Thomas Hiromi Imai
1st Sergeant
442nd Regimental Combat Team
3rd Battalion, K Company
Thomas Hiromi Imai was born on October 28, 1913, in Salinas, California. He was the son of Goichi and Onayo Imai, who emigrated from Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, in 1897 and 1904, respectively. His siblings were: brothers Joe Sohei, Shigemi (died 1926, age 18), Shigeo (died 1909, age 6 weeks), and Nobuso George; and sisters Sumiye and Itsue. The eldest son had remained in Japan. The family lived in Monterey County where Goichi worked as a farmer.
In 1920, the family resided on a farm on Buena Vista Road, Toro Precinct, Monterey County. Father Goichi was a hired farmhand and mother Onayo a servant on the farm. Goichi died in 1926. By 1930, Hiromi and his widowed mother lived on the Arena Ranch on the Chung Estate in Gonzalez Township. His mother was a cook at the ranch. After graduating from high school, Tom attended Hartnell Junior College in Salinas, graduating in 1935. At that time, he and his mother lived on a ranch in Alisal Township, where he worked as a ranch hand.
Tom Imai signed his draft registration card on October 16, 1940, Local Board No. 120, at the Monterey County Court House in Salinas. His residence was 959 Old Stage Road, Salinas, and his point of contact was his employer, Jim Bardin, owner of the ranch. He was 5’6” tall and weighed 140 pounds. A few days later, on October 24, the second list of local draft numbers (from 1142 to 3378) in Monterey County was announced – and Imai was number 1638.
In the summer of 1941, Tom attended the Salinas Evening School defense training program, which was part of the US plan for defense through agriculture. Imai was in the Diesel and Gas Engines course, which instructed students on how to care for diesel and gas engine equipment needed in agricultural work.
Imai was inducted into the U.S. Army on January 9, 1942, at the Presidio of Monterey. At the time, he had completed two years of college. His civilian occupation was listed as “Farm hand, animal and livestock.” Where he was sent for training and where he was first stationed were not found in our research. His mother and brother George Nobuso (and his wife and children) were evacuated in the spring of 1942 to the Salinas WCCA Assembly Center and incarcerated at the Colorado River WRA internment camp, also known as Poston, on July 5, 1942. They were released to a Japanese family (George for employment) in Malta, Montana, on April 1, 1943.
After the activation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team on February 1, 1943, Tom Imai was transferred to the 442nd and sent to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, for training. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, K Company. On September 3, 1943, it was announced in the Hattiesburg, Mississippi, newspaper that Sgt. Thomas H. Imai was promoted to Staff Sergeant.
Following a year of basic, unit, and specialized training and field maneuvers, the 442nd left Camp Shelby by train for Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, on April 22, 1944. They shipped out to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations in a large convoy of about 100 ships on May 2 and arrived at Naples, Italy, on May 28.
Imai served in the Rome-Arno Campaign, entering combat near Suvereto on June 26. The RCT pushed the enemy steadily up the Italian peninsula, taking towns as they moved north: Belvedere on June 26, Sassetta on June 27, across the Cecina River to Hill 140 on July 2-5, Castellina on July 7, Pomaja on July 8, Pastina on July 12, Pieve di San Luce and Lorenzano on July 14, Luciana on July 16.
By this time, it was apparent that their mission to take the port town of Livorno was heading to success, as the enemy was abandoning the port and moving to their defenses along the Arno River. Imai’s K Company made a frontal attack on Luciana, the hilltop town northeast of Livorno, and gained a toehold by nightfall. Finally, late on July 17, K Company had cleared out the last resistance in the town.
On July 18, Livorno fell to the Allies and Imai’s 3rd Battalion along with the 2nd Battalion continued to push north, meeting only scattered resistance. They took Colle Salvetti, which was on the last high ground south of the Arno River. The Germans were still defending the area just south of the Arno, but not heavily. On July 21, the 442nd pushed out as far as the main east-west road, Highway 67, between Livorno and Florence, set up defensive positions there, and moved an outpost line some distance beyond the highway itself.
That night, all elements of the RCT were relieved from the lines and pulled back to a bivouac near Colle Salvetti.
On July 22, most of the 442nd, including Imai’s 3rd Battalion, were moved from Colle Salvetti to a rest area around Vada, about 20 miles south on the Ligurian coast. They remained there until August 20. During this time, they rested, and from August 1 on they resumed training, including mountain fighting, and working on and ironing out problems in combat situations.
When they left Vada in late August, Imai’s 3rd Battalion and the 2nd Battalion moved back into the lines on a 6-mile front on either side of the Greve River juncture flowing south out of the Arno. They ran patrols constantly – the ground was level but so heavily crisscrossed with hedges and vineyards that visibility was usually under 100 yards. The goal of the patrols was to capture prisoners who would hopefully give valuable information about what the enemy knew of our plans or their own plans and troop dispositions. There were ongoing casualties in the 442nd.
This situation continued until September, when the pullback began for the 442nd. Imai’s K Company remained in position until September 5.
