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This Time in 442nd RCT History (Jan 2018)
The Champagne Campaign in the French Maritime Alps, Part 2 A brief summary of the “Champagne Campaign” was included in the November 2017 E-newsletter. The 100th/442nd was assigned to protect the right flank of the Sixth Army Group along the French-Italian border in the French Maritime Alps from November 1944 to March 1945. Despite the use of the term “champagne” and the liberty granted many of the men to Nice, Paris and other French towns and cities, there was still war at hand and daily patrols and fighting took place. Excerpts from the Headquarters 442D Regimental Combat Team Monthly Historical Report for the month of January 1945 will serve to highlight some of what the men lived through during this “campaign”. New Year’s Day 1945,...
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This Time in 442nd RCT History (Nov 2017)
This Time in 442nd RCT History After the Vosges: The Champagne Campaign in the French Maritime Alps October 30, 1944 was a Monday but for many with a sense of history it is the day the 442nd RCT reached the 1st Battalion, 141 Infantry Regiment in what has come to be known as the “Rescue of the Lost Battalion.” This is a short summary of the movements of the 442nd following the brutal fighting in the Vosges Mountains, including the Rescue. According to historical information in the National Archives, the 100th Infantry Battalion was detached from the RCT on November 10 and was sent to Nice on the southern coast of France. The rest of the 442nd RCT was given relief on November 17 after...
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This Time in 442nd RCT History (Sept 2017)
RHINELAND CAMPAIGN-VOSGES (October 10, 1944 – November 21, 1944) There were five major battle campaigns that were fought by the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, of which the Rhineland Campaign-Vosges was one of them. The 442nd arrived in France in October 1944 to join the 36th Division as part of the 7th Army, after fighting in and then leaving Italy, where the 442nd and 100th Infantry Battalion had joined up to form the RCT. At this point in time, the Allies were about 40 miles from the France/Germany border but the Vosges Mountains brought a new type of terrain experience for the 442nd soldiers. map from https://1stabtf.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/map-bruy%C3%A8res-17-octobre.png In order to proceed ahead towards the border, the soldiers needed to secure the town of Bruyeres. Bruyeres is...
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This Time in 442nd History (July 2017)
The Flight of the Anti-Tank Company (photo courtesy of the U.S. Army) The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was an U.S. Army infantry unit, as we the friends and family of the 442nd veterans know. Not all may know, however, that just weeks after the 442nd arrived in Italy and entered combat in June of 1944, the men of the Anti-Tank Company were separated from their 442nd brethren to be trained as glider troops taking to the air to transport anti-tank guns, Jeeps and ammunition. Here are some details of the flight of the Anti-Tank Company. For general background, the 442nd HQ, 2nd and 3rd Battalions had all arrived in Italy by mid-June 1944. The battle hardened 100th Infantry Battalion was attached to the 442nd RCT...
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Stories of Staff Sergeant Seiji Nakahara, I Company
We present the following story about Seiji Nakahara (1924-2000) written by his son Keith Nakahara. Seiji served as a Staff Sergeant in I Company, 3rd Battalion, from his enlistment as a volunteer on March 30, 1943, to November 16, 1945. He fought in all the campaigns of the 442nd. He left Italy in July 1945 to return to the US. He was awarded the Purple Heart with two oak leaf clusters and the Bronze Star Medal. Nakahara was buried in the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe on the Windward side of Oahu. Stories of Staff Sergeant Seiji Nakahara, I Company By First Sergeant Keith I. Nakahara SSgt Seiji Nakahara, I Company, 3rd Battalion My father was in I Company. He got shot the...
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Stories From My Grandpa
We present the following story about Sergeant Wilbert Sanderson Holck (1925-1999) written by his granddaughter. Sandy, as he was known, was enlisted in the U.S. Army on March 25, 1943, after answering the call for volunteers for the 442nd. He served in the Combat Team’s Cannon Company in Italy and France. He was awarded a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star Medal prior to leaving Italy. He arrived back home with more than 850 other veterans on the troop ship USAT Evangeline on December 19, 1945, and was discharged on December 28. Holck later served in the Korean War. He was buried at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe on the Windward side of Oahu. Stories From My Grandpa By Kristen Nemoto Jay Sgt....
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This Time in 442nd History (Mar 2017)
This Time in 442nd RCT History The following quote is one example of many where a commander of soldiers writes of the horribleness of war (the “plague of Mankind” refers to war). “My first wish is, to see this plague to Mankind banished from the Earth; & the Sons & daughters of this World employed in more pleasing & innocent amusements than in preparing implements, & exercising them for the destruction of the human race.” George Washington in a letter to his former aide-de-camp David Humphreys, 25 July 1785, written nearly 2 years after the end of the Revolutionary War. The 442nd RCT and the Po Valley Campaign, April-May 1945 This is a synopsis of several written accounts of the Po Valley Campaign, links are...
Continue ReadingNisei Soldiers — Through Their Grandchildren’s Eyes
Honolulu – May 16, 2014. The following article was printed in The Hawaii Herald – Hawaii’s Japanese American Journal (Vol. 35. No. 10). THE NISEI SOLDIERS — THROUGH THEIR GRANDCHILDREN’S EYES Yonsei’s Pilgrimage to Their Grandfathers’ Battlegrounds Stirs a Sense of Legacy Editor’s note: The following is an edited transcript of a “talk story” session among four yonsei whose grandfathers served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II. Last October, they joined their parents on a pilgrimage to Europe, where, among other sites, they visited the former Dachau concentration camp in southern Germany, and Bruyeres, France. Almost 70 years ago, Nisei soldiers from the 442nd RCT had helped to liberate Nazi-held prisoners at Dachau and to free the small town of Bruyeres...
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A “Very Special” Trip
Here is an article from the Hawai‘i Herald’s special edition honoring the 70th Anniversary of the 442nd RCT. A “Very Special” TripSteps Retraced in Journey to Bruyeres and BiffontaineKarleen ChinenThe Hawai‘i Herald (March 15, 2013) Genro Kashiwa was not in the best of health when he boarded the plane for our trip to Europe last fall. Eight days earlier, he was in a hospital bed, recovering from a bleeding colon. But the recently retired lawyer insisted on making this pilgrimage — his first since the war. Genro, his wife Muriel and I became fast friends on the trip. From early in our journey, I often observed him studying maps and writing in canary-colored legal tablets. When we talked, his comments usually had more to do...
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