21 Asian Americans to Get Medal of Honor for WWII

Twenty-one Asian Americans who fought in World War II for a country that doubted their loyalty will be awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor, by President Clinton next month.

The veterans, each of whom previously received the second-highest citation, the Distinguished Service Cross, were chosen for the higher award after a special four-year review of their combat service by an Army panel.

Nineteen of the 21 were Japanese American members of the Army’s most highly decorated unit, the racially segregated 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team, which fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the European campaign. Fourteen of the medals will be awarded posthumously.

Some Asian American veterans have long asserted that their service was undervalued because of wartime prejudice. In 1996, Congress approved an amendment by Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) that ordered the Army to waive a customary three-year time limit on consideration for medals and reassess whether these veterans deserved the Medal of Honor, which dates to the Civil War.

Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera noted that many of the soldiers volunteered to fight at a time when the government had sent them and their families into internment camps in the West to prevent them from aiding the Japanese enemy. When they boarded ships to fight in Europe, their parents could not wave goodbye to them because they were in detention far away, he noted.

“It was the epitome of citizenship that these young men, whose patriotism was being questioned, did not feel sorry for themselves but stepped forward,” Caldera said in an interview. “It’s wonderful that our country is recognizing these contributions at a time when many of these veterans and their family members are still alive.”

One of the recipients is Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), who, as a second lieutenant, led a platoon with the 442nd in Italy and lost an arm in combat.

Another is Rudolph B. Davila, 84, a retired Los Angeles schoolteacher of Filipino and Spanish descent, whose heroism saved a rifle company from a Nazi ambush.

A third, Francis Wai, of Chinese and Hawaiian ancestry, was a UCLA football star before the war. A captain, he was cited for heroism at Leyte in the Philippines in October 1944.

The decision to reconsider the veterans’ awards was inspired by an Army review of the records of African American soldiers. In 1997, seven black soldiers were honored. Only two Asian Americans were previously granted the Medal of Honor, though 104 had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

The review of Asian American soldiers’ records was not without controversy. When it was announced in 1996, some medal holders complained that it was an exercise in “political correctness.”

Yet the veterans’ stories reflect acts of remarkable courage.

Davila, for example, was cited for valor during a bloody fight in Italy between the allied landing zone at Anzio and Rome.

Then a sergeant, he led a machine-gun platoon that was supporting a 130-man rifle company. Descending a hillside covered with wheat, the machine-gun company came under withering fire from a Nazi machine-gun nest on the flatlands ahead and was pinned down.

Davila, though under fire himself, assembled his heavy machine gun and fired off three 250-round belts of ammunition. No other soldiers in his unit crossed the top of the hill to help him.

He noticed that German infantrymen were crouching in the upper floor of a house ahead, ready to fire on the American rifle company. Dashing ahead down the hill, he threw two grenades into the house, then ran around to the rear to fire at the soldiers who poured out the back in retreat.

Later, in France, Davila suffered a bullet wound through the chest, and was hospitalized for six years, from 1944 to 1950.

In an interview, Davila, who taught high school history and other subjects in Los Angeles, said that he was “elated, of course” to receive the medal. “It’s quite an honor.”

Yet he said he regrets that his wife, who had firmly believed he deserved the Medal of Honor, had died in December and could not savor his belated recognition. “That takes off some of the smile,” said Davila, who lives alone in Vista, Calif.

The 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team was organized after lobbying by Japanese Americans in Hawaii who wanted the community’s young men to have a chance to take part in the fight.

In bloody fighting through Italy, France and Germany, its units earned more than 18,000 decorations, including 8,486 Purple Hearts. Its motto was “Go for broke.”

The War Department sent Asian American units to the European theater so there would be no question of divided loyalty.

Bill Mauldin, the celebrated newspaper cartoonist, once described the special feelings he and other soldiers had toward the Japanese Americans.

“A lot of us in Italy used to scratch our heads and wonder how we would have felt if we were wearing the uniform of a country that was mistreating our families. Most of us came to the conclusion that we would be pretty damn sulky about it, and we marveled at those guys, who didn’t sulk,” he wrote.

Clinton will make the awards at an outdoor ceremony June 21.