Day of Honor, 2000

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7313 of May 24, 2000

Day of Honor, 2000

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Fifty-five years ago this month, the torch of freedom
burned bright in Europe once again as Nazi Germany
surrendered to the Allied Forces. Four months later,
with the defeat of Imperial Japan, World War II--
history's bloodiest and most destructive conflict--
finally came to an end.

That war's unprecedented threat to world peace,
freedom, and human rights called forth an unprecedented
response from the American people. United and
determined after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941,
American men and women poured into factories and
shipyards, working around the clock to build ships,
planes, tanks, and guns. Millions of others risked
their lives to defend our Nation and preserve the
ideals of democracy. By the war's end, some 15 million
had served in our Armed Forces, including more than
1,200,000 African Americans, 300,000 Hispanic
Americans, 50,000 Asian Americans, 20,000 Native
Americans, 6,000 Native Hawaiians and Pacific
Islanders, and 3,000 Native Alaskans.

These minority members of our Armed Forces served with
honor and distinction in battles around the globe. Many
of them--like the Tuskegee Airmen, the Japanese
American troops of the Army's ``Go For Broke''
regiment, and the Native American Code Talkers who
played a vital role in winning the war in the Pacific--
were renowned for their bravery and dedication.
America's minority veterans fought other important
battles as well--battles against prejudice, ignorance,
and discrimination. Many gave their lives on foreign
soil for the freedom they had never fully shared at
home. Many of those who survived returned home from the
war and worked to make real in America the ideals for
which they had fought so hard and for which so many of
their comrades in arms had died.

On this Day of Honor, we have the opportunity--and the
responsibility--to acknowledge the contributions our
minority veterans have made to the peace and freedom we
enjoy today. I ask my fellow citizens to join me in
saluting the African American, Hispanic American, Asian
American, Native American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific
Islander, Native Alaskan, and other minority members
who served so valiantly in our Armed Forces during
World War II and to remember those who died in service
to our country. Their extraordinary devotion to duty is
a reminder to us all that our Nation's diversity is not
a cause for division, but rather one of our greatest
strengths.

The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 44, has
authorized and requested the President to issue a
proclamation in recognition of the minority veterans
who served in World War II.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 25,
2000, as the Day of Honor, 2000. I call upon all
Americans to observe this day with appropriate
programs, ceremonies, and activities paying tribute to
the service and sacrifice of the minority veterans of
our Armed Forces who served during World War II.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord two
thousand, and of the Independence of the United States
of America the two hundred and twenty-fourth.