'Japanese' bravery

[merlin]

I thought I would share with everyone by this excerpt from:
The Path to Victory The Mediterranean Theater in World War 2, by Douglas Porch - p.647

The scene is the Gothic line April '45

By 20 April, the Fifth Army, attacking across its entire front, had cleared the mountains and flooded onto the Plain of Emilia, despite a desperate attempt by the Ninetieth panzer Grenadier Division to sacrifice its tankd to prevent it. fighting was hard, nonetheless. Second Lieutenant Daniel Inouye (you wondered where the 'Japanese' was going to come!) of the 442d took on a machine gun that had wounded him in the side on the Colle Musatell, one of the ridges that blocked the U.S. advance toward the Po valley. "I thres a grenade and it cleared the log bunker and explode," he remembered, "and when the guncrew staggered erect, I cut them down with my tommy gun" He pulled himself toward a second machine-gun nest.

"At last I was close enough to pull the pin on my last grenade. And as I drew my arm back, all in a flash of light and dark I saw him, that faceless German, like a strip of motion picture film running through a projector that's gone berserk. One instant he was standing waist-high in the bunker, and the next he was aiming a rifle grenade at my face from a range of 10 yards. And even as I cocked my arm to throw, he fired and his rifle grenade smashed into my right elbow and explode and all but tore my arm off. I looked at it, stunned and unbelieving. It dangled there by a few bloody shreds of tissue, my grenade still clenched in a fist that suddenly didn't belong to me anymore ... The grenade mechanism was ticking off the seconds. In two, three, of four, it would go off, finishing me and the good men who were rushing up to help me. 'Get back' i screamed, and swung around to pry the grenade out of the dead fist with my left hand. Then I had it free and I turned to throw and the German was reloading his rifle. But this time I beat him. My grenade blew up in his face and I stumbled to my feet, closing in on the bunker, firing my tommy gun left handed, the useless right arm slapping red and wet against my side."

Wow, now that takes some doing!!

Porch concluded the episode by saying that - Inouye was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (was that all) and later served as U.S. senator from Hawaii.

Hope you found it interesting

[lesofprimus]

An old story that many of us are aware of... Pure heroism at it most finely tuned.... Not many of us could do what Inouye did to earn that DSC, and my respect at his focus is immense....

Too many brave men died performing similar feats of bravery, whose sacrifices will never be told....

[Micdrow]

Totally agree with you Dan, There are tons of untold stories of heroism that we will never know.

[Tao-san]

Very strong story, thanks to talk about !
I had chance to see a serie of films about great battles of WW2 and in one of the 11 DVD, I have the interview of Inouye and over veterans. The most incredible is that the director of this serie asked to some of the veterans to come back to the precise location of their exploits, the tells became so strong doing so, I could hear the pride in his voice, but much more, humility.
But it was a time (late 60's early 70's) when national french tv wanted to make educational, pedagogic documents ...
I'm happy these films are printed for ever !

[Theo]

I live in Hawaii and Inouye is my senator. Some years ago I read a strange story about him and the war in a local newspaper. During a dinner party with some of his war buddies, one of his friends told a story that left the party gasping in silence. It seems the senator had a habit of pilfering from the dead. This "friend" recalled an incident in which they came across the body of a dead French woman. He said that Inouye wanted a ring that was around the dead woman's finger. When he couldn't remove it, he cut the finger off.

[comiso90]

The 442nd!

General Dahlquist asked the 442nd to pass in review. He asked where are all the men? "Sorry sir... this is all we have left" replied a teary-eyed officer. After days of near constant fighting the 442nd had suffered roughly 1,000 casualties. 200 soldiers were killed in action (or missing) with over 800 seriously wounded.

Asian-Nation : Asian American History, Demographics, & Issues :: 442nd -- Rescue of the Lost Battalion

.

[Theo]

I did some research on the ring incident. I found this in google books.


Oh, Say, Can You See?: The Semiotics ... - Google Book Search

[Konigstiger205]

It does takes a great deal of courage to do what he did.I can only imagine the pain he felt after the shock of battle. He probably didn't felt anything in that moment because he was busy trying to survive.

[Negative Creep]

It must be one of those things that doesn't seem real until afterwards. You run on pure adrenaline and do things you'd never believe you could do in the cold light of day. Incredible bravery though, just shows how fine the line is beetween life and death

[syscom3]

And while these Americans of Japanese descent were out spilling their blood, their families were stuffed into concentration camps back home.

[Theo]

Inouye is from Hawaii. None of his family was put into a camp. I am Japanese American and lived in Hawaii all my life. I don't know a single JA person that was put into a camp here. If the government had done that back then, they would have had to intern almost half the population of Hawaii.

[comiso90]

I friend I work with in Central CA had several family members interned while 3 others served in the 442nd.

[Haztoys]

Originally Posted by syscom3

And while these Americans of Japanese descent were out spilling their blood, their families were stuffed into concentration camps back home.

They were not "concentration camps...No one was gassed or killed or worked to death..My mom drive a truck to and from Bishop Ca camp to LA...And they eat better then she did ...And the Japanese people gave her food at times ..And she would dig up better close for them to ware...Sorry we did it to them ...But they were not in concentration camps...And as much hate for the Japanese there was on the west coast ..They may have had it real bad if they had stayed..

[Haztoys]

Originally Posted by Theo

Inouye is from Hawaii. None of his family was put into a camp. I am Japanese American and lived in Hawaii all my life. I don't know a single JA person that was put into a camp here. If the government had done that back then, they would have had to intern almost half the population of Hawaii.

Strange how they picked some to go to camps and not others...??

[Theo]

Originally Posted by Haztoys

Strange how they picked some to go to camps and not others...??

This is in Hawaii. Japanese make up a large part of the population here even today. They couldn't intern that many people.