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Hidden among the chestnut-and-pine-littered forests of northern Italy, somewhere in the mountains between Pisa and Genoa, enemy fortifications were strewn across the countryside.
The German forces had committed more than 15,000 slave laborers in the construction of what they called Gotenstellung, or the Gothic Line, which adorned the summits of the Apennine mountains. Having held strong against Allied forces since the summer of 1944, this strategic wall of Nazi defense seemed unbreakable.
On April 21, 1945, the Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat team was tasked with their part in the coordinated offensive: take the heavily fortified ridge known as Colle Musatello.
Second Lieutenant Daniel Inouye, having only been promoted via battlefield commission six months prior, led his platoon up the slope toward three “MG 42” machine gun nests. The twenty-year-old platoon leader and the men in his command were known as the Nisei soldiers—an all-Japanese American regiment.
Brat-a-tat-tat.
An onslaught of weapon fire came from the enemy nests. His men laid down cover fire. Inouye emerged from a point of defense, raising his Thompson submachine gun.
BAM!
Before he could fire, he was shot in the gut. He shrugged it off, thinking he had merely been pelted by a rock.
With ammo, grenades, and as he would later admit, a bit of luck, Inouye and his men destroyed one of the nests. They moved on to make their way to the second nest.
The young lieutenant reached down with his right hand, grabbed a grenade and pulled the pin.
He arched back, ready to lob it when a German soldier fired his Schiessbecher, which propelled a 30mm anti-personnel round into Inouye’s right elbow. “There is that luck again,” Inouye would later think as he recounts the German who he would describe as “a lousy shot.”
“HIT THE GROUND,” he shouted, immediately thinking of the live grenade and turning to search for it. That’s when he looked down to see his right arm torn to shreds, clinging to his body like threads from a sweater.
There it was: the deadly explosive clutched firmly in a hand he could no longer control.
With his left hand, he pried the explosive from the grasp of this imposter's limb and hurled it at the enemy. Another nest was destroyed. Inouye, wielding his Thompson in his remaining arm, once again advanced on the enemy.
It was only when he was then clipped in the leg that he rolled down the slope and stopped the advance to apply a tourniquet.
“I think it’s true that there are moments in combat that you get temporarily insane,” the late Inouye would later say in a 1998 interview with Densho, a nonprofit organization focused on preserving oral history and creating equity in America. “Because a rational person—a reasonable person—would not do those things.”
These things, however, are the stuff of greatness. This story reads like a scene from a Hollywood film, as if it were intentionally scripted to capitalize on that combination of heroic escapades and the all-too-familiar human fascination with gruesome things that makes for a compelling tale. It isn’t necessarily the heroics of Inouye’s deeds that make his story so fascinating. The fascination comes in knowing how this story came from a man who lived through the adversity he faced as a Japanese-American.
“We are talking about a person who came from a family that came to this country for the simple purpose of repaying a debt in the country of their origin,” said Ken Inouye, Dan’s son. “[His] parents were not even allowed to become American citizens because of the laws at that time. He, himself, when it came time to serve, was turned down for service because he was classified as four-C: an enemy alien unfit to serve in the military. When he was finally able to serve, served in a segregated unit.”
It’s no secret how the United States was pulled into the world's second global conflict. The attack on Pearl Harbor struck terror into the hearts of the everyday American on Dec. 7, 1941. The Empire of Japan had intentionally planned the attack to do just that, wagering that they could scare the U.S. into staying out of the conflict in WWII.
They wagered wrong.
Inouye was among the many Americans who enlisted to fight in WWII. This was true even in the face of Executive Order 9066, President Roosevelt’s issuance that interned all persons deemed a threat to national security. Those of Japanese descent were taken from their homes and their businesses were closed as they were moved from the west coast to relocation centers further inland.
Initially he was turned down for service based on this order.
Inouye and the other men of the 4-4-2 weren’t able to enlist until Roosevelt created the unit, citing the following:
“Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.”
This is as true today as it ever was.
“They were volunteering from behind barbed wire,” said Ken. “So, you're talking about a group of individuals who fought for the opportunity to fight for their country. When you look at it that way, you have to understand that they saw that as their opportunity. They took it and ran with it as much as they could.”
On December 8, 2021, the Navy officially welcomed USS Daniel K. Inouye (DDG 118) to the fleet. Traditionally, destroyers are named after deceased members of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, including Secretaries of the Navy.
Sometimes, their deeds are so great that we must break with tradition to offer due recognition.
The truth is the events of that fateful night in which Lt. Inouye and the 4-4-2 captured the ridge and helped bring an end to a major Nazi defensive line is just one event in a long career of service to his country. He was the first Japanese American to serve in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, a seat which he would hold from 1962 to 2012.
“To me, that there is a ship being named after someone with that history, I think says a lot about this country,” said Ken. “I think it says a lot about the military. I think it says a lot about their tradition—the American tradition that allows for redemption and allows for the true understanding of the phrase ‘a more perfect union.’ [It is an] understanding that there will be mistakes. There will be errors made by the country, but the country will always recognize and correct those mistakes.”
| Date Taken: | 12.08.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 12.30.2021 12:29 |
| Story ID: | 412145 |
| Location: | PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 146 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Go for Broke, by PO1 J. Keith Wilson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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