Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey everyone, it is Jared Martinez.
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Speaker 1: Okay, now to the episode.
Speaker 2: Joe Soccato was crawling through the mud. Just seconds earlier,
Speaker 2: he was shouted to a group of American soldiers. He
Speaker 2: was warning them to watch out for Germans with machine guns.
Speaker 2: This was nineteen forty four and they were in France,
Speaker 2: facing the Notes, struggling through a freezing forest, fighting for
Speaker 2: every inch of ground. The enemy started shooting and Joe
Speaker 2: washed as bullets hit one of the men and he
Speaker 2: crumpled to the ground. That was one of Joe's best friends.
Speaker 2: So Joe scrambled through the dirt and he slid into
Speaker 2: the shallow trench where his buddy lay. Machine gun fire
Speaker 2: was still ripping through the air. Splintering the trees. Joe
Speaker 2: put his arms around his friend. His blood soaked through
Speaker 2: Joe's clothes and coated his hands.
Speaker 3: And I picked him up, and he's trying to say
Speaker 3: something to mean I was gurgled in the pretty Soon
Speaker 3: his body went limp on me. I knew he died.
Speaker 3: I said that I helped him. Why.
Speaker 2: Joe was a little guy, just over five feet tall,
Speaker 2: not much of an athlete, and he was exhausted after
Speaker 2: days of nonsense, stop fighting.
Speaker 1: But now none of that mattered.
Speaker 3: I wasn't quite in my right sense of mind, but
Speaker 3: I was just mad and crying. I was crying.
Speaker 2: Joe stood up in the trench. He was going to
Speaker 2: face those Germans head on.
Speaker 1: I'm Jr.
Speaker 2: Martinez and this is Medal of Honor Stories of Courage.
Speaker 2: The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in
Speaker 2: the United States. It's awarded for gallantry and bravery and
Speaker 2: combat at the risk of life, above and beyond the
Speaker 2: call of duty. Each candidate must be approved all the
Speaker 2: way up the chain of command, from the supervisory officer
Speaker 2: in the field to the White House. This show is
Speaker 2: about those heroes, what they did, what it meant, and
Speaker 2: what their stories tell us about the nature of courage
Speaker 2: and sacrifice. This episode is about one man, George Saccado.
Speaker 2: His friends called them Joe, but it's also about a
Speaker 2: whole US Army unit, the four hundred and forty second
Speaker 2: Regimental Combat Team. The soldiers of that regiment were all
Speaker 2: Japanese American and while they were fighting for freedom in Europe,
Speaker 2: their families were losing their freedom back home. This story
Speaker 2: tells us so much about what makes someone go above
Speaker 2: and beyond the call of duty. Even after being mistreated
Speaker 2: on that day in nineteen forty four, Josicato knew he
Speaker 2: was running into a deadly cloud of bullets. He had
Speaker 2: a broken heart and a deep feeling of injustice, but
Speaker 2: he used it for a higher purpose. One morning in
Speaker 2: early December nineteen forty one, Josicato went to work at
Speaker 2: his family's little grocery store in Redlands, California, a farming
Speaker 2: town outside La Joe was the middle of seven kids,
Speaker 2: twenty years old. He had barely graduated from high school,
Speaker 2: and he had no idea what he wanted to do
Speaker 2: with his life. And then he turned on the radio
Speaker 2: and suddenly everything changed.
Speaker 4: Yesterday, the sun Bus sub nineteen forty one, a date
Speaker 4: which will live in infamy. The United States of America
Speaker 4: was suddenly and deliberately attacked.
Speaker 3: I heard the newscast fact when Roosevelt said Pearl Harvell
Speaker 3: was being bombed tonight. Couldn't believe that Pearl Harve's bombed bus.
Speaker 3: I got, this's what are we going to do now?
Speaker 2: He wasn't the only one asking that question. The government
Speaker 2: was too, and by February of nineteen forty two, they
Speaker 2: made a controversial choice. Japanese American citizens like Joe couldn't
Speaker 2: stay where they were. Here's Milton Eisenhower, the director of
Speaker 2: the War Relocation Authority, explaining the decision.
Speaker 5: When in the Japanese attacked Pearl Harvard, our West coast
Speaker 5: became a potential combat zone. Living in that zone were
Speaker 5: more than one hundred thousand persons of Japanese ancestry. Most
Speaker 5: were loyal, but no one knew what would happen among
Speaker 5: this concentrated population if Japanese forces should try to invade
Speaker 5: our shores. Military authorities therefore determined that all of them,
Speaker 5: citizens and aliens alike, would have to move.
