m: Elsie Star Birkeland
Edwin Asimakoupoulos, 82, of Wenatchee, died Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008.
He had lived in Wenatchee for 44 years. He had served as a pastor in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, and had owned and operated Modern Homes Vista and N.B.&B. Investments, both in Wenatchee.
Survivors include his wife, Star Asimakoupoulos of Wenatchee; his children Greg Asimakoupoulos of Mercer Island and Marc Asimakoupoulos of Wenatchee; and his sisters, Irene Parker and Lois Robison, both of Lewiston, Idaho, Elaine Kravitz of Seattle and Louise Wilson of Juliaetta, Idaho.
A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Monday at the Wenatchee Free Methodist Church, 1601 Fifth St. in Wenatchee. A private interment will be held at Wenatchee City Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Telford's Chapel of the Valley in East Wenatchee.
Arrangements are by Telford's Chapel of the Valley.
WENATCHEE — Ed Asimakoupoulos never knew why he was picked to be an honor guard for the Japanese surrender ceremony on Sept. 2, 1945.
Family and friends gather for Ed Asimakoupoulos' graveside service Monday. Asimakoupoulos died Nov. 4 and was buried with honors at Wenatchee Cemetery. He served on the honor guard for the Japanese surrender ceremony in 1945.
The treaty-signing ceremony ending World War II was held aboard the USS Missouri, the battleship the Marine Corps private was assigned to as a gunner at age 19. Asimakoupoulos' job during the ceremony was to escort the Soviet Union representative — Red Army Lt. Gen. Kuzma Derevyanko — to the signing. The ship was anchored in Tokyo Bay.
Only days before the treaty, Asimakoupoulos had been shooting at Japanese kamikaze pilots bent on crashing their planes into the ship in a last desperate attempt to hold off the Allied attack on Japan under U.S. General Douglas MacArthur. But that day, Asimakoupoulos had a hand in the treaty that ended history's deadliest, most destructive war.
Asimakoupoulos died last Tuesday, Nov. 4. He was buried with veterans honors Monday at Wenatchee Cemetery. The day before Veterans Day and the 233rd birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps was an appropriate day to end the final chapter in the old marine's life, said his son, Greg. He was 82.
A graveside ceremony is held for Ed Asimakoupoulos, who died Nov. 4 and was buried with honors at the Wenatchee Cemetery. He served on the honor guard for the Japanese surrender ceremony in 1945. (World photo/Don Seabrook)
"Veterans Day has become so much more to us because of what dad told us about his experiences," said Greg Asimakoupoulos, a Mercer Island minister. Ed's wife, Star, and another son, Marc, live in Wenatchee. "One of the legacies he leaves us is to serve a cause bigger than ourselves and not be afraid to pay the price of that cause."
"His role as an eyewitness to the end of the war was what made him able to surrender his life to God," Greg said his father told him.
Ed became a minister a few years after the war. After marrying, starting a family and leading Assembly of God churches in Idaho, Oregon and Western Washington, the family moved to Wenatchee in 1964.
He operated two successful businesses, Modern Homes Rentals and N.B. and B. Properties, and served as a guest preacher at Wenatchee-area churches.
He officially changed the family's last name from Smith — the name his father took when he immigrated to the United States — to his father's Greek family name in 1969.
Greg said like many veterans, his father wouldn't talk much about the war when his sons were young. It was the 50th anniversary of the war's end in 1995 that helped him flesh out his combat experiences. He began studying the political tension that led up to the war and started keeping a scrapbook of his information about the war. He joined two Wenatchee veterans groups and began watching the History Channel religiously. He recounted his own war stories of the sea attack on Iwo Jima and fighting off numerous air attacks to his sons and anyone else who would listen, including interviewers on a Falcon Cable Senior TV show.
"We knew it was a historical, momentous occasion," he told the interviewer a few years ago about the surrender ceremony. "It was very busy. There were hundreds of people coming to be part of it. News media were there. Representatives of all the Allied Forces came.
"When the Japanese representatives came aboard it was a very solemn time," he said in the interview, which the family has on DVD. He said Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and other Japanese representatives came dressed in formal tails and top hats. Everyone else was dressed in casual uniform. When Shigemitsu fumbled nervously at the signing table, MacArthur bellowed out impatiently, "Show him where to sign," Asimakoupoulos recalled. After the signing, hundreds of planes flew low over the ship and Tokyo Bay to celebrate the event.
"It was a wonderful feeling to know that the war had ended and we were going to go home," he said. When asked by interviewer Tom Clayburn if he thought the atomic bombs should have been dropped on Japan to hasten the war's end, Asimakoupoulos's eyes filled with tears. "There would have been thousands, perhaps millions, more killed."
