Soldier Story: Jenhatsu Chenen
Soldier Story
Jenhatsu Chinen
Sergeant
442nd Regimental Combat Team
2nd Battalion, E Company
Jenhatsu Chinen was born on February 22, 1922, in Helemano, near Wahiawa, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii. He was the eldest child of Sanra and Sumi Chinen. His siblings were: sisters Hatsumi Dorothy and Tsugie Tessie; and brothers Masao and Tokio (died age 6 in 1939).
His parents arrived in Honolulu in 1916 and 1919, respectively, from Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Sanra was a salesman at Honouliuli Shokai Ltd., a general retail store Mother Sumi was a dressmaker operating from their home.
In 1930, the family lived in Ewa District and father Sanra was a sales clerk at a grocery store and Jenhatsu attended elementary school.
He then attended Central Intermediate School. For high school Jenhatsu was a boarding student at Mid-Pacific Institute in Honolulu. In March 1939, Jenhatsu was among 27 Mid-Pacific juniors who were on the Honor Roll.
By 1940, the family lived at the same address (Weaver Road). Sanra was a general retail store salesman, and Jenhatsu was away at school. During his senior year, Chinen was President of the Mid-Pac Hi-Y Club.
Chinen graduated on June 3, 1940, and was one of the speakers for “The Past” at the commencement exercises held in Wilcox Hall at 8:00 p.m.
Below: Mid-Pacific Class of 1940; Chinen is 2nd row from the bottom, 5th from the left
Jenhatsu enrolled in the University of Hawaii (UH) in the fall of 1940, where he was a member of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). ROTC enrollment was required for all male students for their first two years at UH.
On December 7, 1941, immediately after Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan, Jenhatsu and all UH ROTC cadets were told to report for duty, armed with Springfield rifles and five bullets each, and sent out to engage Japanese paratroopers who were thought to have landed. After searching for 6 or 7 hours, they received official orders converting them into the Hawaii Territorial Guard (HTG). Their mission was to protect vital installations on the island from the feared impending invasion by the Imperial Japanese Army.
Six weeks later, on January 19, 1942, Jenhatsu and the other Japanese American cadets were discharged from the HTG as they had been classified 4C – “enemy aliens” – and were ineligible to serve in the military due to suspicion of their potential loyalty to Japan. Now came the long and courageous battle to prove that Americans of Japanese ancestry were just as loyal as those of other ancestral origins.
At UH, classes were already suspended. The former UH cadets petitioned Military Governor Lieutenant General Delos C. Emmons to be allowed to serve the war effort in any way possible. On February 25, 1942, their petition was successful.
Jenhatsu and the other expelled cadets were assigned to a 169-man auxiliary unit called the Varsity Victory Volunteers (VVV). They were stationed at Schofield Barracks and helped with various construction projects at military installations around Oahu. Their steady and reliable performance played a significant role in assuaging the doubts of the Army leaders and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
For the next 11 months, to January 28, 1943, the VVV worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 34th Construction Engineer Regiment, stationed at Schofield Barracks on Oahu.
Chinen registered for the draft on June 31, 1942, at Local Board No. 9, at August Ahrens School in Waipahu. He was 5’3-1/2” tall and weighed 125 pounds. He was living with his family in Ewa. His point of contact was the family’s next-door neighbor Mr. Katsuo Kanno of Honouliuli in Ewa District. He was employed by the Corps of Engineers Auxiliary, 34th Infantry, at Schofield Barracks.
After the announcement that the Army was forming a Japanese American Combat Team in early 1943, the VVV was disbanded so that its members could volunteer.
On March 23, 1943, Chinen enlisted in the U.S Army in Honolulu. He was sent to the “tent city” nicknamed Boomtown at Schofield Barracks. On March 28, he was at the community farewell ceremony at Iolani Palace given by the community for the new soldiers of the 442nd RCT. The men left on April 4 on the S.S. Lurline. After arriving at Oakland, California, they were sent by train to Camp Shelby, Mississippi.
At Camp Shelby, Private Chinen was assigned to 2nd Battalion, E Company. On September 3, 1943, the Hattiesburg American announced promotions in the 442nd after conclusion of basic training. Chinen was promoted to the rank of Corporal.
After nearly a year of basic and specialized training and field maneuvers, the 442nd left for Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, on April 22, 1944. On May 2, the 442nd sailed from nearby Hampton Roads in a convoy of over 100 ships enroute to the Theater of Operations.
The 442nd arrived at Naples, Italy, on May 28, with Chinen and E Company. The men marched or went by interurban train to the suburb of Bagnoli, where they were in a bivouac at Staging Area No. 4. On June 6, the 442nd left Naples on LSTs for Anzio. From Anzio, they were trucked through Rome and arrived at a large bivouac near Civitavecchia, about 50 miles north.
However, the rest of 2nd Battalion – that is, Headquarters and Companies A, B, and C – had sailed the Atlantic on a different ship than E Company and, after entering the Mediterranean, their ship went to Oran on the coast of North Africa to offload cargo.
Consequently, when the 442nd left Naples on June 6, E Company (including Chinen) was left behind in Bagnoli to await the arrival of the rest of 2nd Battalion from Oran. After they arrived on June 9, they met up with E Company and remained in Bagnoli until June 17. That day, the entire 2nd Battalion left on LSTs and went by sea directly to Civitavecchia, bypassing Anzio. They arrived at the large Civitavecchia bivouac on June 17, where they met up with the rest of the Combat Team.