Speaker 2: So suddenly, Japanese Americans across the West coast discovered that
Speaker 2: American democracy no longer applied to them. Kids were pulled
Speaker 2: out of school, everybody lost their jobs, and the government
Speaker 2: built relocation camps on dusty prairies and dried out farms
Speaker 2: in the.
Speaker 1: Middle of the country. They looked a lot like.
Speaker 3: Prisons barbaris, fence guard towers on us in each corner,
Speaker 3: and the machine guns were pointing in, not out.
Speaker 2: So Joe's family decided to move to rural Arizona. At
Speaker 2: least there they wouldn't be forced into a camp. They
Speaker 2: only had a few days to liquidate their lives, including
Speaker 2: their grocery store.
Speaker 3: We just had meatcaseus was eight hundred dollars. We sold
Speaker 3: it for three hundred dollars through in the store.
Speaker 2: Their whole business sold for just three hundred dollars. Their
Speaker 2: new life in Arizona wasn't exactly Joe's speed.
Speaker 3: That year, I had to pick up cantalopes one hundred
Speaker 3: and ten degrees. I weighed one hundred and sixty five pounds.
Speaker 3: When I graduated that season, I lost thirty five pounds.
Speaker 3: I was no farmer, I was a city slicker.
Speaker 2: Plus, the war was going on, and this fight everything
Speaker 2: Joe wanted to do his part serve his country, so
Speaker 2: he decided to become a pilot.
Speaker 3: A voluntive for the Air Force. Partly draft card says
Speaker 3: for sea enemy alien animi alien, what do you mean? Animated? American?
Speaker 2: For the first chunk of the war, Japanese Americans weren't
Speaker 2: allowed to serve at all at all, but a group
Speaker 2: of them petitioned the government and finally they were allowed
Speaker 2: to enlist. But Japanese Americans didn't get to go wherever
Speaker 2: they wanted. They were assigned to one place the army,
Speaker 2: specifically the four hundred and forty second Regimental Combat Team.
Speaker 2: All of the officers in this new unit were white,
Speaker 2: and the four hundred and forty second wouldn't be allowed
Speaker 2: to fight in Asia, just Europe because you know what
Speaker 2: if they got to Japan and suddenly decided to switch sides.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's a crazy idea. But the government was
Speaker 2: that paranoid and didn't trust their loyalty. When the first
Speaker 2: group of soldiers arrived at Fort Shelby and Mississippi news
Speaker 2: cameras were there.
Speaker 6: Boys with Japanese names, Japanese faces, but with mind parts
Speaker 6: and spirits that are enthusiastically earnestly American. They're trained to
Speaker 6: make their contribution to victory for democracy and all the
Speaker 6: democracy means tolerance, freedom, an equal opportunity, regardless of grace
Speaker 6: their ancestry.
Speaker 2: But while they were fighting for freedom, some of their
Speaker 2: families were anything but free. Ironic, right. But here's something
Speaker 2: else to know about the four hundred and forty second.
Speaker 2: A lot of the guys were from Hawaii. You see,
Speaker 2: Japanese Americans were a major part of Hawaii's population. They
Speaker 2: didn't experience the same kind of day to day discrimination
Speaker 2: that many faced on the mainland, and they didn't know
Speaker 2: much about the internal camps. At first, the four hundred
Speaker 2: and forty second had a problem. The Hawaiian guys and
Speaker 2: the mainland guys couldn't get along. Daniel Enoe was a
Speaker 2: member of the four hundred and forty second from Honolulu.
Speaker 7: Both sides looked upon the others with some distrust, and
Speaker 7: fights became commonplace.
Speaker 2: But then one of their leaders had an idea. They
Speaker 2: took some of the Hawaiian soldiers on a bus to
Speaker 2: Arkansas to visit an internment camp.
Speaker 7: At the gate were men in uniform with rifles and bayonets,
Speaker 7: and I thought what in the is happening? Then you
Speaker 7: look into the camp and there they were, and then
Speaker 7: it dawned us.
Speaker 1: What had happened.