The next day, the 442nd was detached from the 88th Division and moved south, prior to being transported to Naples and shipment later in the month to its next assignment – the Rhineland-Vosges Campaign in France.
However, during the last days of the 442nd’s time along the Arno, Sgt. Imai was wounded. In a newspaper interview in 1951, Sgt. Imai said that he was hit by a German 88mm shell, “left for dead” (not unusual when on patrol in low visibility), and picked up later by the “hospital crew.” He was taken to the aid station, transported to a field hospital, on to a regular hospital, and at some point shipped to the Army’s Baxter General Hospital in Spokane, Washington, where he was slowly “nursed back to health,” as he said. An earlier newspaper article, Spokesman-Review, October 2, 1949, stated that the German artillery shell had landed practically on top of Imai and he had sustained severe internal injuries.
Sgt. Imai was discharged from the Army on May 24, 1945, in Spokane, a few weeks after the Germans surrendered and the war in Europe ended. Years later, he said that his wound still put him at 30 percent disability.
For his military service, 1st Sergeant Thomas Hiromi Imai was awarded the following medals and decorations: Bronze Star Medal, Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one bronze star, World War II Victory Medal, Distinguished Unit Badge, and Combat Infantryman Badge. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on October 5, 2010, along with the other veterans of the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team. This is the highest Congressional Civilian Medal.
Just after his discharge, in June Tom Imai applied to join the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 51 in Spokane. However, his application was rejected on the basis of his ethnicity. Two further applications by other 442nd veterans were also rejected. This prompted widespread indignation and a strongly worded letter by 442nd commander Colonel Virgil R. Miller denouncing this local policy against men of his unit who had served bravely and honorably during World War II. A petition was signed by 500 veterans who were recuperating patients at Baxter General Hospital. Letters poured in from as far away as Guam, where 50 men in the 147th Army Airways Communication System Squadron sent their comments that Japanese Americans were “as typically American as you or I.”
A few months after his discharge, on September 12, 1945, in Spokane, Tom Imai married Shizu Akai, a native of Portland, Oregon. She was the daughter of Kinnosuke and Katsu (Yoshihara) Akai, who had immigrated from Okayama Prefecture, Japan. The newlyweds decided to remain in Spokane and lived at S216 Howard Street.
Tom attended watchmakers’ school, completing the Inland Empire Watchmakers Association apprenticeship program in April 1949. He was employed by the Best Clock & Watch Repair Shop in Spokane’s Sherwood Building.
Left: 1949 newspaper photo of disabled veterans employed by Best Clock & Watch Shop, L to R: Thomas W. Burns, manager; Floyd A. Arnold; Thomas H. Imai; Frank Scacco.
Imai soon opened his own watchmaking and watch repair shop, while Shizu owned and operated a dressmaking and alterations shop. They lived at 3612 East 26th Street and raised one daughter. In 1951, Tom was hired to run the new watch repair shop in Montgomery Ward, the city’s large department store.
On June 12, 1951, Imai was among the fifteen local 442nd veterans honored by military and civilian officials and the town on the stage of the Post Theater at 7:15 p.m. Prior to the showing of the new Hollywood movie, “Go For Broke,” the veterans were introduced and interviewed.
In November 1957, Imai and friend Bob Healy were fly fishing at Brown’s Lake on the last day of fishing season when a freak windstorm hit. They rescued a man and woman from the frigid water after their canoe capsized, trapping them in the lake for 25 minutes.
By the early 1960s, Tom was also a jeweler at Montgomery Ward. After his retirement in 1976, he taught watchmaking at Spokane Community College for nine years. He was also President of the Research and Education Council of the American Watchmakers Institute, and a member of the Inland Empire Watchmakers Association.
On August 15, 1985, Imai appeared in an article in the Spokane Spokesman-Review with other 442nd veterans. They had recently returned from the 442nd reunion in Honolulu and were interviewed about their wartime experiences.
Thomas Hiromi Imai died on August 5, 1986, at the Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane. He was survived by his wife, daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter, and sisters Etsue Tsuruoka and Sumie Mizushima of Japan. He was a member of the Manito Masonic Lodge No. 246, El Katif Shriners, and Spokane Mushroom Club. He was inurned at Pine Valley Cemetery near Spokane. The plaque on Imai’s niche is inscribed “442 Battn.” Shizu died as the result of an auto accident on September 19, 1994, and was inurned next to her husband.
Postscript. In 2024, one of Imai’s Army dog tags was found in front of one of the bunkers used by K Company at Col de Turini in the Maritime Alps during its stay there in late 1944/early 1945 (Rhineland-Maritime Alps Campaign). It is unknown how his dog tag came to be there, as Imai did not serve in this campaign. Speculation leads to a belief that one of his comrades perhaps had it with him there and accidentally dropped it.
Above: Photos of the bunkers, 2024
Below: Private James K. Okubo, K Co. Medic, in front of the bunkers in 1944/45
Researched and written by the Sons & Daughters of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in 2024, with the assistance of Simon Greboval of France.