More than 600 soldiers who served in the Māori Battalion have yet to receive their medals, with the list growing every week.
Lawyer David Stone has recently compiled the list based on his own research, with whānau of the soldiers now applying for the medals they never received.
The 28th Māori Battalion is one of the country's most celebrated and decorated units that fought in World War II.
Almost 3600 soldiers served in the Māori Battalion. More than 600 were killed and more than 600 never received their war medals upon their return.
"On average there is about four medals per soldier. There were those that had more, some had five, some had seven, some had nine," Stone said.
The unclaimed medals have been a personal quest for Stone, who started over three years ago with his own grand-uncle Dooley Swan.
"This was a quest to find out what happened to our uncle and his medals. Next minute you've found over 500," Stone said.
Stone realised there was a problem with the army's policy of sending medals in the mail.
Many Māori vets believed it had no mana; it didn't recognise tikanga Māori and the importance of delivering something so significant as a war medal face-to-face.
So they just didn't claim them.
"Just this week, I've had children of soldiers ring up and they are in their 70s, 80s, and they said, 'We had no idea that this was even a thing, had no idea that Dad was owed medals'. They're shocked," Stone said.
But last year the return of the soldiers' unclaimed medals to their whānau began and Stone finally received his grand-uncle's medal - he was one of the 134 soldiers from the C Company.
However, Stone said it was the request made by the last survivor of the Māori Battalion Sir Robert Gillies that made him want to see all soldiers honoured.
"Koro Bom [Gillies] asks you twice 'can you please do D Company'. I mean put me on the spot, I wasn't going to say no. So I said okay," Stone said.
Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi is from B Company's Bay of Plenty region and believes the work by Stone should be supported and funded properly by the Ministry of Defence.
"We didn't get the hero welcome like everybody else did when they returned. We returned a month later, all the land ballots had been given out and many of them never received medals," Waititi said.
"And this is just honouring the memory of those whānau that committed the ultimate sacrifice."
In the next three months, Stone hopes to have three ceremonies planned similar to those held for the C Company last year. But first he's guiding whānau through the army's administrative process.
"If the government can help by giving some funding to help then ka pai. If they don't, well, we will just carry on regardless," Stone said.
The Ministry of Defence is yet to respond to Newshub's request for comment.
Click here to see the list of all Māori battalion soldiers who have unclaimed medals.