Speaker 2: It was a prison for families who looked just like them,
Speaker 2: little kids, old folks, moms and dads. The Hawaiian guys
Speaker 2: finally understood that what the four hundred and forty second
Speaker 2: had in common was way more important than their differences.
Speaker 2: They all had something to prove that they could be
Speaker 2: as good, make that better than anyone else.
Speaker 7: Overnight the regiment was formed. Next morning you had the
Speaker 7: for forty second.
Speaker 2: They were well organized, fearless. Their nickname was Gopher Broke.
Speaker 2: They got to Europe in the spring of forty four
Speaker 2: and instantly became famous. They pushed back the Nazis in Italy,
Speaker 2: but the price was high. Over the course of three months,
Speaker 2: nearly twenty five percent of them, more than twelve hundred
Speaker 2: men were wounded or killed by that summer. Joe Soccato
Speaker 2: had also enlisted in the four hundred and forty second.
Speaker 2: Being turned away from the Air Force didn't deter him.
Speaker 2: He was going to serve.
Speaker 3: I wanted to show that I'm an American and I
Speaker 3: should joined the service. I had showed my loyalty to
Speaker 3: the country.
Speaker 2: The high point of his training was a trip he
Speaker 2: took on leave. He went to New York City with
Speaker 2: some of his platoon mates. Joe was like, let's have
Speaker 2: all the New York experiences before we go off to war.
Speaker 3: So he says, why don't we check the world of
Speaker 3: a story to say that we stayed at the world
Speaker 3: of the story. So we each put ten bucks piece
Speaker 3: cost us forty dollars and we only stayed there three
Speaker 3: four hours, looking out the windows and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: Listen, that's big money. When these guys only made twenty
Speaker 2: one dollars a month and they didn't even stay there
Speaker 2: for the night. They just wanted to say that they'd
Speaker 2: done it. Right after that, Joe shipped out to Europe
Speaker 2: and he struggled. It was like the canalopes, but worse.
Speaker 2: He was pretty out of shape.
Speaker 3: Our first day in battle, we had to climb this hill.
Speaker 3: I couldn't climb the hill. He had to pool of
Speaker 3: branches and roots and pull myself up. I had to
Speaker 3: have somebody else carry my pack up, somebody else carried canteens.
Speaker 3: When I got to the top, I was the last
Speaker 3: one up. All I had was my rifle.
Speaker 2: He could barely make it up the hill. But here
Speaker 2: he was joining the toughest unit on the European front.
Speaker 2: He would have to pull it together fast. The four
Speaker 2: hundred and forty second was heading to France. They were
Speaker 2: going to Hitler's doorstep. In the fall of nineteen forty four,
Speaker 2: the Allied forces were in the French Mountains, just twenty
Speaker 2: miles from the German border. The Nazis had occupied that
Speaker 2: area for four long years, and now the Allies were
Speaker 2: trying to push them out. These mountains were the Nazis'
Speaker 2: last line of defense, so Hitler ordered that they must
Speaker 2: be held at all costs. On October twenty fourth, the
Speaker 2: first battalion of the one hundred and forty first Infantry
Speaker 2: got in order advanced to a strategic ridge. Keep in
Speaker 2: mind this was all held by the Germans. There were
Speaker 2: about two hundred and seventy men in the first battalion.
Speaker 2: It was part of the thirty sixth Division, originally from Texas.
Speaker 2: In other words, not Joe's unit. We'll get back to
Speaker 2: Joe in a minute. The first battalion set out in
Speaker 2: the freezing rain, marching on muddy mountain tracks and Most
Speaker 2: of them had only a day's worth of food, water,
Speaker 2: and AMMO. They figured the supply trucks would catch up
Speaker 2: to them, but they went too far and too fast.
Speaker 2: Five miles into the forest. It was weirdly easy astro
Speaker 2: toortalm was there.
Speaker 8: We had practically no resistance for those five miles. I mean,
Speaker 8: little little firing here and there, but we thought, hell,
Speaker 8: this is really going to be something, you know. But
Speaker 8: they were finally got up to our objective. The Germans
Speaker 8: counterattacked and they worked there where on and they cut
Speaker 8: us off from the rest of the unit.
Speaker 2: They were on a hilltop, the enemy was on three sides,
Speaker 2: and there was a steep drop off on the other.
Speaker 2: The battalion was caught in a deadly trap. At dawn
Speaker 2: the next day, their commander, Martin Higgins, sent out a
Speaker 2: twenty five man patrol. He wanted to see if they
Speaker 2: could sneak through the enemy lines.
