Elsie Seetoo (left), World War II veteran, with her daughter Elaine at exhibit of Asian American military service persons in Washington on May 25. CHINA DAILY

Forgotten heroism

According to Gor, the veterans' were always modest. "Sometimes people don't even realize that their father or grandfather were veterans," he said.

"Sometimes it happens when people pass away, their children look at their records and they come across those military records. That's how they find out that their parents were veterans.

"My father and uncle were like most people of their generation; they didn't talk about it very much. You almost had to ask them about it," he said.

Gor's father, Joe M.F. Gor, was born in China in 1918, and entered the US military at Camp Wolters Reception Center in Texas.

He served in multiple locations and was honorably discharged at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas in 1945.

Ed Gor's uncle, George Gor, enlisted in the army in December 1942. He trained at the radar unit at Camp Crowder, Missouri, and was stationed in New Guinea.

"I remember he talked about the ship he was on, the Liberty. It was hit by torpedo and sank 200 miles off the Fiji islands. He and the crew spent three days in the water before being rescued," Ed Gor said.

George Gor was awarded a Purple Heart before being discharged from Fort Sam Houston, Texas, with the rank of sergeant.

Captain Francis B. Wai is the only Chinese-American who served in World War II to have been awarded the Medal of Honor by Congress, the US' highest military award. In 2000, his posthumous Distinguished Service Medal－awarded in 1944－was upgraded to a Medal of Honor.