WW2 New Guinea Fallen - Silver Star Yukitaka Mizutari, 6th Infantry Division

Tech Sergeant Yukitaka Mizutari, a Military Intelligence Service trained linguist, earned the Silver Star at the Battle of Lone Tree Hill in New Guinea.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/126857849/yukitaka-mizutari
https://m.startribune.com/secret-world-war-ii-military-language-school-at-fort-snelling-getting-recognition/303181451/ 

Yukitaka Mizutari never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

If you have enjoyed reading the stories of the WW2 fallen, Can you help write some stories? It's a big project. The more help, the better.  Announcing "The Stories Behind the Stars", see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org. This crowd-sourced national project has the goal of compiling stories of all 400,000+ of the US World War 2 fallen in one free-to-access central database.  Anyone visiting a war memorial or gravesite will be able to scan the name of the fallen with a smartphone and his story will appear on the phone.

Yukitaka was born on May 3, 1920 in Hawaii. His parents Yasuyuki and Suyeme were both born in Japan. His father worked as a coffee farmer and also as a Japanese School principal and teacher. Yukitaka had two older sisters, three younger sisters, and one younger brother. He worked as a clerk at C Brewer and Company.

He was drafted into the army on November 12, 1941. While he started out with most of the Hawaiian Nisei in the 100th Infantry Battalion, one year later sixty Nisei, including Yukitaka, were selected for Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Language School. Meanwhile his father was arrested and sent to an internment camp on the mainland -- only because he was Japanese.

Yukitaka ended up as a tech sergeant in the Headquarter Department, 169th Language Detachment, 6th Infantry Division. These Japanese speaking Americans were sent to the South Pacific where they translated enemy communications and documents and also interrogated prisoners. Sgt. Mizutari first served in this linguist capacity in Australia and then in New Britain. In June 1944 he was working at Maffin Bay, New Guinea. 

Sgt. Mizutari was killed on June 23, 1944 during the Battle of Lone Tree Hill while defending the division command post from attack. American loses were more than 400. Sgt. Mizutari's valor was recognized by the Silver Star.

His citation in part says:

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Technical Sergeant Yukitaka Terry Mizutari (ASN: 30101723), United States Army, for gallantry in action while serving with the 6th Infantry Division, in action against the enemy on 23 June 1944, at Maffin Bay, New Guinea. His gallant actions and dedicated devotion to duty, without regard for his own life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

His grave is at Veterans Cemetery No. 1 at Hilo, Hawaii.

Mizutari Hall, at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, was named for Yukitaka Mizutari in 1969.

Thank you Sgt. Mitzutari for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Yukitaka.

Last year on this date I profiled Guam fallen Oren Hill, 3rd Marine Division. You can read about Oren 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.

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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

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http://www.tggf.org