Nisei In Uniform

              THE DENVER POST
October 13, 1943
JAPANESE-AMERICAN
FOUGHT NIPS ON ATTU
U. S.-Born Sergeant Home From Alaska to Take
Bride, Tells of Fighting on Visit to Parents
At Heart Mountain
Heart Mountain, Wyo., Oct. 13. — (I. N. S.)—Japanese
soldiers of American birth, in addition to fighting Nazis in
Italy, have fought against Nipponese soldiers in the Pacific
theater of war, it was disclosed Wednesday.
Sergt. Kunihiro Nakao, a Japanese-American formerly of
Sacramento, Calif., arrived at the war
relocation center at Heart Mountain
as a veteran of hand-to-hand com
bat at Attu.
Sergeant Nakao and his bride of a
few days, the former Kuni Muto of
San Fernando, Calif., spent part of
their honeymoon at the WRA camp
visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Kamjiro Nakao, recent transferees
from the Tulelake, Calif., camp of
the WRA.
Despite his reluctance to talk of
his experiences, Sergeant Nakao revealed to fellow Japanese that he
had been stationed in Alaska for
about a year, and that he was
among those who landed on Attu
where he said he was frequently
under fire.
"Captured Japanese rations proved
a welcome addition to the emergency fare on which Sergeant Nakao
and his buddies were existing, and
the Caucasians learned to relish enemy delicacies," the camp newspaper
reported, in disclosing Nakao's return to the United States via plane
to become a bridegroom. The marriage took place at Salt Lake City.
Following the honeymoon, Sergeant
Nakao will return to his army post
in Alaska.
CLEVELAND PRESS
Reveal Husband of
Cleveland Japanese
Saved U. S.   General
A 26-year-old Japanese-American sergeant, whose wife and
brother are living in Cleveland,
today was credited with helping
to save the life of an American
general in hand-to-hand combat
with Japanese forces in the South
Pacific.
Sgt. Tomas Sakamoto, whose
wife is a civil service employee of
the War Department, has been
mentioned in dispatches from the
South Pacific as the first of his
race to be cited for action against
the Japanese. Mrs. Sakamoto,
23, lives at 11102 Lorain avenue,
while Sgt. Sakamoto's brother,
Frank, 22, lives at 1906 E. 93d
street.
Sakamoto was the only noncommissioned officer in an assault party led by Brig. Gen.
William Chase. The party was
attacked by a Jap group, headed
by the Japanese island commander.
In the ensuing fighting the entire Jap group except two were
killed.
Sgt. Sakamoto is a native of
San Jose, Cal. He has been in the
Army three years and met his
wife in Minneapolis, Minn., while
he was at Camp Savage.
SUN (Baltimore, Md.)
November 20, 1943
JAPANESE TELLS
OF PACIFIC WAR
AT RIVERS CAMP
One Jap sniper who tried his best
to kill a Japanese American "doughboy" never lived to tell of his failure.
The Japanese American soldier,
Staff Sgt. Kazuo Komoto, is back in
America after a slug from the
sniper's machine gun had shattered
his knee. He visited his parents at
the Rivers Relocation Center last
week.
The sergeant in recounting his experience in the "toughest fighting in
the world" said that he had been
without sleep for a week, and had
climbed out of his fox hole behind
the front lines to rest. Some twenty
minutes later the sniper, who had
infiltrated and camouflaged himself
in a tree, opened on him and several
other American soldiers near him.
A few seconds later the sniper was
riddled by American fire.
Later, on a hospital ship, his commanding general presented him with
the Purple Heart award. With a soldier's disdain for what he terms a
"cripple's medal," Komoto shrugs off
congratulations. Completely recovered from his knee wound, he is
ready for action again.
WASHINGTON POST
On the Line
.With  CONSIDINE
We were down here to appear on the Army's radio program
which is called "Vising Hour"—written by our old pal, Sergt. Jerry
Lewis, and produced by Maj. Andre Baruch, one of the better men
of radio. The program, one of the best on the air, we think, is
the idea of Maj. Gen. Norman T. Kirk, Surgeon General of the
Army. General Kirk is using this program to introduce the
wounded veteran to the public.   He is doing just that.
There was one boy on the program who startled even the legless,
armless boys in the audience. He was (and is) a Japanese-
American, born in Honolulu.
His mother and father were born in Japan. His name is Wallace
Y. Hisamoto. We asked him what was on his mind—one of the
lively stock questions of the program.
"Well," he said, "Tomorrow is 'I Am An American Day,' and I'd
like to say that despite the fact that both of my parents were born
in Japan, I'm an American, too."
Wallace lost his leg in the battle that followed the crossing of the
Volturno River, in Italy. He served with the 100th Infantry Battalion of the Thirty-fourth Division, composed mainly of Japanese-
Americans. Wally yesterday was carried on to the stage, as a baby
is carried, by Corpl. Mark Austaad of Ogden, Utah.
"When my people tried to settle down in some places in this country they were driven out," the legless boy protested. "I went to war
because the Japanese rulers and the Nazis were trying to prove that
there is a super-race. America doesn't believe that, and yet my
people, who are American like me, can't stay put because their skin
isn't white.   It doesn't make sense."
The inconsistency of it all reminded him of his favorite athlete,
Sergt. Joe Louis.
"Our people feel just like Louis does," he said. "When the heavyweight champion landed in England, somebody said to him 'Why are
you so happy to be in uniform, your country isn't so nice to your
people.' Joe looked at the man and said, 'Mister, I know that there
are things wrong with my country, but it's nothing Hitler can fix.'
We Americans whose parents were born in Japan feel the same way.
Maybe there is something wrong in America, but it's nothing To jo
can fix, either."
DES MOINES REGISTER,
March 24, 1944
High Praise
for Doughboy
and the Nisei
By C. C. Clifton.
Maj. James J. Gillespie, 32,
who fought with the famous
34th Division from the beach
landing at Algiers to the mountains before Cassino, came home
Thursday singing the praises
of the infantry and the Hawaiian Japanese he commanded
in Italy.
Landed at Salerno.
Major Gillespie, who went
into Italy at Salerno beach in
the battalion commanded by
Lt. Col. Lloyd Rockwell of
Council Bluffs which took the
key road center of Benevento,
was placed in command of the
Hawaiian Japanese battalion
after Benevento.
These Hawaiians, all of Japanese descent and American
citizens came in to replace a
battalion which was removed
from the division before the
North African invasion.
They were flanked in all their fighting, which included two crossings of
the Volturno river and the mountain
fighting before Cassino, by two battalions of Iowans.
On one side was Rockwell's
third battalion of the 133d infantry and on the other was the
first battalion of the 133d.
"These Hawaiian Japanese,"
Gillespie said, "call themselves
Hawaiians or just plain Americans. They've earned the right
to call themselves anything
they damn well please. I've
never been so mad in my life
as I have been since I returned
to the United States and have
heard cracks made about Japs
fighting on our side in Italy.
Loyal Americans.
"Anybody who calls these
doughboys Japs is the most narrow minded person I know of.
These kids, so far as I'm concerned, are just as much Americans as I am. I'd like to hear
anybody foolish enough to disparage them do it when the two
Iowa battalions that fought
with them and got shot at with
them could hear it.
"The men of these battalions will
tell anybody what good men they are
and how extremely loyal they are.
They're as good as any outfit I've
ever been with."
The Hawaiian battalion was
organized in Hawaii, trained 15
months in the United States,
and joined the 34th Division at
Oran, Africa, before the division went to Italy. At the front
they were under constant fire,
day in and day out, battling
mud and rain and terrific
terrain.