Speaker 8: And they never made it. I think only about five
Speaker 8: men came back from that patrol and they said, we
Speaker 8: couldn't get through. There's too many Germans. So that's when
Speaker 8: we realized, now we're surrounded.
Speaker 2: They didn't have much AMO, medicals, applies or batteries for
Speaker 2: their two way radios, and they had almost nothing to
Speaker 2: eat or drink. So the order went out send in
Speaker 2: the four hundred and forty second The Gopher Broke guys
Speaker 2: were told to go rescue the lost Battalion. Different units
Speaker 2: took different paths through the forest. Joe's company was ordered
Speaker 2: to take Hill six one seven. It was the high
Speaker 2: ground overlooking the road to the lost Battalion. Without it,
Speaker 2: they would never reach those men. They started marching before
Speaker 2: dawn on October twenty sixth. It was cold, rainy, and muddy,
Speaker 2: and by mid morning they were already pinned down. You see,
Speaker 2: the Germans were totally dug in, and they had a
Speaker 2: deadly strategy. They'd hit the Americans hard, then they'd pause,
Speaker 2: fall back a little, and force the gis to move
Speaker 2: forward into machine gun and artillery fire. So for the
Speaker 2: next two days, Joe's company kept inching towards Hill's six
Speaker 2: one seven, getting picked off one by one as they
Speaker 2: were trying and failing to take that hill. Other units
Speaker 2: of the four hundred and forty second were noticing something
Speaker 2: weird while they were being sent further in the rest
Speaker 2: of the one hundred and forty first was staying behind
Speaker 2: dan Enoey thought he knew why.
Speaker 7: You see, we knew we were expendable. We knew that
Speaker 7: we were so good that we were requested by other
Speaker 7: units to serve as shock troops or assault troops. That's
Speaker 7: what we were.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, as the days ticked by, members of the Lost
Speaker 2: Battalion were running out of supplies and losing hope. Jean
Speaker 2: Earhart was a member of the Lost Battalion. He remembers
Speaker 2: the thirst most of all.
Speaker 9: They's cut us aalt from food, water and everything. Have
Speaker 9: you ever been thirsty, Well, think about doing a lout
Speaker 9: water that period of time.
Speaker 2: Finally, on the night of October twenty eighth, Joe's company
Speaker 2: reached the base of Hills six one seven.
Speaker 3: We're a cross enemy lines. The forest was so dense
Speaker 3: you can barely see your hint. So we marched all
Speaker 3: night and we're now on the back of this ridge,
Speaker 3: and then a dawn we started attack. We caught the
Speaker 3: Germans off guard. They didn't know they we were in
Speaker 3: behind them.
Speaker 2: Now Joe had a machine gun and he used it
Speaker 2: against the Nazis.
Speaker 3: He chased them out of the fox holes, chased them
Speaker 3: off the hill, and they scattered the other way.
Speaker 2: But then the Germans turned the tables. Suddenly Joe's company
Speaker 2: was on the defensive.
Speaker 3: We got surrounded. Now they're going to con attack. Artillery
Speaker 3: such coming in, so we had to jump into the
Speaker 3: Germans fox holes.
Speaker 2: This time Oh duck for cover, popping up to shoot
Speaker 2: at the enemy. Trying to help the rest of his
Speaker 2: friends who were out there.
Speaker 3: Anything that's moved, I was shooting at it. Next thing
Speaker 3: you know, I was run out of ammunition, and when
Speaker 3: Jumans wanted to come up, he's going to throw a
Speaker 3: grenade at me, So I got the pistol and stopped
Speaker 3: him in the stuff the no more two women's So
Speaker 3: I got down on the hold to start filling my
Speaker 3: clips up.
Speaker 2: He listened for his friends. He knew a guy named
Speaker 2: Sibruro Tanamachi was nearby. Joe and Tanamachi had been together
Speaker 2: since training. They both been on that trip to the
Speaker 2: Waldorf in New York, and they knew all about each other.
Speaker 3: He joined the army because parents wanted him to marry
Speaker 3: some girl and he didn't like her, so he volunteered
Speaker 3: with the r says, I don't know why you did that.
Speaker 3: He didn't want to get married.
Speaker 7: And.
Speaker 2: Just earlier that morning, Tanamachi told Joe that he didn't
Speaker 2: feel right going into battle.
