000 each from the federal government as reparations for their internment in World War II.

Laurie Kashino gave each of her four granddaughters $5,000 as nest eggs for their college funds. But her husband wanted to spend his restitution in a different way. The aging veteran decided to take his entire family three daughters, their very little about either the World War II internment of Japanese Americans or her father's decorated service in the 442nd. "My parents protected me from knowing about the internment," said McQuilken, who has been a teacher in Seattle for the past 21 years. "We didn't know much of the Japanese culture.

We were raised to be Americans first and Japanese second. I think it was their way of trying to protect us. "We were really sheltered from that knowledge it was never in any of our textbooks." McQuilken said it wasn't until she attended a 442nd reunion in Hawaii in the 1960s that one of her father's close friends, "Smitty" H. Koga, disclosed that Kashino was "a real hero." "He told me that I should be proud of my dad." Up to then, McQuilken said; she didn't have any idea that her father was the recipient of a Silver Star, the Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart with five oak leaf clusters. That last award means he was wounded six times in combat.

In fact, Kashino holds the unit's record for the most Purple Hearts. Several of those wounds were received after sneaking away from his field hospital bed to rejoin his unit while still recovering from earlier wounds. It was have today. "Our lives would have been so different today if these men hadn't left the internment camps to volunteer to fight. "Many of the rights and luxuries I have today as a citizen of this country is because of the sacrifices of my father and the other men of the 442nd." In 1989, McQuilken founded Seattle Sanseis, which now has a membership of more than 200 sons, daughters and supporters of the 442nd.

"We felt the need to continue the legacy of the 442nd Laurie Kashino said it is a legacy that still bears repeating. "Last year my granddaughter, Kari, was so upset by her teacher's attitude that it compelled her to write an article for her high school newspaper. Her teacher was discussing the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The teacher told her classmates that one of the reasons Japanese-Americans were relocated was because they were never citizens, but aliens. "In her article, Kari, who is now a freshman at the University of Washington, wrote that she can't understand why people even today don't realize that she and her family have always been American citizens.

"She said: 'I am a fourth-generation Japanese-American and I still suffer called "reverse AWOL," absent without leave, and it was not an uncommon practice in the 442nd. BOB Shiro Kashino's wife, Laurie, said it wasn't until 1967 that she felt compelled to discuss their internment and wartime experiences with their children. "It was after Pearl Harbor day when Beverly, my youngest, came home upset. She was only 11 then and her history teacher had been discussing what happened," she recalled. "After the discussion, my daughter said she felt everyone was looking at her and blaming her because she was Japanese.

"When I told her that she should be proud that her father fought in the war for his country. She told me that she thought he had fought in the Japanese Army. "It was at that point I knew we had to open up to them more." That process of opening up, which has only begun in other similar Japanese-American households in recent years, if at all, has often had a tremendous impact on the children. "If it hadn't been for the 442nd," Debbie McQuilken said, "I as a sansei (third-generation Japanese American) would not have the opportunities that I Kobe Shoji had completed three years at Pomona College near Los Angeles on a scholarship when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 in 1942, which ordered the internment of Japanese-Americans.

Shoji said he has never really discussed the internment of his family and his wife's family with any of his three sons, including David, the well-known women's volleyball coach at the University of Hawaii "It's important, but I guess I never wanted my kids to hear about that kind of stuff," Shoji said. Shoji's family was sent to Poston, Ariz. In Dorothy Matsuno's book, "Boyhood to War," a collection of anecdotes about the 442nd, Shoji recalled: "It was 120 to 130 degrees in the shade at Poston, and our living quarters per family regardless of family size, was an area 25 feet by 35 feet in a four-family barrack measuring 100 feet by 35 feet. "There were approximately 20,000 of us there divided into three camps at the border of Arizona and California. Each camp was divided into blocks containing 141 barracks, a kitchen, an administrative hall and a bachelor's room." In a recent interview, Shoji said: "We husbands and his four grandchildren to Hawaii for the 50th anniversary celebration of the formation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

They arrive in Honolulu tomorrow. For Kashino, it may be the last time he will muster with so many of his former comrades arms. "My father learned In November that he has cancer of the spine," Debbie McQuilken said. "I know he is in pain, but ne never says anything. "It was our hope that he would be well enough to make it to Hawaii It means so much to him.".