MON MAY 25, 2015
United States Army Private First Class William K. Nakamura, U.S. Medal of Honor recipient, awarded posthumously.
In “The Memorial Day history forgot: The Martyrs of the Race Course,” I wrote last year about the not very well known African-American roots of Memorial Day. In recent years, some media attention has been paid to the long history of Black military service—from the Revolutionary War, including Haitians who fought for us, through the civil war, in films like Glory, and the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II—no matter the racism we faced, and still face in this country. We hear less about other soldiers of color—Asian, Native American and Latino who died for us, who also faced, and still face discrimination within our shores.
Pictured above is William Kenzo Nakamura (January 21, 1922-July 4, 1944).
He was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military’s highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in World War II.Nakamura was born in Seattle to Japanese immigrant parents. He is a Nisei, which means that he is a second generation Japanese-American. His family was interned in Minidoka in Idaho during World War II. Nakamura volunteered to be part of the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team. This army unit was mostly made up of Japanese Americans from Hawaii and the mainland.
On July 4, 1944, Nakamura was serving as a private first class in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. On that day, near Castellina, Italy, he single-handedly destroyed an enemy machine gun emplacement and later volunteered to cover his unit’sWITHDRAWAL
. He was then killed while attacking another machine gun nest which was firing on his platoon
Follow me below the fold for more of this memorial history.
If you have never seen this film, suggest you watch it. Going For Broke is the story of Japanese American G.I.s who fought and died for the U.S. in World War II while their families were interned here at home.
The Asian-American Hawaiian senator Daniel Inouye hosts, and the Japanese-American actor George Takei (Star Trek) serves as narrator, in Going for Broke, a documentary that provides an incredibly rare glimpse of an unusual corner of World War II: those Japanese men who fought hatred, prejudice and discrimination after Pearl Harbor to fight for the US military in the second world war. Going for Broke honors this group of extraordinarily brave and patriotic men. By coupling archival footage and harrowing interviews with Japanese-American veterans, the film examines exactly how these individuals managed to cope and cling to their beliefs in American ideals, overcoming the bigotry that threatened to destroy any lingering optimism that they possessed.
The following memorandum was issued by the military on how to deal with Japanese American Troops.
HEADQUARTERS 92D INFANTRY DIVISION
APO 92 U. S. ARMY4 April 1945SUBJECT: Facts concerning 442 Infantry
TO: : Organization Commanders
1. Below are listed some facts and statistics concerning the 442d Infantry. It is desired that paragraphs 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 be disseminated throughout your organization, in such a manner as not to breach the security of their present situation.
1. The 442d Combat Team was activated in February 1943. The enlisted personnel was composed entirely of Americans of Japanese ancestry. Having been born in the United States, all of the men are citizens of the United States. Very few of them have ever been to Japan and most of them cannot speak Japanese. They are as thoroughly loyal as German Americans, Italian Americans, or any other American of foreign ancestry. A category, of course, into which all of us fall.
2. The original cadre was composed of men already in the service in the States. The fillers were all volunteers.
3. The men proved from the beginning to be willing, conscientious, loyal, and anxious to prove their devotion to their country. The officers found them intelligent and zealous in learning and in the performance of their military duties.
4. In their personal characteristics the men are shy, self-effacing, extremely polite, and personally clean. They are cheerful and anxious to do what is expected of them. Orders are habitually carried out without question.
5. We must always treat the men just as we would treat any other group of American soldiers. There have been occasional clashes with white American soldiers, but brought on by some unthinking individual who referred to them as “Japs,” or “yellow-bellied so and sos.” Such difficulties, however, never last beyond the time the men get well acquainted. We count among our particular friends these units with which we have trained or with which we have fought. Of these are many American divisions that have the highest regard for the men of this unit both as individuals and as a group.
6. Two of their outstanding combat characteristics, it is believed are, first, that they will never leave a cut-off individual or unit, and, secondly, that they all get up and move forward at “zero hour.”
7. They do not like to be called “Japs” or “Jap Americans.” They are either soldiers or Japanese Americans (without the hyphen) or Americans of Japanese ancestry; among themselves often “Buddaheads.”
8. They are patient in combat, and, like all good soldiers cannot be hurried into a dangerous situation. It is usually better to allow the squad or platoon to work out its own method of dealing with a particular situation — and they will if there is any way to do so.
Six hundred fifty members of the 442nd were killed in action. Though members of the unit were awarded medals for distinguished service, it wasn’t until 2000, that many of those medals were upgraded to our nation’s highest honor.
President Clinton approved the Army’s recommendations for the upgrades on May 12. Nineteen of the 21 veterans were members of the all-Japanese 100th Infantry Battalion or 442nd Regimental Combat Team — for their size, among the most highly decorated units in U.S. military history.
…The upgrading of the medals stems from efforts by Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, who authored the provision of the 1996 Defense Authorization Act mandating a review of the service records of Asian Pacific Americans who received the Distinguished Service Cross.
“The number of nominations made by the Army and approved … by the president underscores the reason I sought this review: to dispel any doubt about discrimination in the process of awarding the Medal of Honor,” Akaka said in a press release.He noted that the 100th and 442nd fought with incredible courage and bravery in Italy and France, well befitting the unit motto, “Go for Broke!” — Hawaiian slang for “shoot the works.” Its members earned more than 18,000 individual decorations, including one wartime Medal of Honor, 53 Distinguished Service Crosses, 9,486 Purple Hearts and seven Presidential Unit Citations, the nation’s top award for combat units. “Unfortunately, Asian Pacific Americans were not accorded full consideration for the Medal of Honor at the time of their service,” said Akaka, who praised the Army and Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera for a “tremendous job conducting” the records review. “A prevailing climate of racial prejudice against Asian Pacific Americans during World War II precluded this basic fairness, the most egregious example being the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans,” Akaka said. “The bias, discrimination and hysteria of that time unfortunately had an impact on the decision to award the military’s highest honor to Asian and Pacific Islanders.”
There is so much of this history, it is impossible for me to cover it in one story. If you are interested in the extraordinary record of service and sacrifice of Latinos, you can start by reading Fighting on Two Fronts: Latinos in the Military, and “U.S. Latino Patriots.”The same is true for the service of Native Americans. Though many of us have heard of the Navajo Code Talkers, there are other Indian medal of honor recipients. Sadly, many Indians who returned, alive, to the reservations, were deprived of G.I. Bill housing benefits.
Men and women of color continue to serve honorably around the world, and give their lives for all of us, no matter their treatment here at home. “I Got the News Today” (IGTNT), a regular series here at Daily Kos, honors the fallen year round.
Rest in Peace.
Pray that one day we will see an end to war.