Speaker 1: His stomach hurt, something was off.
Speaker 3: So I told him stay back, don't go, don't go
Speaker 3: on the strip noises, he's gotta go.
Speaker 2: The men of the four hundred and forty second didn't
Speaker 2: stay behind. They went ahead, even when they had their doubts.
Speaker 2: Once Joe had refilled his gun with mo he scanned
Speaker 2: the area again and.
Speaker 3: Leaning back when I was looking up the hill, and
Speaker 3: I seen the group of JIMINSS just going up the
Speaker 3: hill machinguns.
Speaker 2: And at that same moment he saw Tanamachi with the
Speaker 2: squad creeping through the trees.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I hollered at you guys to watch off.
Speaker 3: The machine guns are taking the hill. Back tana Machi
Speaker 3: for some reason, he got up a sayd square and
Speaker 3: he got shot.
Speaker 1: Joe watched Tanamachi crumble down.
Speaker 3: So I called over this, hold him, picked him up,
Speaker 3: and I except that and he's gurgling and he's trying
Speaker 3: to say the blood is coming out, and he just
Speaker 3: swept body wouldn't lived on me. Then I know he died,
Speaker 3: and I cried oggedn't God, why why.
Speaker 2: Joe gently laid his friend down, and he looked down
Speaker 2: at his hands. They were covered in Tanamachi's blood.
Speaker 3: I was going to get to be the shot him
Speaker 3: was died trying. I threw a pack off and picked
Speaker 3: up Tom and I z exact backed up, run this
Speaker 3: wind and run the road. Shot two three guys and
Speaker 3: then white acacis were waving the group of coming out,
Speaker 3: and I made sure that nobody behind him had a
Speaker 3: gun house. I had to shoot him.
Speaker 1: The Germans on Hill six one seven were giving up,
Speaker 1: waving their white handkerchiefs. They'd been stopped cold by Joe's
Speaker 1: one man stand. The counter attack was over.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, the rest of Joe's company was right behind him.
Speaker 2: His anger had pulled them out of their foxholes, and
Speaker 2: his bravery made them break.
Speaker 3: The rest of the troops come up and took the hill.
Speaker 1: They took that hill.
Speaker 2: Tanamachi's sacrifice meant that they were one step closer to
Speaker 2: saving the Lost Battalion.
Speaker 1: Joe's loyalty to his.
Speaker 2: Friend and to his country had led the way. On
Speaker 2: October thirtieth, the day after Joe Saccado helped take Hill
Speaker 2: six one seven, the Lost Battalion was finally rescued. Marty Higgins,
Speaker 2: commander of the battalion, remembered how it felt when the
Speaker 2: four hundred and forty second reached them.
Speaker 10: I was asked by many people, what did I think
Speaker 10: of these little guys coming through? I swear to God
Speaker 10: they looked like Jige to us.
Speaker 1: By then, Joe had been injured by a motor show.
Speaker 2: A piece of shrapnel went straight through his backpack into
Speaker 2: his lung, but he survived.
Speaker 3: I had more than nine lives.
Speaker 1: He was one of the lucky ones.
Speaker 2: After days of intense fighting, the four hundred and forty
Speaker 2: second was decimated. Jean Erhart from the Lost Battalion remembered
Speaker 2: the scene as they left the.
Speaker 9: Ridge were moving out of that area. There were trucks.
Speaker 9: They're floating boys up just like you would cordwood, and
Speaker 9: trucks that gave their life and someone else could. The
Speaker 9: one life sacrificed for another. That's why it makes them
Speaker 9: so great. Unselfishness, dedication. I don't know whether I don't
Speaker 9: whether I could help. That is dedicated a given spirit.
Speaker 9: If I had been mistreated in my family, because they
Speaker 9: were mistreated.
Speaker 2: We don't know the exact numbers of Japanese Americans who
Speaker 2: died or were injured rescueing the lost battalion, but it's
Speaker 2: believed that fifty four were killed and approximately two hundred
Speaker 2: and eighty were wounded. And while the lost battalion was
Speaker 2: sent back to a hot meal and medical care, the
Speaker 2: four hundred and forty second was ordered to keep fighting.
Speaker 2: They stayed on that god forsaken ridge, clearing out the
Speaker 2: enemy for another nine days, but they succeeded, and the
Speaker 2: Americans finally punched a hole in the German line. Joe
Speaker 2: would spend the next eight months in hospitals. Eventually he
Speaker 2: was transferred by boat to New York Harbor.
