In the waning days of 2020, I learned about various figures in history that had ties to Detroit and the metro area. One of these figures is James Okubo, who posthumously earned the Medal of Honor in 2000 after records of Asian-American soldiers were re-examined. He was born in Washington State in 1920 to Japanese parents. He was a Technician, Fifth Grade in the Army, and was a medic. He came very close to the enemy line to help fellow soldiers who were injured. After the war, he moved to Detroit with his family, and was an instructor at the University of Detroit's dental school, and operated his own dental practice in Detroit. He died in January 1967 in a car accident near Flint, Michigan while heading back to Detroit with his family, who survived the accident. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit, where the above picture was taken on New Year's Eve, 2020.
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