Edwin Asimakoupoulos, 82, of Wenatchee, died Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008.
He had lived in Wenatchee for 44 years. He had served as a pastor in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, and had owned and operated Modern Homes Vista and N.B.&B. Investments, both in Wenatchee.
Survivors include his wife, Star Asimakoupoulos of Wenatchee; his children Greg Asimakoupoulos of Mercer Island and Marc Asimakoupoulos of Wenatchee; and his sisters, Irene Parker and Lois Robison, both of Lewiston, Idaho, Elaine Kravitz of Seattle and Louise Wilson of Juliaetta, Idaho.
A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Monday at the Wenatchee Free Methodist Church, 1601 Fifth St. in Wenatchee. A private interment will be held at Wenatchee City Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Telford's Chapel of the Valley in East Wenatchee.
Arrangements are by Telford's Chapel of the Valley.
WENATCHEE — Ed Asimakoupoulos never knew why he was picked to be an honor guard for the Japanese surrender ceremony on Sept. 2, 1945.
Family and friends gather for Ed Asimakoupoulos' graveside service Monday. Asimakoupoulos died Nov. 4 and was buried with honors at Wenatchee Cemetery. He served on the honor guard for the Japanese surrender ceremony in 1945.
The treaty-signing ceremony ending World War II was held aboard the USS Missouri, the battleship the Marine Corps private was assigned to as a gunner at age 19. Asimakoupoulos' job during the ceremony was to escort the Soviet Union representative — Red Army Lt. Gen. Kuzma Derevyanko — to the signing. The ship was anchored in Tokyo Bay.
Only days before the treaty, Asimakoupoulos had been shooting at Japanese kamikaze pilots bent on crashing their planes into the ship in a last desperate attempt to hold off the Allied attack on Japan under U.S. General Douglas MacArthur. But that day, Asimakoupoulos had a hand in the treaty that ended history's deadliest, most destructive war.
Asimakoupoulos died last Tuesday, Nov. 4. He was buried with veterans honors Monday at Wenatchee Cemetery. The day before Veterans Day and the 233rd birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps was an appropriate day to end the final chapter in the old marine's life, said his son, Greg. He was 82.
A graveside ceremony is held for Ed Asimakoupoulos, who died Nov. 4 and was buried with honors at the Wenatchee Cemetery. He served on the honor guard for the Japanese surrender ceremony in 1945. (World photo/Don Seabrook)
"Veterans Day has become so much more to us because of what dad told us about his experiences," said Greg Asimakoupoulos, a Mercer Island minister. Ed's wife, Star, and another son, Marc, live in Wenatchee. "One of the legacies he leaves us is to serve a cause bigger than ourselves and not be afraid to pay the price of that cause."
"His role as an eyewitness to the end of the war was what made him able to surrender his life to God," Greg said his father told him.
Ed became a minister a few years after the war. After marrying, starting a family and leading Assembly of God churches in Idaho, Oregon and Western Washington, the family moved to Wenatchee in 1964.
He operated two successful businesses, Modern Homes Rentals and N.B. and B. Properties, and served as a guest preacher at Wenatchee-area churches.
He officially changed the family's last name from Smith — the name his father took when he immigrated to the United States — to his father's Greek family name in 1969.
Greg said like many veterans, his father wouldn't talk much about the war when his sons were young. It was the 50th anniversary of the war's end in 1995 that helped him flesh out his combat experiences. He began studying the political tension that led up to the war and started keeping a scrapbook of his information about the war. He joined two Wenatchee veterans groups and began watching the History Channel religiously. He recounted his own war stories of the sea attack on Iwo Jima and fighting off numerous air attacks to his sons and anyone else who would listen, including interviewers on a Falcon Cable Senior TV show.
"We knew it was a historical, momentous occasion," he told the interviewer a few years ago about the surrender ceremony. "It was very busy. There were hundreds of people coming to be part of it. News media were there. Representatives of all the Allied Forces came.
"When the Japanese representatives came aboard it was a very solemn time," he said in the interview, which the family has on DVD. He said Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and other Japanese representatives came dressed in formal tails and top hats. Everyone else was dressed in casual uniform. When Shigemitsu fumbled nervously at the signing table, MacArthur bellowed out impatiently, "Show him where to sign," Asimakoupoulos recalled. After the signing, hundreds of planes flew low over the ship and Tokyo Bay to celebrate the event.
"It was a wonderful feeling to know that the war had ended and we were going to go home," he said. When asked by interviewer Tom Clayburn if he thought the atomic bombs should have been dropped on Japan to hasten the war's end, Asimakoupoulos's eyes filled with tears. "There would have been thousands, perhaps millions, more killed."
m: Elsie Star Birkeland
Edwin Asimakoupoulos, 82, of Wenatchee, died Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008.
