May news and updates from Heroes Hall
Heroes Hall Veterans Museum at OC Fair & Event Center is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about the exhibits, visit ocfair.com/heroeshall.
Voices – Veterans Storytelling Project
The voices of veterans will come alive at Heroes Hall on May 23 at 8 p.m. as former military men and women share their very personal and poignant stories of service in a community theater performance.
Voices: Veterans Storytelling Project is the culmination of a six-week veterans’ initiative, which provides service men and women with a creative outlet and empowers them to share their memories of military duty and how their experiences have shape them.
The free public event will be held at Heroes Hall, Orange County’s only veterans museum dedicated to the stories of those who served their country. Voices will be the first performance hosted by Heroes Hall in the Medal of Honor Plaza.
To RSVP for this free event, please click here.
Educators Evening
Educators Evening is coming up on Thursday, May 18, from 4 to 8 p.m. If you are a junior high or high school teacher you are invited to attend and can RSVP by clicking here.
Educators Evening is particularly relevant to 11th grade history and social science classes as well as 8th grade history classes. The event will include tours and information about how to visit Heroes Hall for your next field trip.
Honoring Kazuo Masuda
A recent visitor to Heroes Hall named Bob Kishaba pointed out that the Orange County Walk of Honor is missing a plaque for Kazuo Masuda. Upon further investigation, we learned that Mr. Masuda was an Orange County resident and posthumously received in 1945 a Distinguished Service Cross.
Further research revealed that during WWII, Masuda was a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and died while defending his men during an escape while taking on the enemy alone. His family was placed in an internment camp during the war and were warned by a group of men not to return to Orange County after being released from the camp at the end of the war. On hearing about this intimidation, the community in Orange County reached out to the Masuda family and made it possible for them to return.
Recognizing the significance of the Masuda family story, the War Relocation Authority and War Department recruited General Joseph Stilwell to present Masuda’s Distinguished Service Cross to Mary Masuda, Kazuo’s sister, in a ceremony on December 10, 1945, at the family’s farmhouse. Today there is a school in Fountain Valley named after Kazuo Masuda that is simply named The Masuda Middle School.
Heroes Hall is in the process of having Masuda’s Distinguished Service Cross plaque made and hopes to unveil it on Veterans Day, November 11, 2017. Masuda’s story is also being incorporated into the 442nd special unit narrative upstairs in The SAAAB Story exhibition where it will play a prominent role in teaching 11th grade history students about the sacrifices of Japanese Americans during WW II.
Heroes Hall Veterans Foundation Principle Donors
County of Orange
City of Anaheim
City of Costa Mesa
City of Newport Beach
VetFund Foundation
Albert Dixon Memorial Foundation
Orange County Employees Assoication
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 47
City of Irvine