This is a photograph of the 442nd monument at Evergreen Cemetery in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles. This photo was taken on June 4, 2007.

Evergreen was founded on August 23, 1877, and is the oldest existing cemetery in the city of Los Angeles. Because of discrimination, there were few places that you could be buried if you were not Caucasian. Evergreen was one of few cemetaries that would accept people of Japanese descent. Consequently, there are a lot of Japanese Americans buried there. There are several sections of gravestones with names engraved in Japanese.

Because of its history with the community, there are also a few monuments within Evergreen honoring Japanese Americans who have passed away. This is the main one. Every Memorial Day, there is a ceremony in the morning. Many 442 and MIS veterans and their families still attend. I've never gone, but I have been to Evergreen to visit my family's graves after they've finished as people are leaving.

I've never really looked around much, but apparently there are quite a few 442nd soldiers buried there, including four 442nd Congressional Medal of Honor awardees (according to the Find a Grave website ).

There's some info about the memorial here: 442nd Infantry World War II Memorial listing on the Find a Grave website.

To learn more about Evergreen Cemetary, check out this feature that KCET, the local PBS station, did about Evergreen
"Shelter: The Evergreen" . Included on the page is a link to a chapterized video about Evergreen which includes a section about Japanese Americans that talks about the Issei and the 442nd monument. There is also an image of the original floor plan and some additional facts.

To see a close-up of the top of the memorial, see my other photo in Nikkei Album: Close-up of 442nd monument at Evergreen Cemetery