Valor Friday

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT) is one of the most decorated of all American military units. They received eight Presidential Unit Citations (five of them in a single month), and 21 men of the unit received the Medal of Honor. They did this in less than two years.

The 442nd RCT was made up almost entirely of Nisei, which is what first-generation (i.e. American-born) Japanese immigrants call themselves. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the US entered the Second World War, President Franklin Roosevelt famously interred all the Nisei and their parents (on the mainland, there were too many in Hawaii to do the same there). Yet still, these young American men volunteered to fight, and fight they did. The 100th Infantry Battalion came to be known as the “Purple Heart Battalion” for the sheer number of combat wounds these men received.

Some of the men of the 442nd, that I’ve previously discussed, were;

Daniel Inouye (D-HI)

William Nakamura and Frank Ono

Hiroshi Miyamura (served with the 442nd RCT in WWII, then got the MoH for actions during the Korean War)

Wataru Nakamura (also a 442nd RCT WWII vet, who got the MoH for actions in Korea)

This week though, seven Nisei veterans of the 442nd RCT were awarded long-delayed, posthumous commissions in the US Army. These men were part of the University of Hawaii’s Army ROTC program, but were expelled after Pearl Harbor when Japanese were prohibited from serving in the US military.

Despite being told the military didn’t want them, they answered her call for service anyway and enlisted. Serving with honor through the World War, they were;

S/Sgt Grover Nagaji – KIA 26 June 1944, Belvedere, Italy. He was two weeks shy of his 24th birthday.

Sgt Robert Murata – KIA 29 October 1944 in near Vosges, France, as part of the 442nd’s rescuing of the “Lost Battalion”. He was 22.

Sgt Jenhatsu Chinen – KIA 5 July 1944, Italy. He was 22.

Sgt Daniel Betsui – KIA 2 August 1944. A combat engineer, he was conducting training to familiarize men of 3rd Battalion, 442nd RCT on German mines. After the training, the truck was loaded, and an explosion of unknown cause thereon killed Betsui and 11 other men. He was a month shy of his 22nd birthday.

PFC Hiroichi Tomita – KIA 12 July 1944, Italy. He was 21.

Pvt Akio Nishikawa – KIA 11 July 1944, Italy. He was 21. He earned the Silver Star for his final day on earth, saving one of his comrades. Ignoring the enemy shelling, he ran for a hundred yards after telling the men trying to talk him out of it, “Gotta go!” Here’s his citation;

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Private Akio Nishikawa (ASN: 30104867), United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving as a Medical Aidman with the 442d Infantry Regiment, attached to the 34th Infantry Division, on 11 July 1944 in the vicinity of Pgio Casale, Italy. When one of his comrades was wounded on the forward slope of a bald hill, Private Nishikawa ran for a distance of a hundred yards through concentrated 88-mm. artillery and mortar shellings to render first aid. Although advised by others in the platoon to wait until the enemy ceased shelling, he paid no heed to their warnings and proceeded to rescue the man with the words “Gotta go!” Finally reaching the wounded man, he proceeded to administer first-aid. It was while so engaged that he was mortally wounded by a shell fragment from an 88-mm. shell. The outstanding devotion to his comrades and his gallantry in the face of enemy fire has won for him the profound admiration and respect of the men of his company.

Sgt Howard Urabe – KIA 4 July 1844 in Italy. He was just 21. He was awarded a Silver Star for his last act of gallantry, to wit:

Howard M. Urabe, Sergeant, Infantry, Company G, 442nd Infantry Regiment. For gallantry in action on 4 July 1944, in Italy. During an attack on the key position of an enemy defense line, Sergeant URABE crawled twenty-five yards through sparse undergrowth to reach a position in front of an enemy machine gun. Timing his movements between the bursts of fire from the gun, Sergeant URABE suddenly stood up and fired a rifle grenade into the nest, killing the machine gunner and destroying the gun. When the other two members of the gun crew started to run, Sergeant URABE killed both of them with his M-1 rifle. When another machine gun fired upon him, Sergeant URABE fired another grenade and knocked out the second gun. Sergeant URABE was affixing another grenade to his launcher to be prepared for further action when he was killed by a sniper’s bullet. Sergeant URABE’S courage and skill reflects great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the United States. Home address: Kapaa, Kauai, Territory of Hawaii. Next of kin: Mr. Kenzo Urabe (father).

These seven men now have to have their grave markers updated as they are all, officially now second lieutenants. A rank denied them at the time. You can read about them, and more, at this website that highlights 25 fallen warriors of the UH ROTC program.

It has been said in many times and places that some assemblage of men that “uncommon valor was common.” It’s never been more true than about the men of the 442nd RCT. General Mark W. Clark (Fifth Army) said, “these are some the best… fighters in the U.S. Army. If you have more, send them over.”

A RCT has a nominal strength of 4,000 fighting men. In a year and a half on the front line, about 18,000 men would ultimately serve in the regiment. They earned 21 Medals of Honor, 29 Distinguished Service Crosses, 371 Silver Stars, 15 Soldier’s Medals, 4,000 Bronze Star Medals (plus 1,200 oak leaf clusters for a second award), and more than 4,000 Purple Hearts. This is a record more comparable to a full division than it is to a regiment.

Category: Army, Valor, Veterans in the news, We Remember, WWII