By Catherine Cruz
(CNN) - Frank Tanabe's grandson posted this picture last week.
It showed Tanabe in the process of casting his final vote with his help from daughter Barbara.
Tanabe is dying of liver cancer and had been anxiously awaiting his absentee ballot.
It came last week.
"He has never missed an election in his entire life, and this is a right he fought for and he exercised it because he believed it is the responsibility of all Americans," Barbara Tanabe said.
The decorated veteran of the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team was part of a documentary detailing the patriotism of the Japanese-American unit.
"We were true Americans, and if we ever got the chance we would do our best to serve our country and we did," Frank Tanabe said during a taped interview.
"My father is a member of the greatest generation. This is the generation that went through the Depression, fought the war. His family was imprisoned during the war, and even after the war they had to fight to get the rights that everyone takes for granted today. The sad truth is so few people remember that there were generations that sacrificed so we can vote. That's the most important message that I think my dad would want everyone to hear," Barbara Tanabe said.
But for a dying soldier clinging to life, the act of voting was purely of pride and duty.
"If this photograph encourages more people to vote, then his vote does count, and I think he would be thrilled and truly honored," Tanabe said.
So we thank Barbara's sister for snapping the picture, and Tanabe's grandson for posting it.
"What Noah said to me was, 'For the rest of my life, every time I vote I will think of grandpa,'" Tanabe said.
