Minoru "Mino" Ohye had one wish for his milestone birthday: to receive 100 birthday cards to celebrate each year of his life.
Mino reading his birthday cards
"Several years ago, I asked him, I said, 'What's your goal, Mino?' And he said, he wants to be 103," said Alfonso Linares, with a laugh, who has been friends with Mino for 40 years and is the closest thing he has to family in town.
John Meugniot is a fellow U.S. Army veteran who came to celebrate Mino's birthday.
Linares said Mino used to be his gardener, then they got more connected through the West Sacramento VFW post and have since become very close.
Mino's story is so rare that he is likely the only person alive to have experienced what he has.
Then, at the age of 13, Mino was forced to join the youth division of the Japanese Imperial Army at the start of World War II to fight the Soviet Union.
Later, in 1951, Mino returned to find his mother in the United States, who was living in Yuba City in Northern California.
Mino Ohye, Unites States Army
Decades later, in 2012, the Yolo County community helped raise money to send Mino back to Japan to reunite with his brother Hiroshi for the first time in nearly 60 years.
It was the West Sacramento VFW who became his chosen family and helped him get back onto his feet and into permanent housing.
Linares says if he has learned anything from his dear friend Mino, it's to lead by example.
Mino also helps collect clothes for homeless veterans and helps run a support system for veterans to this day.
Minoru O.Eskaton Wilson Manor2140 Evergreen Ave, West Sacramento, CA 95691
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