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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that pays tribute to heroes of the past by

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Speaker 1: telling their stories. Today, I'm Gabe Lucier, and in this episode,

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Speaker 1: we're looking at the inspiring life and service of Sadau Munamori,

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Speaker 1: a Japanese American soldier who gave his life in defense

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Speaker 1: of a country that hated and feared him. The day

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Speaker 1: was April fifth, nineteen forty five. Private first Class Sadau

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Speaker 1: Munamori was killed in action near Sara Vezza, Italy. A

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Speaker 1: German grenade had ricocheted off his metal helmet and rolled

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Speaker 1: toward a nearby shell crater, where two of his comrades

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Speaker 1: were sheltering. Munamori could have dove to safety, but instead

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Speaker 1: he leaped onto the live grenade, rolled with it away

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Speaker 1: from his men's position, and smothered the ensuing blast with

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Speaker 1: his own body. For his heroism and sacrifice, Munamori became

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Speaker 1: the first Japanese American to be awarded the Medal of Honor,

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Speaker 1: the nation's highest military decoration for valor in combat. More

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Speaker 1: than thirty thousand Japanese Americans served in the US Armed

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Speaker 1: Forces during World War II. Many of them served with

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Speaker 1: the one hundredth Infantry Battalion or the four hundred and

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Speaker 1: forty second Regimental Combat Team or RTC. These units were segregated,

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Speaker 1: composed entirely of nise or children of Japanese immigrants. They

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Speaker 1: were eventually combined into a single unit, the four hundred

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Speaker 1: and forty second RTC, and it went on to become

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Speaker 1: one of the most decorated military regiments in history. The

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Speaker 1: soldiers who fought in it adopted the motto Gopher broke,

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Speaker 1: meaning they were willing to put everything on the line

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Speaker 1: for the defense of their country. Sadau Munamori was one

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Speaker 1: of them, and he stayed true to his word. Munamori's parents,

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Speaker 1: Kamataro and Nawa, had emigrated from Hiroshima, Japan, in the

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Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds. They settled in Glendale, California, and on

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Speaker 1: August seventeenth, nineteen twenty two, Nawa gave birth to the

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Speaker 1: fourth of their five children, Sadau Munamori. Not long after,

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Speaker 1: he was given the nickname Spud because, unlike the rest

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Speaker 1: of his family, he preferred potatoes to rice. Munamori was

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Speaker 1: easy going by nature, but during his teenage years, his

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Speaker 1: worldview was tested by some harsh realities. He had his

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Speaker 1: first encounter with racial discrimination when he tried to go

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Speaker 1: swimming with some friends at a public pool, only to

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Speaker 1: be turned away because he was Japanese. Then, just a

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Speaker 1: few years later, his father died unexpectedly. The sixteen year

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Speaker 1: old Munamori consoled his widowed mother as best he could,

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Speaker 1: and after graduating from high school in nineteen forty, he

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Speaker 1: took a job as a mechanic to help support the family.

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Speaker 1: In search of a better life, Munamori enlisted in the U.

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Speaker 1: S Army in November of nineteen forty one, just one

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Speaker 1: month before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Anti Asian

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Speaker 1: sentiment had been festering in the United States for some time,

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Speaker 1: as Munamori had already learned in his youth, but after

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Speaker 1: the attack, the nation's prejudice billed out into the open.

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Speaker 1: On February nineteenth, nineteen forty two, President Roosevelt issued Executive

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Speaker 1: Order ninety sixty six authorizing the mass removal of Japanese

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Speaker 1: Americans from the West Coast. The justification was that the

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Speaker 1: US was now at war with Japan and could therefore

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Speaker 1: no longer trust that citizens of Japanese descent would remain

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Speaker 1: loyal to the United States. In the months to come,

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Speaker 1: tens of thousands of families would be forced from their

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Speaker 1: homes and taken inland to one of ten federal internment camps.

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Speaker 1: Sadal Munamori's family was one of them. They were sent

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Speaker 1: to the Marzanar Camp, located in the Sierra Mountains of California.

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Speaker 1: Roughly two thirds of the people held captive there were

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Speaker 1: nise American citizens by birth. The rest were immigrants like

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Speaker 1: Sawa Munamori, who had called the US home for decades

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Speaker 1: but were legally barred from becoming citizens. When the US

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Speaker 1: formally entered World War Two, Japanese Americans were prohibited from

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Speaker 1: military service due to concerns about their allegiance. But since

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Speaker 1: nineteen year old Munamori had already been accepted into the

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Speaker 1: army prior to Pearl Harbor, he was grandfathered in, so

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Speaker 1: to speak, and was selected for the Military Intelligence Service,

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Speaker 1: or MIS. He was sent to its language school at

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Speaker 1: Camp Savage and Minnesota, but he didn't remain with them

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Speaker 1: for long. Once he heard about the newly established Nisei unit,

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Speaker 1: he immediately put in for a transfer. Munamori's decision was

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Speaker 1: based on two factors. First, he sought the camaraderie of

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Speaker 1: his fellow Japanese American soldiers, and second, he wanted to

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Speaker 1: avoid fighting in the Pacific theater. Because he knew that

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Speaker 1: his older sister's husband had been drafted into the Japanese Army,

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Speaker 1: Joining a Nisei unit was a sure way to avoid