He had lived in Wenatchee for 44 years. He had served as a pastor in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, and had owned and operated Modern Homes Vista and N.B.&B. Investments, both in Wenatchee.
Survivors include his wife, Star Asimakoupoulos of Wenatchee; his children Greg Asimakoupoulos of Mercer Island and Marc Asimakoupoulos of Wenatchee; and his sisters, Irene Parker and Lois Robison, both of Lewiston, Idaho, Elaine Kravitz of Seattle and Louise Wilson of Juliaetta, Idaho.
A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Monday at the Wenatchee Free Methodist Church, 1601 Fifth St. in Wenatchee. A private interment will be held at Wenatchee City Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Telford's Chapel of the Valley in East Wenatchee.
Arrangements are by Telford's Chapel of the Valley.
WENATCHEE — Ed Asimakoupoulos never knew why he was picked to be an honor guard for the Japanese surrender ceremony on Sept. 2, 1945.
Family and friends gather for Ed Asimakoupoulos' graveside service Monday. Asimakoupoulos died Nov. 4 and was buried with honors at Wenatchee Cemetery. He served on the honor guard for the Japanese surrender ceremony in 1945.
The treaty-signing ceremony ending World War II was held aboard the USS Missouri, the battleship the Marine Corps private was assigned to as a gunner at age 19. Asimakoupoulos' job during the ceremony was to escort the Soviet Union representative — Red Army Lt. Gen. Kuzma Derevyanko — to the signing. The ship was anchored in Tokyo Bay.
Only days before the treaty, Asimakoupoulos had been shooting at Japanese kamikaze pilots bent on crashing their planes into the ship in a last desperate attempt to hold off the Allied attack on Japan under U.S. General Douglas MacArthur. But that day, Asimakoupoulos had a hand in the treaty that ended history's deadliest, most destructive war.
Asimakoupoulos died last Tuesday, Nov. 4. He was buried with veterans honors Monday at Wenatchee Cemetery. The day before Veterans Day and the 233rd birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps was an appropriate day to end the final chapter in the old marine's life, said his son, Greg. He was 82.
A graveside ceremony is held for Ed Asimakoupoulos, who died Nov. 4 and was buried with honors at the Wenatchee Cemetery. He served on the honor guard for the Japanese surrender ceremony in 1945. (World photo/Don Seabrook)
"Veterans Day has become so much more to us because of what dad told us about his experiences," said Greg Asimakoupoulos, a Mercer Island minister. Ed's wife, Star, and another son, Marc, live in Wenatchee. "One of the legacies he leaves us is to serve a cause bigger than ourselves and not be afraid to pay the price of that cause."
"His role as an eyewitness to the end of the war was what made him able to surrender his life to God," Greg said his father told him.
Ed became a minister a few years after the war. After marrying, starting a family and leading Assembly of God churches in Idaho, Oregon and Western Washington, the family moved to Wenatchee in 1964.
He operated two successful businesses, Modern Homes Rentals and N.B. and B. Properties, and served as a guest preacher at Wenatchee-area churches.
He officially changed the family's last name from Smith — the name his father took when he immigrated to the United States — to his father's Greek family name in 1969.
Greg said like many veterans, his father wouldn't talk much about the war when his sons were young. It was the 50th anniversary of the war's end in 1995 that helped him flesh out his combat experiences. He began studying the political tension that led up to the war and started keeping a scrapbook of his information about the war. He joined two Wenatchee veterans groups and began watching the History Channel religiously. He recounted his own war stories of the sea attack on Iwo Jima and fighting off numerous air attacks to his sons and anyone else who would listen, including interviewers on a Falcon Cable Senior TV show.
"We knew it was a historical, momentous occasion," he told the interviewer a few years ago about the surrender ceremony. "It was very busy. There were hundreds of people coming to be part of it. News media were there. Representatives of all the Allied Forces came.
"When the Japanese representatives came aboard it was a very solemn time," he said in the interview, which the family has on DVD. He said Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and other Japanese representatives came dressed in formal tails and top hats. Everyone else was dressed in casual uniform. When Shigemitsu fumbled nervously at the signing table, MacArthur bellowed out impatiently, "Show him where to sign," Asimakoupoulos recalled. After the signing, hundreds of planes flew low over the ship and Tokyo Bay to celebrate the event.
"It was a wonderful feeling to know that the war had ended and we were going to go home," he said. When asked by interviewer Tom Clayburn if he thought the atomic bombs should have been dropped on Japan to hasten the war's end, Asimakoupoulos's eyes filled with tears. "There would have been thousands, perhaps millions, more killed."
