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| Then Private Joe Hayashi earned the Medal of Honor while serving with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19395/joe-hayashi https://archive.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=45180 |
Sergeant Joe J. Hayashi never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Ryo “Joe” Hayashi was born on August 14, 1920 in Salinas, Monterey County, California. His mother, Toyo Sakamoto, and stepfather, Kakichi “Jimmie” Nakawatase were both born in Japan. Little verifiable information about his biological father could be found. His mother married Nakawatase in 1926. His stepfather worked as a gardener. Joe had two sisters, Chiye and Kiyo, a half-brother Seichi Nakawatase and two half-sisters Sayo and Shizuo Nakawatase. He graduated from Muir Tech High School in Pasadena, California. In 1940, he worked as an auto mechanic. He enlisted in the US Army on May 19, 1941.
In August of 1942, Hayashi’s mother, stepfather, and siblings were interned at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center near Cody, Wyoming. This was one of ten relocation centers created during the war for people of Japanese descent, who were deemed to be a threat to the country. His stepfather would die of cancer inside the camp on December 21, 1944. The rest of the family would be released between April and July 1945, including Joe’s nephew, born in the camp.
Hayashi served stateside until the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was created in 1943. This unit consisted of second-generation Japanese soldiers, many of whose families were held in the internment camps. Hayashi was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, Company K. The unit trained in Mississippi, and arrived in Anzio, Italy in May 1944.
The 442nd fought in Italy along the western coast from May to September 1944. They transferred to France, where they sustained heavy losses rescuing the “Lost Battalion” of the 141st Infantry Regiment in October 1944. The regiment returned to northern Italy in March 1945. In April 1945, the Germans dug in for their final defense in Aulia, Italy. The 442nd made its final push April 19-23 to take Mount Nebbione. Joe Hayashi died in action on April 22 near Tendola. The war ended in Italy on May 2, and in all of Europe on May 8, 1945.
Joe was promoted to the rank of sergeant posthumously. By 1949, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star, Good Conduct Medal, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, and Distinguished Unit Citation. In 2000, with other Nisei soldiers, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, recognizing that these men had been neglected for higher commendation due to their ethnicity.
His Medal of Honor citation reads:
"On 20 April 1945, ordered to attack a strongly defended hill that commanded all approaches to the village of Tendola, Private Hayashi skillfully led his men to a point within 75 yards of enemy positions before they were detected and fired upon.
After dragging his wounded comrades to safety, he returned alone and exposed himself to small arms fire in order to direct and adjust mortar fire against hostile emplacements. Boldly attacking the hill with the remaining men of his squad, he attained his objective and discovered that the mortars had neutralized three machine guns, killed 27 men, and wounded many others.
On 22 April 1945, attacking the village of Tendola, Private Hayashi maneuvered his squad up a steep, terraced hill to within 100 yards of the enemy. Crawling under intense fire to a hostile machine gun position, he threw a grenade, killing one enemy soldier and forcing the other members of the gun crew to surrender. Seeing four enemy machine guns delivering deadly fire upon other elements of his platoon, he threw another grenade, destroying a machine gun nest. He then crawled to the right flank of another machine gun position where he killed four enemy soldiers and forced the others to flee. Attempting to pursue the enemy, he was mortally wounded by a burst of machine pistol fire.
The dauntless courage and exemplary leadership of Private Hayashi enabled his company to attain its objective. Private Hayashi's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army".
His grave is at Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California.
Thank you, Sergeant Joe Hayashi, for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Joe.
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This profile was written by Marilyn N. Clark. "I have a long-standing interest in World War 2. My grandfather and numerous great-uncles served in that conflict. I have a BA in history from the University of Utah and have a lot of experience with volunteer genealogical research. It’s an honor to find and share information about these heroes that made such great sacrifices. Many thanks to Don for organizing this effort to share their stories.”
This is one of the final 50 stories (20) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.
Last year on this date I profiled Stephen Mitrick, 4th Ranger Battalion. You can read about Stephen 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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I want to say that Nisei soldiers were not allowed to buried in many cemeteries due to restrictions and Joe Hayashi was buried in Evergreen Cemetery instead of another cemetery. I worked with US Veterans Affairs on his MOH headstone with the help of his family.
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