# 'Japanese' bravery



## merlin (Jul 19, 2008)

I thought I would share with everyone by this excerpt from:
The Path to Victory The Mediterranean Theater in World War 2, by Douglas Porch - p.647

The scene is the Gothic line April '45

By 20 April, the Fifth Army, attacking across its entire front, had cleared the mountains and flooded onto the Plain of Emilia, despite a desperate attempt by the Ninetieth panzer Grenadier Division to sacrifice its tankd to prevent it. fighting was hard, nonetheless. Second Lieutenant Daniel Inouye (you wondered where the 'Japanese' was going to come!) of the 442d took on a machine gun that had wounded him in the side on the Colle Musatell, one of the ridges that blocked the U.S. advance toward the Po valley. "I thres a grenade and it cleared the log bunker and explode," he remembered, "and when the guncrew staggered erect, I cut them down with my tommy gun" He pulled himself toward a second machine-gun nest.

"At last I was close enough to pull the pin on my last grenade. And as I drew my arm back, all in a flash of light and dark I saw him, that faceless German, like a strip of motion picture film running through a projector that's gone berserk. One instant he was standing waist-high in the bunker, and the next he was aiming a rifle grenade at my face from a range of 10 yards. And even as I cocked my arm to throw, he fired and his rifle grenade smashed into my right elbow and explode and all but tore my arm off. I looked at it, stunned and unbelieving. It dangled there by a few bloody shreds of tissue, my grenade still clenched in a fist that suddenly didn't belong to me anymore ... The grenade mechanism was ticking off the seconds. In two, three, of four, it would go off, finishing me and the good men who were rushing up to help me. 'Get back' i screamed, and swung around to pry the grenade out of the dead fist with my left hand. Then I had it free and I turned to throw and the German was reloading his rifle. But this time I beat him. My grenade blew up in his face and I stumbled to my feet, closing in on the bunker, firing my tommy gun left handed, the useless right arm slapping red and wet against my side."

Wow, now that takes some doing!!

Porch concluded the episode by saying that - Inouye was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (was that all) and later served as U.S. senator from Hawaii.

Hope you found it interesting


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## lesofprimus (Jul 19, 2008)

An old story that many of us are aware of... Pure heroism at it most finely tuned.... Not many of us could do what Inouye did to earn that DSC, and my respect at his focus is immense....

Too many brave men died performing similar feats of bravery, whose sacrifices will never be told....


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## Micdrow (Jul 19, 2008)

Totally agree with you Dan, There are tons of untold stories of heroism that we will never know.


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## Tao-san (Jul 21, 2008)

Very strong story, thanks to talk about !
I had chance to see a serie of films about great battles of WW2 and in one of the 11 DVD, I have the interview of Inouye and over veterans. The most incredible is that the director of this serie asked to some of the veterans to come back to the precise location of their exploits, the tells became so strong doing so, I could hear the pride in his voice, but much more, humility.
But it was a time (late 60's early 70's) when national french tv wanted to make educational, pedagogic documents ...
I'm happy these films are printed for ever !


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## Theo (Jul 21, 2008)

I live in Hawaii and Inouye is my senator. Some years ago I read a strange story about him and the war in a local newspaper. During a dinner party with some of his war buddies, one of his friends told a story that left the party gasping in silence. It seems the senator had a habit of pilfering from the dead. This "friend" recalled an incident in which they came across the body of a dead French woman. He said that Inouye wanted a ring that was around the dead woman's finger. When he couldn't remove it, he cut the finger off.


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## comiso90 (Jul 21, 2008)

The 442nd! 

_General Dahlquist asked the 442nd to pass in review. He asked where are all the men? "Sorry sir... this is all we have left" replied a teary-eyed officer. After days of near constant fighting the 442nd had suffered roughly 1,000 casualties. 200 soldiers were killed in action (or missing) with over 800 seriously wounded._

Asian-Nation : Asian American History, Demographics, Issues :: 442nd -- Rescue of the Lost Battalion

.