Edwin Asimakoupoulos, 82, of Wenatchee, died Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008.
He had lived in Wenatchee for 44 years. He had served as a pastor in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, and had owned and operated Modern Homes Vista and N.B.&B. Investments, both in Wenatchee.
Survivors include his wife, Star Asimakoupoulos of Wenatchee; his children Greg Asimakoupoulos of Mercer Island and Marc Asimakoupoulos of Wenatchee; and his sisters, Irene Parker and Lois Robison, both of Lewiston, Idaho, Elaine Kravitz of Seattle and Louise Wilson of Juliaetta, Idaho.
A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Monday at the Wenatchee Free Methodist Church, 1601 Fifth St. in Wenatchee. A private interment will be held at Wenatchee City Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Telford's Chapel of the Valley in East Wenatchee.
Arrangements are by Telford's Chapel of the Valley.
WENATCHEE — Ed Asimakoupoulos never knew why he was picked to be an honor guard for the Japanese surrender ceremony on Sept. 2, 1945.
Family and friends gather for Ed Asimakoupoulos' graveside service Monday. Asimakoupoulos died Nov. 4 and was buried with honors at Wenatchee Cemetery. He served on the honor guard for the Japanese surrender ceremony in 1945.
The treaty-signing ceremony ending World War II was held aboard the USS Missouri, the battleship the Marine Corps private was assigned to as a gunner at age 19. Asimakoupoulos' job during the ceremony was to escort the Soviet Union representative — Red Army Lt. Gen. Kuzma Derevyanko — to the signing. The ship was anchored in Tokyo Bay.
Only days before the treaty, Asimakoupoulos had been shooting at Japanese kamikaze pilots bent on crashing their planes into the ship in a last desperate attempt to hold off the Allied attack on Japan under U.S. General Douglas MacArthur. But that day, Asimakoupoulos had a hand in the treaty that ended history's deadliest, most destructive war.
Asimakoupoulos died last Tuesday, Nov. 4. He was buried with veterans honors Monday at Wenatchee Cemetery. The day before Veterans Day and the 233rd birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps was an appropriate day to end the final chapter in the old marine's life, said his son, Greg. He was 82.
A graveside ceremony is held for Ed Asimakoupoulos, who died Nov. 4 and was buried with honors at the Wenatchee Cemetery. He served on the honor guard for the Japanese surrender ceremony in 1945. (World photo/Don Seabrook)
"Veterans Day has become so much more to us because of what dad told us about his experiences," said Greg Asimakoupoulos, a Mercer Island minister. Ed's wife, Star, and another son, Marc, live in Wenatchee. "One of the legacies he leaves us is to serve a cause bigger than ourselves and not be afraid to pay the price of that cause."
"His role as an eyewitness to the end of the war was what made him able to surrender his life to God," Greg said his father told him.
Ed became a minister a few years after the war. After marrying, starting a family and leading Assembly of God churches in Idaho, Oregon and Western Washington, the family moved to Wenatchee in 1964.
He operated two successful businesses, Modern Homes Rentals and N.B. and B. Properties, and served as a guest preacher at Wenatchee-area churches.
He officially changed the family's last name from Smith — the name his father took when he immigrated to the United States — to his father's Greek family name in 1969.
Greg said like many veterans, his father wouldn't talk much about the war when his sons were young. It was the 50th anniversary of the war's end in 1995 that helped him flesh out his combat experiences. He began studying the political tension that led up to the war and started keeping a scrapbook of his information about the war. He joined two Wenatchee veterans groups and began watching the History Channel religiously. He recounted his own war stories of the sea attack on Iwo Jima and fighting off numerous air attacks to his sons and anyone else who would listen, including interviewers on a Falcon Cable Senior TV show.
"We knew it was a historical, momentous occasion," he told the interviewer a few years ago about the surrender ceremony. "It was very busy. There were hundreds of people coming to be part of it. News media were there. Representatives of all the Allied Forces came.
"When the Japanese representatives came aboard it was a very solemn time," he said in the interview, which the family has on DVD. He said Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and other Japanese representatives came dressed in formal tails and top hats. Everyone else was dressed in casual uniform. When Shigemitsu fumbled nervously at the signing table, MacArthur bellowed out impatiently, "Show him where to sign," Asimakoupoulos recalled. After the signing, hundreds of planes flew low over the ship and Tokyo Bay to celebrate the event.
"It was a wonderful feeling to know that the war had ended and we were going to go home," he said. When asked by interviewer Tom Clayburn if he thought the atomic bombs should have been dropped on Japan to hasten the war's end, Asimakoupoulos's eyes filled with tears. "There would have been thousands, perhaps millions, more killed."
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