Presidential Documents

34567

Federal Register

Vol. 65, No. 105

Wednesday, May 31, 2000

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.

34568 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 105 / Wednesday, May 31, 2000 / Presidential Documents

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

[FR Doc. 00–13675

Filed 5–30–00; 8:45 am]

Billing code 3195–01–P

of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-fourth.

œ–