Nisei Participation in Battle of Belvedere told in ‘Yank’

Featured in a recent issue of the Yank magazine, a weekly army publication having a world-wide coverage, was an article accompanied by several photographs, titled “The Battle of Belvedere,” which gave a detailed account of the participation of Japanese American soldiers in the battle for the town of Belvedere in Italy.

Written by James P. O'Neill, Yank staff correspondent, the article said: “there are three outfits that will remember the little Tuscany town of Belvedere for a long while to come. Two of them are the American 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Combat Team, now spearheading the drive to the north. The other is a German SS battalion, the remnants of which are now spearheading a drive towards Naples and the nearest PW camp.

“Both the 100th Battalion and the 442nd Combat Team are composed of Japanese Americans, many of them from Hawaii. The men of the 100th went in at Salerno and have since fought almost every major action from the Volturno to Rome.”

In telling the story of Belvedere, Sgt. O'Neill wrote that “it really began after Rome fell, when the 100th was pulled out of the line and sent to bivouac in the pleasant countryside just north of the city,” where, “it joined the 442nd.” For 14 days the men of the 100th drilled the 442nd, “giving them the final polish that makes a soldier as much a combat soldier as he can be before combat.”

The story continued: “then on the 17th day after the fall of Rome the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Combat Team were pulled into the line, and two days later they headed for the beautiful little hilltop town of Belvedere.” The 100th was the 1st to go into the line and its objective was a small town about 7 miles below Belvedere. The men of the 100th did it in two days, chasing the Germans up the valley directly before Belvedere, where they ran into German artillery fire and were held up.

The 442nd then replaced the 100th to assault the German positions but was unsuccessful as the Germans counterattacked and “pinned the outfit down in an exposed and highly uncomfortable position in a wheat field.”

When the men of the 100th heard what was happening to the 442nd they immediately made plans to do something about it. After the final plans were agreed upon, they appointed a member to go “to the brass hats and tell them the outfit wanted to do something,” and they received permission to act.

The article then described the missions which the 100th had to do and how they went about it, giving a movement-by-movement description. In four hours, day 100 had gained most of their objectives, which included freeing the trapped for 42nd, and a short while later Belvedere was completely in allied hands.

“The 100th lost one man and had eight wounded,” the article stated. “In bivouacked that day with the 442nd. There was a lot of razing between the two outfits.”

“After a couple of days both of them went back into the line,” O'Neill concluded.