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| Cpl Haruyoshi Tateyama earned the Silver Star while serving with the 100th Infantry Battalion in Italy. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/48953516/haruyoshi-h-tateyama https://www.nvlchawaii.org/resources/100th-infantry-battalion |
Haruyoshi Tateyama never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Announcement: Later this month I will be starting a project that will result in the stories of all 400,000 plus of the World War 2 fallen at one online location. There will be an accompanying smart phone app to allow users visiting any war memorial to scan the fallen serviceman's name and be linked to his story. Watch this blog or join the WW2 Fallen 100 Facebook page to learn of upcoming details.
Haruyoshi was born on January 9, 1920 in Haiku, Hawaii. His parents Gojiro and Tsuru were probably both born in Japan. Haruyoshi had seven older sisters, three older brothers, and one younger brother.
He was drafted into the army in November 1941. He became a corporal in Company F, 100th Infantry Battalion. After Pearl Harbor the army didn't know what to do with the Hawaiian National Guard soldiers of Japanese descent. Early on, these troops had their rifles taken away. Eventually they were given the chance to fight in Europe. The 100th would first see action in Italy in late September 1943 at Salerno.
By late October the 100th crossed the Volturno River to capture hills that were part of the German Winter Line. These hills were needed to clear the way to taking Monte Cassino. Casualties in early November were heavy. The 100th Infantry Battalion lost over 50 men in less than 10 days. The heavy fighting also resulted in more than 200 wounded. On November 2nd he saved his squad after it had been caught in a minefield. He was mortally wounded and died nine days later on November 11, 1943.
For his action he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. His citation reads as follows:
The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Silver Star Medal (Posthumously) to Haruyoshi H. Tateyama (30101825), Corporal, U.S. Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the enemy while serving with Company F, 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate), attached to the 34th Infantry Division, on 2 November 1943, in the vicinity of Capriati, Italy.
While establishing an outpost line of the enemy-held banks of the Volturno River, Corporal Tateyama's squad encountered a heavily-mined and booby-trapped field and became somewhat disorganized. Corporal Tateyama, Assistant Squad Leader, with utter disregard for his own safety, moved over the hazardous area and successfully reorganized the squad. He then personally led the squad through the heavily-mined field to its assigned position, but in accomplishing this he was mortally wounded by an enemy anti-personnel mine.
The courage and devotion to duty displayed by Corporal Tateyama contributed materially to the success of his Battalion in making a crossing and is a distinct credit to the Armed Forces of the United States.
His grave is at Maui Veterans Cemetery in Makawao, Hawaii.
Last year on this date I profiled B-17 bombardier Luther Clark. You can read about Luther 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
The combined 100th/442nd units had 560 recipients along with 28 Oak Leaf Clusters, which meant a number of the men had received more than one Silver Star. As a boy scout long, long time ago, I participated in the dedication of a memorial plaque at Haiku School on Maui that included Haruyoshi Tateyama. Mahalo, Cpl. Tateyama, Hawaii is what it is today because of soldiers like you who served with such honor.
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