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| Pvt. Hiroaki Arita earned the Bronze Star with the 100th Infantry Battalion in Italy. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/154167012/hiroaki-arita https://www.nvlchawaii.org/resources/100th-infantry-battalion |
Hiroaki Arita never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on September 12, 1919 in Hawaii. His parents Tomeichi and Tsura were both born in Japan. They came to Hawaii in 1905. Hiroaki had an older brother, older sister, and two younger sisters. By 1940 Hiroaki was living with his widowed mother. He had completed seven years of schooling and worked on a sugar cane plantation.
He was drafted into the army on December 10, 1940. He was first part of the 299th Infantry Battalion, but he eventually became a private in Company F, 100th Infantry Battalion. I read an excellent book on this unit back in the 1990's named Go for Broke: A Pictorial History of the Japanese-American 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442d Regimental Combat Team by Chester Tanaka. It is out of print, so unless you can find it at a library, you may need to find another history of this storied unit. Also check out the 100th Battalion website. It's a good thing the Japanese fighting against us in the Pacific were not like the quality of the 100th Battalion or the war would have been much tougher to win.
The 100th IB was sent to Algeria in September 1943. It was first in combat at Salerno in late September. Pvt. Arita died during the Naples Foggia Campaign in Italy on November 30, 1943 along with another 141 KIA/MIA in this time frame. On that date the 100th IB was fighting the Germans near Cerasuolo.
Pvt. Arita was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star. I was not able to find the full citation but a contemporary newspaper wrote that after taking a strategic hill, the platoon that included Pvt. Arita was cut off and under attack for three days. "Only the heroic determination, teamwork, and courage of Pvt. Arita and his comrades enabled them to hold the position."
His grave is at Veterans Cemetery #1 in Hilo, Hawaii.
Last year on this date I profiled Valiant pilot Aubrey York. You can read about Aubrey here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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