Chinen and the 442nd entered battle in the Rome-Arno Campaign near Suvereto north of Rome on June 26 – with their objective of capturing the seaport city of Livorno 50 miles north. Over the next 15 days, the 442nd steadily pushed the Germans north along the western side of the Italian peninsula. The towns they captured, liberated, or – in the case of unopposed entry – were the first to enter, were: Suvereto and Belvedere on June 26, Sassetta on June 27, Molino a Ventoabbto on July 3, and Hill 140 in the vicinity of Castellina on July 9.
On July 1, the 442nd crossed the Cecina River, easily fordable at that time of year. Resistance, while not heavy, was stiffening, indicating that the enemy would make some sort of a stand on the high ground just north of the Cecina River. Captured Germans from the 36th SS Regiment reported that they had been ordered to “hold until the defenses at Pisa were completed.” On July 3, enemy artillery fire became increasingly heavy. That day, 2nd Battalion, attacking on the right, took Molino a Ventoabbto and the two hills to the north before running head-on into the enemy main line of resistance at Hill 140. From this hill, they rained down shells on E Company and 2nd Battalion.
On July 4, E Company gained the base of Hill 140 and dug in around it. Furious firefights raged all through July 5. Enemy resistance was skillful and determined. All along the 34th Division front the Germans held more doggedly than at any time since the breakthrough at Cassino and Anzio in the Naples-Foggia Campaign, that was experienced by the 100th Battalion (Separate). The battle for Hill 140 was later nicknamed “Little Cassino. The enemy prisoners being captured said that they had been “ordered to hold until the defenses at Pisa were completed.”
It was on this day, July 5, 1944, in the battle to take Hill 140 that Sgt. Jenhatsu Chinen of E Company was killed. Men from F Company later recalled that “E was getting hell and calling for machine gun support” and E Company “took a beating sitting on that hill.” It took four more days to fully gain control of Hill 140.
Sgt. Jenhatsu Chinen was buried in the nearby U.S. Military Cemetery at Follonica.
For his military service, Sergeant Jenhatsu Chinen was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one bronze star, World War II Victory Medal, and Combat Infantryman Badge. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on October 5, 2010, along with the other soldiers of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Conferred by the U.S. Congress, the award states: “The United States remains forever indebted to the bravery, valor, and dedication to country these men faced while fighting a two-fronted battle of discrimination at home and fascism abroad. Their commitment and sacrifice demonstrate a highly uncommon and commendable sense of patriotism and honor.”
Sgt. Chinen’s death was announced in the October 23 edition of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The following month on November 14, the same newspaper announced that his Purple Heart Medal was presented posthumously to his father at the family home. The presentation was made by Lieutenant Colonel Edward M. Blight on behalf of Lieutenant General Robert C. Richardson, commander of the U.S. Army Pacific.
On June 12, 1945, the University of Hawaii paid tribute to its 60 former students who were killed in the war, when a moment of silence was observed during the commencement exercises at 4:30 p.m. in the outdoor theater on campus. At the time, there were 1,204 members of the faculty and student body on active military service.
On April 21, 1946, the former VVV men held a memorial service for their seven members who were killed in action during the war. The ceremony was held at 3:00 p.m. at the Church of the Crossroads. Services were held for Daniel Betsui, Jenhatsu Chinen, Robert Murata, Grover Nagaji, Akio Nishikawa, Hiroichi Tomita, and Howard Urabe, all former UH students. The Reverend Mineo Katagiri of Nuuanu Congregational Church, presided. Hung Wai Ching, former secretary of the UH YMCA, was the speaker. The service included the presentation of specially printed and framed certificates for Gold Star Mothers. All former VVV members, friends, and the ASUH (Associated Students of UH) were invited.
In 1947, the US began a program of closing most of its overseas wartime military cemeteries. They gave the families of servicemen the option of having their loved one reburied at one of the remaining cemeteries or being returned home. The Chinen family asked that their son Jenhatsu be returned to Honolulu.
On December 24, 1948, Sergeant Chinen’s remains were among those of 122 men of the 442nd killed in Italy and France who arrived at Pearl Harbor’s Dock M-3 aboard the military transport USAT Sinnet. The 264th Army Band played Aloha Oe as the ship docked at 8:30 a.m. Following a brief dockside ceremony was held, attended by about 700 family and friends. It began with a moment of silence, then a prayer by Army Chaplain Eugene L.A. Fisher. The Secretary of Hawaii, Oren E. Long, gave the address in which he stated: “We are proud to have had such sons.”
Navy Chaplain Wendell Wheeler gave the benediction. Some attendees lingered and watched solemnly as the flag-draped caskets were unloaded from the ship’s hull. Afterwards, the caskets were taken to the U.S. Army Museum at Schofield Barracks to await funeral instructions.
Sergeant Jenhatsu Chinen was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, Section D, Site 276 on July 24, 1949.
Postscript. In 2012, the University of Hawaii awarded posthumous degrees to the seven ROTC cadets who were killed during World War II while serving with the 442nd RCT:
The Regents of The University of Hawai’i on the recommendation of the Faculty of University of Hawai’i at Mānoa have conferred upon
Jenhatsu Chinen
the degree of Bachelor in Memoriam with all its privileges and obligations
Given at Honolulu, Hawai’i, this twenty-fifth day of March, two thousand twelve
Researched and written by the Sons & Daughters of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in 2026.