Henry Masado Harada served in M Company, 3rd Battalion, 442nd RCT. He held the rank of Tech Sergeant. Henry was born in Rocky Ford, Otero County, Colorado, on January 7, 1920, one of nine children of Sadakichi and Tami (Takeda) Harada. Sadakichi and Tami had immigrated to the U.S. from Wakayama Prefecture in 1905 and 1914, respectively.
Before the war, Henry was a lightweight boxer in Colorado regional tournaments. He signed his WWII Draft Registration card on July 1, 1941. He enlisted February 13, 1942. At the time he was 5’6”, 145 lbs.
Harada saw action in Italy in the Rome-Arno Campaign. During the Vosges Campaign in France, he was wounded in the foot in battle in November 1944 and admitted to a military hospital for about 2 months. He was wounded a second time in Italy and awarded the Purple Heart Medal with an Oak Leaf Cluster. Other decorations include a Combat Infantryman Badge and a Distinguished Unit Badge.
After the war, Harada married Amy Watanabe in Denver on December 8, 1946. They settled in Lovington, New Mexico, where he started farming from scratch in 1948 with no electricity or running water. He bought ranch land and was the first to “break the soil,” operating his 500-acre farm for decades. His daughter described him as the “produce-growingest man in Lea County.”
The Haradas had two sons and one daughter. He died July 2, 2006, in Lovington, New Mexico, and is buried in Fort Logan National Cemetery, Denver, Colorado, next to his wife who died in 2007.