REDLANDS >> George Kanatani, a Congressional Gold Medal recipient and World War II veteran, died March 13 at his home in Redlands. He was 98.

A lifelong Redlands resident, Kanatani was born May 31, 1918, and graduated from Redlands High School in 1936. After graduation, Kanatani attended San Bernardino Valley College before he was drafted into the war effort in 1942.

Kanatani served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated unit of the U.S. Army almost entirely composed of Japanese-Americans, and served knowing his family had been relocated from their home to an internment camp during the war, his family said.

“My father’s family went to Poston Internment Camp (in Arizona) and then my father joined the Army,” recalled daughter Alison Dickerson. “Unfortunately, he tried to come visit them at the camp then, but was unable to do that. It was really hard on him, I’m sure.”

According to an obituary provided by the family, Kanatani’s infantry regiment “compiled an astonishing combat record in Europe” and is the most decorated unit in the history of the U.S. military.

In 2011, Kanatani and members of the 442nd received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award in the country, from President Barack Obama after he signed a bill in October 2010 granting the medal to Japanese-American soldiers who served in the Army’s 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Military Intelligence Service during World War II, according to Redlands Daily Facts archives.

Kanatani told the Facts in 2011 the medal was “quite an honor.”

Following his discharge from service, Kanatani returned to Redlands and later began working as a window clerk for the United States Postal Service at the historic Brookside Post Office. He retired after 35 years with the postal service, his family said.

In addition to his congressional medal, Kanatani is a Purple Heart recipient and received the French Legion of Honor award. In 2013, he was decorated as a Knight of the Legion of Honor “for risking his life in battles fought on French territory during the war,” his family said.

Kanatani was an active member of the Friends and Family of Nisei Veterans and the Riverside Japanese American Citizens League, and attended annual reunions with fellow members of the 442nd and other combat units that fought during the war.

He often traveled to France and Italy to visit sites he saw during the war, Dickerson said while recalling a trip with her father to the area in 2009.

“There were no words,” she said. “There was one town (in France) called Bruyeres and usually they travel there on Bastille Day, but that little town puts on a parade and the veterans in 2009, there were about nine of them, led the parade. The 442 saved the town from the Germans, and I’m sure they do this every year, but everywhere we went, they would feed us. The townspeople were just so wonderful.”

Kanatani often traveled with his “442 buddies” on cruises and he loved to fish in Big Bear and Jenks Lake near Angelus Oaks in the San Bernardino National Forest. He also enjoyed cheering on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the RHS football team, and was an active member of a local bowling league at Empire Bowl for about 30 years, Dickerson said.

“He was just easy-going, laid back,” she said.

Kanatani was preceded in death by his wife of 35 years, Lillian, who died in 1985. The couple met on a blind date and Kanatani would often drive to Los Angeles to visit her, Dickerson said. Fishing is what brought them together, she said.

“That’s what they did on their honeymoon,” she said.

In addition to Dickerson, Kanatani is survived by daughters Kimberley Kanatani of Dobbs Ferry, New York, and Meganne Kanatani of Glendale; grandchildren Jimmy and Matthew Dickerson of Redlands; and great-granddaughter Catherine Kanatani Dickerson of Redlands.

Kanatani will be remembered at a private service May 12 at Riverside National Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations be made to Friends and Family of Nisei Veterans, c/o Kurt Kurasaki, P.O. Box 1450, San Juan Bautista, CA 95045, and the Riverside Japanese American Citizens League, c/o Michiko Yoshimura, 2887 Balfore St., Riverside, CA 92506.