Speaker 3: I looked the Statue of Liberty for the ast side
Speaker 3: I've ever seen. I was happy.
Speaker 2: I was whole, And in nineteen forty six, the last
Speaker 2: of the four hundred and forty second set sail for
Speaker 2: home too. It was the most decorated US Army regiment
Speaker 2: of its size, earning over eighteen thousand awards for bravery
Speaker 2: that included twenty nine Distinguished Service Crosses, more than three
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty Silver crosses, and more than two thousand
Speaker 2: Bronze Stars. That July, they paraded down Constitution Avenue in
Speaker 2: the rain, but they were going to a reception on
Speaker 2: the White House lawn. Here's President Harry Truman.
Speaker 5: You fought not only the enemy, but you fought prejudice
Speaker 5: and you've won. Keep up that fight and we'll continue
Speaker 5: to win.
Speaker 4: That's great Republic stand for just what his Constitution says.
Speaker 4: It stands far the welfare of all the people, all
Speaker 4: the time.
Speaker 2: The welfare of all the people all the time. That's
Speaker 2: what it means to be American, right, except, of course
Speaker 2: when it doesn't. Joe got a medal to at Distinguished
Speaker 2: Service Cross. He heard about it while he was in
Speaker 2: the hospital.
Speaker 3: It's this letter from the younger brother and he says, me,
Speaker 3: a newspaper clipping of my hometown, Redlands. So he set
Speaker 3: up to me and he says, but just tell you
Speaker 3: you received the dissingle service cluss. I didn't see no dissingle, sir.
Speaker 3: Well it says yeah, in the paper that they know
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 2: Joe was happy with their recognition, of course, but then
Speaker 2: he had to make sense of what he had been through,
Speaker 2: and that was hard because it didn't really make sense.
Speaker 2: Even Marty Higgins, the leader of the battalion, they saved.
Speaker 2: Felt like the four hundred and forty second should have
Speaker 2: never been sent out to rescue them in the first place.
Speaker 10: I think we should have been my passion. I think
Speaker 10: the entire mission was a big blunder. Well it had
Speaker 10: killed me. When I came back and read the losses.
Speaker 3: It killed me.
Speaker 2: Was all that sacrifice worth it for the men of
Speaker 2: the four hundred and forty second. It was painful to
Speaker 2: think about. Fred Schiosaki was a member of that unit,
Speaker 2: and he remembers something that happened right after he got
Speaker 2: back to the States.
Speaker 11: I was on the train by myself, and I was
Speaker 11: sitting there looking out the window in this GI came
Speaker 11: out and he stopped and he looked at me, and
Speaker 11: he looked at my pats. He says, hey, you were
Speaker 11: there for forty second?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 11: Said, we had the lost battalion.
Speaker 9: And I said, yeah, I was.
Speaker 11: He says, I was in there. I could just feel
Speaker 11: myself getting ready. I was angry God. And I turned
Speaker 11: to him and I said, do you know how many
Speaker 11: men we lost getting you guys out of there? You
Speaker 11: know how many of my friends died in there? And
Speaker 11: he said, you know, if you guys were in there.
Speaker 11: We had to come after you, and I thought. I
Speaker 11: shook my head. He said, anyway, I want to thank you.
Speaker 11: You know. He put out his hand and I turned
Speaker 11: away and looked doctor window. I've never been really proud
Speaker 11: of that, but at the time it was just too fresh.
Speaker 11: I just could not. I couldn't object his hand.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 11: Well, what comes to mind is seeing his friend shot
Speaker 11: the head the guys that we left behind on that hill.
Speaker 11: I know it was irrational, but at the moment there
Speaker 11: was nothing I could do. If he had said one
Speaker 11: more thing, I punched him. Might say.
Speaker 2: The guys of the four hundred and forty second were
Speaker 2: proud to be amazing soldiers. They were proud of their reputation,
Speaker 2: and above all, they were proud to serve. But that
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that they were blind to the way that
Speaker 2: they were treated. They saw the injustice, but they chose
Speaker 2: to keep moving forward because they loved their country. Joe
Speaker 2: left the Army. He moved to Denver, Colorado. He fell
Speaker 2: in love with Bess, the cutest girl he'd ever seen.