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## Theo (Jul 22, 2008)

I did some research on the ring incident. I found this in google books. 


Oh, Say, Can You See?: The Semiotics ... - Google Book Search


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## Konigstiger205 (Jul 22, 2008)

It does takes a great deal of courage to do what he did.I can only imagine the pain he felt after the shock of battle. He probably didn't felt anything in that moment because he was busy trying to survive.


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## Negative Creep (Jul 22, 2008)

It must be one of those things that doesn't seem real until afterwards. You run on pure adrenaline and do things you'd never believe you could do in the cold light of day. Incredible bravery though, just shows how fine the line is beetween life and death


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## syscom3 (Jul 22, 2008)

And while these Americans of Japanese descent were out spilling their blood, their families were stuffed into concentration camps back home.


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## Theo (Jul 22, 2008)

Inouye is from Hawaii. None of his family was put into a camp. I am Japanese American and lived in Hawaii all my life. I don't know a single JA person that was put into a camp here. If the government had done that back then, they would have had to intern almost half the population of Hawaii.


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## comiso90 (Jul 22, 2008)

I friend I work with in Central CA had several family members interned while 3 others served in the 442nd.


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## Haztoys (Jul 22, 2008)

syscom3 said:


> And while these Americans of Japanese descent were out spilling their blood, their families were stuffed into concentration camps back home.




They were not "concentration camps...No one was gassed or killed or worked to death..My mom drive a truck to and from Bishop Ca camp to LA...And they eat better then she did ...And the Japanese people gave her food at times ..And she would dig up better close for them to ware...Sorry we did it to them ...But they were not in concentration camps...And as much hate for the Japanese there was on the west coast ..They may have had it real bad if they had stayed..


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## Haztoys (Jul 22, 2008)

Theo said:


> Inouye is from Hawaii. None of his family was put into a camp. I am Japanese American and lived in Hawaii all my life. I don't know a single JA person that was put into a camp here. If the government had done that back then, they would have had to intern almost half the population of Hawaii.



Strange how they picked some to go to camps and not others...??


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## Theo (Jul 22, 2008)

Haztoys said:


> Strange how they picked some to go to camps and not others...??



This is in Hawaii. Japanese make up a large part of the population here even today. They couldn't intern that many people.


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## syscom3 (Jul 22, 2008)

They were concentration camps. If you were on the wrong side of the wire, you got shot.


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## Haztoys (Jul 22, 2008)

If you say so...

Jail I'm sure it was ...Concentration camp it was not ...One more time ...No one was gassed or worked to death or killed just because they were Japanese...

And they were still not the right thing to do to the Japanese...


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## syscom3 (Jul 23, 2008)

Haztoys said:


> If you say so...
> 
> Jail I'm sure it was ...Concentration camp it was not ...One more time ...No one was gassed or worked to death or killed just because they were Japanese...
> 
> And they were still not the right thing to do to the Japanese...



There was only one type of person in the camps. Japanese civilians.

And the penalty for being outside the wire was to be shot. Just like what the Nazi's did.

If it looks like a camp, feels like a camp, and does the same thing like a camp .... then it is a camp.


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## Theo (Jul 23, 2008)

I hope the forum doesn't think I'm some kind of troll for posting what I did. I don't hate Dan Inouye. The ring incident is something that stuck in my mind since I read the article back in 1993. I thought it was a really big deal back then. He cut the finger off a dead woman to get a diamond ring. His arm is later blown off with the ring and a doctor has to snip his finger to get the ring. Now that's karma or _bachi_ as the Japanese say. 

Too bad Teruo Ihara, the storyteller, died in 2003. 

Inouye is no different from other politicians that used their war experience to bolster their careers such as JFK or LBJ. You all read about JFK bravely rescuing the crew of the PT109.


