Marin Man, Former Japanese Internee, Honored as Dodgers Military Hero of the Game

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Marin man was honored on Los Angeles Dodgers' Japan Night as the Military Hero of the Game during an interleague game Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Rays at Dodger Stadium.

Retired U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Robert Izumi, 91, of Belvedere, was born in Southern California and was a classmate of Marilyn Monroe in Beverly Hills — until he became one of 120,000 Japanese-Americans ordered into incarceration at internment camps across California.

Izumi spent two years at Manzanar Internment Camp in Inyo County, until a teacher from Iowa pulled him from the internment camp so he could finish his education.

He went on to join the Army in 1944, and was assigned to the all-Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in U.S. military history.

He transferred to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, which included Easy Company, the unit known as the Band of Brothers, which was later the subject of a book and HBO miniseries.

Izumi transferred to the Army Air Corps in 1945, and became a member of the U.S. Air Force in 1947 when it became a separate branch of the military.

He served in the Korean and Vietnam wars and was discharged as a chief master sergeant in 1975. His decorations include the World War II Victory Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, Distinguished United Badge with one Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster and a Bronze Star Medal.

Read more about Izumi here.

— City News Service Los Angeles contributed to this report.