Speaker 2: They got married, had a daughter. Joe decided he wanted
Speaker 2: to be a mechanic.
Speaker 3: They looked at me and he says, Wow, he's Japanese,
Speaker 3: so they wouldn't hire me. Not am I doing him?
Speaker 3: I'm going to the post office has an own discrimination
Speaker 3: of the post office.
Speaker 2: Joe stayed at the post office for thirty two years
Speaker 2: until he retired. He kept talking about what happened to
Speaker 2: him in France. He felt like it helped.
Speaker 3: I have to talk about it. If I had to
Speaker 3: keep it in here, I think I would go crazy.
Speaker 2: And as the decades passed, a movement began to recognize
Speaker 2: Joe and the other members of the four hundred and
Speaker 2: forty second. Think about all those awards the four hundred
Speaker 2: and forty second got, how is it possible that only
Speaker 2: one of them had received a Medal of honor? The
Speaker 2: answer was they had been recommended for medals of honor
Speaker 2: at the time, but those recommendations had been rejected again
Speaker 2: and again and again. In nineteen ninety seven, after an
Speaker 2: exhaustive review, the Senior Army Decorations Board made a decision
Speaker 2: they would finally give credit to some extraordinary Asian American soldiers.
Speaker 2: They upgraded twenty one Distinguished Service Crosses and one Silver
Speaker 2: Star to medals of honor. It was appropriate, but it
Speaker 2: was late only seven of the twenty two were still
Speaker 2: alive when President Clinton presided over the Medal of Honor
Speaker 2: ceremony in two thousand.
Speaker 12: They risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty,
Speaker 12: and in so doing, they did more than defend America
Speaker 12: in the face of painful prejudice. They helped to define
Speaker 12: America at its best. They didn't give up on our country,
Speaker 12: even when too many of their countrymen and women had
Speaker 12: given up on them. They deserve, at the least the
Speaker 12: most we can give, the Medal of Honor. Private Sakanto's
Speaker 12: extraordinary hair was and devotion to duty aren't keeping with
Speaker 12: the highest traditions of the military service. I reflect great
Speaker 12: credit on him is in the United States Army.
Speaker 2: Joe Sicato had traveled across the country to accept this medal,
Speaker 2: a medal he never really thought of as his, but
Speaker 2: he cherished it until he died at the age of
Speaker 2: ninety four.
Speaker 3: I'm no hero, but I worked for the guys that
Speaker 3: didn't come back.
Speaker 2: He wore it for his friends, the man who had
Speaker 2: stood up beside him and fought for what was right.
Speaker 2: And I suspect he wore it for one friend most
Speaker 2: of all. Thank you all for listening and supporting our show.
Speaker 2: Over the past year, We've gotten emails from some of
Speaker 2: you sharing great stories of courage, and we want to
Speaker 2: shout out Mikayla Ernster's grandfather and granduncles who served in
Speaker 2: World War Two.
Speaker 1: Peter J.
Speaker 2: Delasandro is also part of our family and received the
Speaker 2: Medal of Honor in nineteen forty four.
Speaker 1: Thank you, MICHAELA. For sharing.
Speaker 2: If you have stories or people you would like to highlight,
Speaker 2: email us at Medal of Honor at Pushkin dot fm.
Speaker 2: Your participation helps us make great episodes, so please follow
Speaker 2: the show, share it with a friend, or leave a review.
Speaker 2: These are all zero cost ways to support us. Be
Speaker 2: sure to find us on social media at Pushkin pods
Speaker 2: or find me at I AMJR.
Speaker 1: Martinez Medal of Honor.
Speaker 2: Stories of Courage is written by Meredith Robins and produce
Speaker 2: by Meredith Rollins and Ryan Schweikert. Our editor is Lydia
Speaker 2: Jane Kott. Sound designed by Jay Gorsky, Our executive producer
Speaker 2: is Gonstanza Gayadro, fact checking by Arthur Gomperts, and original
Speaker 2: music by Eric Phillips. Additional editorial support from Karen Shakerji
Speaker 2: Special thanks to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, the
Speaker 2: Gopher Broke National Educational Center, the Man's In Our Oral
Speaker 2: History Project, and Den Show. If you want to learn
Speaker 2: more about this story, take a look at our show notes,
Speaker 2: where we list some of the resources we use to
Speaker 2: put this episode together.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, j R. Martinez