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## seesul (Jul 23, 2008)

Syscom:
In fact there´s no difference in the meaning of the words concentration and interment camp, but Nazis changed the meaning of the ''concentration camp''. That´s why the people here don´t want to hear about Japanese beeing held in ''concentration camps'', neither me. I´d better call it interment camps.
If you wanna see what´s a concentration camp, go to
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/ww...sary-liberation-auschwitz-birkenau-11649.html
Don´t know if you ever saw a concentration camp. I was in Auschwitz and there you can see the meaning of the worlds ''concentration camp''.

And something from Wikipedia:
The term concentration camp lost some of its original meaning after Nazi concentration camps were discovered, and has ever since been understood to refer to a place of mistreatment, starvation, forced labour, and murder. The expression since then has only been used in this extremely pejorative sense; no government or organization has used it to describe its own facilities, using instead terms such as internment camp, resettlement camp, detention facility, etc, regardless of the actual circumstances of the camp, which can vary a great deal.

In the 20th century the arbitrary internment of civilians by the state became more common and reached a climax with Nazi concentration camps and the practice of genocide in Nazi extermination camps, and with the Gulag system of forced labor camps of the Soviet Union. As a result of this trend, the term "concentration camp" carries many of the connotations of "extermination camp" and is sometimes used synonymously. A concentration camp, however, is not by definition a death-camp. For example, many of the slave labor camps were used as cheap or free sources of factory labor for the manufacture of war materials and other goods.

Indeed, in terming their camps "concentration camps," the Nazis were using a mundane term to mask something far more horrific than the word had previously meant, similar to their usage of the term 'Ghetto.' Previously, ghettos had been separate, usually walled-in Jewish Quarters designed to segregate Jews from outside society and "protect" them from their neighbors. The Ghettos in occupied Europe were far more brutal, however. After the war some of the German built concentration camps remained in operation. Some camps were used by Poland for extracting Forced labor from ethnic German civilians prior to their expulsion. Camps included Polish camps such as those run by Salomon Morel and Czesław Gęborski. For example Central Labour Camp Jaworzno, Central Labour Camp Potulice, Łambinowice, Zgoda labour camp and others

Internment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## syscom3 (Jul 23, 2008)

Theres two types of camps. Death camps and concentration camps.

The Germans only had one type of camp. A death camp because, anyone who went into one, was eventually going to die.

Saying they are "Internment camps" is just sugar coating what a concentration camp really is. People thrown into a jail like setting for no cause, without rights and treated like animals.

Then there is always that issue of being shot without warning for being on the wrong side of the fence.


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## seesul (Jul 23, 2008)

syscom3 said:


> Theres two types of camps. Death camps and concentration camps.
> 
> The Germans only had one type of camp. A death camp because, anyone who went into one, was eventually going to die.
> 
> ...



do you really thik the japs were treated like animals there?
i don´t have much info about it so if you know some link post it please.
and if someone speaks about concentration camp today, everyone imagines nazi death camp


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## kaigunair (Aug 21, 2008)

I too am a jpn-american. While we hear of the jpn-american internment/concentration camps as consiting of Americans of Jpn descent who were living in the west coast areas, there was a population of Hawaiian Japaness Americans who were sent to camps. These citizen were usually involved in the jpn-american community or business community, and were targed because they were citizen leaders, who naturally did talk to people (and relatives!) back in japan. None were ever convicted.

When I visited Hawaii a few years ago, I picked up a book on these hawaiian jpn-americans (airplane reading material): Ganbare! by Saiki, Patsy 

While I'm not surprised not many mainlanders or even Katonks (me) know much about the internment camps, let alone the hawaiian ones, I am alittle surprised that a "buddah-head" (no offense meant: the 442nd are my heros and I like to throw around their diction when I have the chance) would say no hawaiian jpn-american was send to camps...

JCCH*:*Hawaii Internees Story


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## timshatz (Aug 21, 2008)

From what I've read, the idea of putting the Japanese on the West Coast in Camps (Concentration or Custody or whatever you want to call it) came out of the Roosevelt Administration. Right after Pearl Harbor, there was considerable concern that the Japanese population had persons in that were of questionable loyalty, to put it simply, deep cover plants. 

