Army Pfc. Joe Nishimoto confronted discrimination throughout World Warfare II due to his Japanese lineage, however that did not cease him from becoming a member of the navy when he had the prospect to show his allegiance to the U.S. He by no means got here house from battle, however his efforts weren’t forgotten. A few years after making the final word sacrifice, he was bestowed the Medal of Honor.
Nishimoto was born on Feb. 21, 1919, within the Fresno space of California to Japanese immigrants Giichi and Kiyo Nishimoto. He had an older brother, Frank, and two sisters, Akie and Marie. Not a lot is understood about his childhood, however Nishimoto was engaged on a farm he owned in Fresno when World Warfare II started.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor precipitated rampant concern within the U.S. of anybody of Japanese heritage, which led to an government order that pressured the internment of about 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Individuals in camps throughout the nation. Nishimoto was taken from his house and put into the Jerome Focus Camp in southeast Arkansas, which held about 8,500 individuals over the course of the warfare. Nishimoto’s dad and mom had been taken to close by Rohwer Focus Camp.
The Marion Star newspaper out of Marion, Ohio, mentioned Nishimoto was finally granted permission by the FBI to settle someplace within the east, so he moved to Marion, close to the place his sisters and their husbands had settled previous to the warfare.
Nishimoto volunteered for the Army virtually as quickly as he bought there, however it took about seven months for his enlistment to undergo. The Marion Star mentioned that in that point, he labored on the Olds Poultry Farm and Hatchery from January to July 1943.
Nishimoto lastly entered service on Oct. 4, 1943, and was despatched to Camp Shelby in Mississippi to coach with the 442nd Regimental Fight Group. Activated in February 1943, the 442nd was a segregated unit made up solely of Japanese Individuals who had been initially barred from navy service after the Pearl Harbor assault. Nishimoto’s brother, Frank, was additionally part of the 442nd.
After coaching, Nishimoto and the 442nd deployed to Italy in June 1944, the place they joined in fight with the one centesimal Infantry Battalion, the primary all Japanese American unit to be activated in the course of the warfare. Inside two months, Nishimoto earned a Silver Star by main a daring daylight crossing of a river by which he offered cowl for different troopers, then destroyed a machine gun submit and stole enemy tools.
The 442nd did such an amazing job in battle in its first few months abroad that it was reassigned to Southern France, the place its troopers took half in heavy fight within the Vosges Mountains. Over the span of a month that autumn, the unit liberated Bruyeres and Biffontaine and helped rescue the 141st Infantry’s 1st Battalion — now generally known as the Misplaced Battalion — which had been surrounded by Germans.
By November, the 442nd was close to La Houssiere, France, and had been below stress as a consequence of enemy hearth and hidden mines. On Nov. 7, after his firm spent three unsuccessful days attempting to dislodge the enemy from the ridge it was defending, Nishimoto determined to step up the struggle.
With out concern for his personal security, he crawled ahead by way of an space stuffed with mines and different booby traps. When he got here throughout an enemy machine gun nest, he destroyed it with a grenade. He then moved on to the again of one other machine gun nest and fired his submachine gun inside at point-blank vary, killing one gunner and wounding one other. Nishimoto then chased after two different enemy troopers, killing one in every of them earlier than driving one other machine gun crew from their place.
Having misplaced these three strongholds, the enemy determined it had no alternative however to flee — all because of Nishimoto’s extraordinary bravery.
Sadly, Nishimoto did not stay lengthy sufficient to realize recognition for his actions. The 25-year-old was killed in fight every week later. His dad and mom had been notified whereas they had been nonetheless within the internment camp they had been despatched to firstly of the warfare. When Nishimoto’s physique was returned house, he was buried at Washington Colony Cemetery in Fresno.
The younger non-public initially earned the Distinguished Service Cross for his bravery on Nov. 7. However for a few years, those that knew him thought he deserved extra.
Within the Nineteen Nineties — many years after Nishimoto’s actions — legislators referred to as for a evaluate of his service report and people of different Asian-American service members from World Warfare II. They wished to find out if any of these males had been handed over for the Medal of Honor as a consequence of discrimination of the time.
Contemplating the 442nd RCT continues to be one of the embellished items in U.S. historical past, the opinions did, certainly, discover that discrimination was an element.
On June 21, 2000, that incorrect was lastly rectified for 22 males who served in segregated Asian American items throughout World Warfare II. Throughout a White Home ceremony, President Invoice Clinton introduced Nishimoto’s eldest sister, Akie, together with her brother’s lengthy overdue Medal of Honor.
In 2014, the medal was donated by his household to the Nationwide Museum of American Historical past in Washington, D.C., to be a part of the Smithsonian’s everlasting assortment.
This text is a part of a weekly collection referred to as “Medal of Honor Monday,” by which we spotlight one of many greater than 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients who’ve earned the U.S. navy’s highest medal for valor.
