Sadao Munemori

Soldier

• Pronunciation: sah-DAY-oh moo-neh-MOH-ree
• Born: August 17, 1922
• Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
• Died: April 5, 1945
• Place of death: near Seravezza, Italy

Sadao Munemori was the first Japanese American soldier to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was awarded to him posthumously in 1946. His heroism helped to establish his military unit, the all–Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, as the most decorated US outfit of World War II. He and his comrades helped to overcome the widespread anti-Japanese bias in the United States through their patriotism and valor under fire.

Area of achievement: Military

Early Life

Kametaro and Nawa Munemori immigrated from Hiroshima, Japan, to Los Angeles, California, where Sadao, the fourth of their five children, was born on August 17, 1922. After graduating from Fletcher Drive Elementary School and Lincoln High School, Munemori pursued his interest in automobiles with further training as a mechanic.

Shortly after World War II began, Munemori volunteered for the US Army so that his older brother could stay at home and support the family, their father having died in 1938. Inducted in February 1943, he was stationed briefly in Illinois before being assigned to the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Camp Savage, Minnesota. He volunteered for a combat unit instead, even though it meant demotion from sergeant to private, and joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, for infantry training. Meanwhile, his family was forced to move, along with thousands of other West Coast Japanese Americans, to the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California’s Owens Valley.

Life’s Work

On May 8, 1944, Munemori joined Company A of the 100th Infantry Battalion as a replacement. The battalion had landed on Anzio Beach as part of the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, and Munemori participated in the breakout from the beachhead, seeing combat on his first day of duty. He fought with the battalion in the campaign to capture Rome, which took place on June 5, 1944. The battalion was transferred to France three months later to help in the rescue of trapped forces near the northeast border with Germany, an operation later known as the Lost Battalion Rescue.

The battalion returned to Italy early in 1945, where it joined a push to dislodge German defenders from the “Gothic Line” dug into the northern Apennine Mountains. German forces had held the ground for five months, preventing the Fifth Army from completing its conquest of Italy. On April 5, 1945, the battalion was ordered to take a key position in the line near Seravezza, Italy. The nisei soldiers climbed up the steep mountainside undetected, reaching their line of departure at five a.m. Following a heavy artillery bombardment of the German position, the battalion attacked, led by Company A. Surprised by the artillery attack and the infantry charge, German forces took some time to recover, and Company A was able to gain several hundred yards before they were stopped by machine-gun and small-arms fire and grenades.

In the vanguard of the attack, Munemori found himself in charge of his squad after the squad leader was wounded. He and two others jumped into a shell hole to escape machine-gun fire and flattened as grenades were hurled at them. Knowing that a machine gun in front of them had to be silenced, Munemori collected grenades from his squad mates, crawled toward the gun, and destroyed it from fifteen yards away. A second machine gun began firing. Again Munemori staged a single-handed attack and destroyed the enemy position. As he was about to return to the relative safety of the shell hole, a German grenade bounced off his helmet and into the hole. Before anyone else could react, Munemori leaped forward onto the grenade. The explosion killed him instantly, but the two other soldiers in the hole survived.

The battalion’s attack succeeded and helped to take Allied forces past the last major German defensive line, a victory that led to the end of hostilities in Italy on May 2, 1945. For his part in the victory, Munemori was recommended for the Congressional Medal of Honor. It was presented to his mother on March 7, 1946. In 1947, the troop ship Wilson Victory, which carried the 100th Infantry Battalion back to the United States after the war, was renamed the USS Sadao S. Munemori. An interchange between Interstates 105 and 405 in Los Angeles, an American Legion Post, a scholarship fund, and a building at the Los Angeles US Army Reserve Center were also named after Munemori.

Significance

As the first nisei to be awarded the Medal of Honor, Sadao Munemori became a model of valor, exemplifying the patriotism and skill in battle of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The story behind the medal, however, is a little more complex. Before Munemori, other nisei soliders had been recommended for the medal, but all such recommendations had been downgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross. Informed of this seeming discrimination, Utah senator Elbert D. Thomas intervened and apparently influenced the Army’s attitude. Munemori’s recommendation was the only one that had yet to be reviewed at the time, and when it was, the Medal of Honor was approved. In this way, Munemori’s heroism and subsequent recognition helped to dispel the undercurrent of anti-Japanese bias in the armed forces.

Bibliography

Murphy, Edward F. Heroes of World War II. New York: Ballantine, 1991. Print. Focuses on the contributions of Medal of Honor recipients, Munemori among them, in the campaigns of both major theaters.

Niiya, Brian, ed. Japanese American History: An A-to-Z Reference from 1868 to the Present. New York: Facts on File, 1993. Print. Brief, informative articles on all aspects of the Japanese American experience, with photographs, chronology, and bibliographical references. Includes a short biography of Munemori.

Tamashiro, Ben H. “From Pearl Harbor to the Po: The Congressional Medal of Honor; Sadao Munemori.” Hawaii Herald 15 Mar. 1985: n. pag. The Hawai’i Nisei Story. Web. 15 Feb. 2012. A feature article on Munemori that includes reminiscences by his younger sister and extracts from his letters.

Tillman, Barrett. Heroes: US Army Medal of Honor Recipients. Berkeley, CA: Caliber, 2006. Print. Includes a short passage describing Munemori’s exploits.