Roosevelt (and a few others of his administration) wanted to put them in Camps to keep an eye on them. Hoover thought the FBI could root out the problem ones if given the time and resources. Roosevelt won out and Japanese (naturalized, American born and enemy alien) were put in camps. The zone in which this occured was pretty much along the West Coast, inland states (for the most part) did not send Japanese to camps (Unless they were enemy aliens and then they were obligated to go by rules of war). 

However, the same question came up in the East with the Italians and Germans and the Germans in the Midwest. In those cases, Hoover won out. Individuals registered with the FBI, had to turn in weapons and radios and keep the Feds informed if they went anywhere. 

It seems the focus was more on where the external threat was and who might be a possible ally to that threat that anything else. If Pearl Harbor was on the East Coast and Germany/Italy had a capable fleet, it is entirely possible the same occurence would've happened on the East Coast.


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## Njaco (Aug 21, 2008)

> From what I've read, the idea of putting the Japanese on the West Coast in Camps (Concentration or Custody or whatever you want to call it) came out of the Roosevelt Administration.



But no one has trampled the civil rights of people as much as our current pres.  Right?

I use the term Internment as a way to distinguish between those of the Axis and here in the US.


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## timshatz (Aug 22, 2008)

Njaco said:


> But no one has trampled the civil rights of people as much as our current pres.  Right?
> QUOTE]
> 
> Lincoln. Tossed people in jail almost at random and didn't bother to try them. When the Supreme Court ruled against the detainments, he ignored them. He briefly considered tossing the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in jail as well.
> ...


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## Theo (Aug 22, 2008)

kaigunair said:


> I too am a jpn-american. While we hear of the jpn-american internment/concentration camps as consiting of Americans of Jpn descent who were living in the west coast areas, there was a population of Hawaiian Japaness Americans who were sent to camps. These citizen were usually involved in the jpn-american community or business community, and were targed because they were citizen leaders, who naturally did talk to people (and relatives!) back in japan. None were ever convicted.
> 
> When I visited Hawaii a few years ago, I picked up a book on these hawaiian jpn-americans (airplane reading material): Ganbare! by Saiki, Patsy
> 
> ...



My father showed me an old prewar photo of himself with two IJN officers. He recalled that they came to Hawaii on a big battleship or cruiser. My father also travelled to Japan and returned to Hawaii just before the war started and he was never interned, under suspicion, or even harassed in any way. In fact in 1945 he was drafted into the US army and sent to occupy Germany. Maybe it is true that a few JAs in Hawaii were interned but it wasn't common at all. My main point is that none of Dan Inouye's family was interned as someone implied.


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## Soundbreaker Welch? (Aug 24, 2008)

If FDR could imprison somebody, couldn't Barack Obama do the same? 

Sorry about that, that's politics.

I do think the Japanese who fought for the United States were gallent fellows, particularly the ones who had family members in camps. 

I can understand somewhat why the US goverment did it, if you watch movie serials like Batman 1943 with a Jap as the main villian. I bet people were scared by stuff like that.


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## Theo (Aug 31, 2008)

Now that I think about it, I've read a few accounts of Hawaii JAs being arrested for flying the Japanese flag and celebrating Hirohito's birthday during the war. It is also well known that a Japanese pilot was assisted by local Japanese after he crashed landed on Niihau. They too were arrested. 

It seems the attitude here among many of the Hawaii JAs was that Japan would win the war and they would quietly root for Japan.

I've read that the period was rife with rumors such as the IJN was preparing to land on Hawaii. A crowd actually gathered one day on the big island, because it was rumored that a fleet of Japanese ships would be sailing by the coast. When news that Japan was losing the war reached here, many were saddened and openly wept when the news was read to them at community gatherings. 

However we see that there was no wholesale internment like there was on the west coast just because of the logistics. There were just too many JAs in Hawaii for that to happen.


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## B-17engineer (Aug 31, 2008)

Weren't some Japanese AMericans deployed into Monte Cassino? I watched a show called World War II Battlefront and thay said that


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