Spokane’s Fred Shiosaki part of state tribute to WWII vets
OLYMPIA -- A Spokane native is the latest World War II veteran to be featured in the Legacy Washington project by the Secretary of State's office.
Fred Shiosaki, who was born and raised in Hillyard, where his family operated a laundry, joined the Army at 18 and served in the highly decorated 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a unit of Japanese American soldiers who fought in Italy and France.
Some of the unit's members volunteered for military service even though they or their families had been removed from their homes and placed in internment camps. Unit members were awarded 21 Medals of Honor and were responsible for the rescue of the "Lost Battalion", an American unit surrounded by Germans in the winter of 1944.
Shiosaki returned from war, graduated from college on the GI bill, served as a chemist for the City of Spokane, a manager of environmental programs for Washington Water Power, chairman of the state Ecological Commission and a member of the state Fish and Wildlife Commission. He and his wife Lily raised their family in the Spokane Valley, and lived there until last year when they moved to Seattle to be closer to their son Michael, who is married to Seattle Mayor Ed Murray.
His profile will be part of the Washington Remembers World War II exhibit that opens Aug. 20 in the state Capitol Building.
The Legacy Washington project profile on Fred Shiosaki can be found here.
A link to one of the previous stories in The Spokesman-Review about Shiosaki's service can be found here.