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Speaker 1: encountering his brother in law on the battlefield, as a

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Speaker 1: unit composed of Japanese Americans would have never been trusted

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Speaker 1: to fight in the Pacific. Munamori's transfer request was granted,

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Speaker 1: but it came at a cost. To make the change,

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Speaker 1: he had to accept a demotion from technical sergeant to

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Speaker 1: the lower rank of private. In nineteen forty three, Private

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Speaker 1: Munamori was permitted to visit his family in Manzanar before

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Speaker 1: being sent to boot camp in Mississippi. His mother, Nahwa,

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Speaker 1: hung a blue Star flag in her barracks to show

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Speaker 1: that she had a son serving in the war, and Munamori,

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Speaker 1: in turn, kept a photo of his mother with him

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Speaker 1: throughout his tour of duty. The war and the nation's

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Speaker 1: racist response to it had literally forced his family apart,

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Speaker 1: but Munamori so believed in the promise of democracy that

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Speaker 1: he actually credited it with strengthening his family's bond. In

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Speaker 1: a nineteen forty four letter to his younger sister, Cacuyo,

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Speaker 1: Munamori wrote, quote, I think I did write by enlisting

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Speaker 1: because my home is here in the United States, and

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Speaker 1: it helped a lot to bind the family together more

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Speaker 1: than ever. Later that year, Munamori was sent to Italy

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Speaker 1: as a replacement soldier for the All Nise one hundredth

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Speaker 1: Infantry Battalion. The battalion had been fighting on the Italian

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Speaker 1: peninsula for about nine months by that point, and Munamori

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Speaker 1: joined them in the successful Rome Arno campaign. He was

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Speaker 1: then sent to the Voges Mountains in France to help

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Speaker 1: rescue the lost battalion of the one hundred and forty

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Speaker 1: first Infantry Regiment. Munamori's fellow soldiers later described him as friendly, outgoing,

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Speaker 1: and accepting he had a knack for boosting morale, and

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Speaker 1: insisted that everyone still call him by his childhood nickname Spud.

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Speaker 1: When Munamori's unit returned to Italy in April of nineteen

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Speaker 1: forty five, they were given a new mission to penetrate

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Speaker 1: the Gothic Line in the Apennine Mountains of northern Italy,

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Speaker 1: which served as the German's last defensive line in the region.

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Speaker 1: The rugged peaks of that natural barrier had stalled the

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Speaker 1: advance of Allied forces for months, but the soldiers of

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Speaker 1: the one hundredth Battalion believed they had a solution. Munamori's

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Speaker 1: unit Company A decided to travel by night in order

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Speaker 1: to surprise the enemy at dawn. They succeeded in scaling

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Speaker 1: the mountain undetected. On the morning of April fifth, they

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Speaker 1: attacked the Germans, trapping them between two battalions. The fighting

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Speaker 1: was brutal, and during the offensive, Munamori's unit was pinned

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Speaker 1: down by enemy fire. When his squad leader was injured,

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Speaker 1: Munamori took command himself. He charged forward through a hail

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Speaker 1: of gunfire and single handedly took out two machine gun

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Speaker 1: nests with a pair of grenades. Despite this valiant effort, though,

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Speaker 1: the enemy's defenses were strong and still holding, so Munamori's

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Speaker 1: unit was forced to withdraw. He had nearly reached a

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Speaker 1: shell crater where two of his men had already taken refuge,

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Speaker 1: but along the way he was struck in the helmet

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Speaker 1: by an unexploded grenade. Munamori watched with horror as the

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Speaker 1: explosive bounced off his head and rolled toward his fellow

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Speaker 1: soldiers Akira, Shashido and jim Oda. In that moment, Munamori

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Speaker 1: made the split second decision to hurl himself onto the

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Speaker 1: grenade to shield his comrades from the blast. He died

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Speaker 1: the instant that it detonated, but his company, including the

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Speaker 1: men he had saved, went on to complete their mission.

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Speaker 1: They successfully advanced through the Gothic Line and helped bring

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Speaker 1: an end to the German occupation of Italy. One year later,

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Speaker 1: on March thirteenth, nineteen forty six, Sadal Munamori was posthumously

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Speaker 1: awarded the Medal of Honor. It was presented to his

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Speaker 1: mother at a ceremony held at Fort MacArthur, California, where

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Speaker 1: he had begun his military service five years earlier. Because

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Speaker 1: of anti Japanese sentiment within the military, Munamori was the

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Speaker 1: only Nise soldier to be recognized with this distinction at

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Speaker 1: the time of the actual war. However, more than fifty

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Speaker 1: years later, twenty other Japanese American soldiers from World War

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Speaker 1: II were recognized with medals of honor as well. Munamori's

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Speaker 1: medal isn't the only way in which his sacrifice was honored.

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Speaker 1: There's a monument to him at the Evergreen Cemetery in

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles, where his remains were laid to rest, and

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Speaker 1: there's also a statue of him in pie Tressanta, Italy,

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Speaker 1: a town which he and his unit helped save. But

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Speaker 1: perhaps the most fitting tribute to the life of Munamori

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Speaker 1: is the naval troop ship named in his honor. According

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Speaker 1: to his older sister, Yeko Yokoyama, her brother had dreamed

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Speaker 1: of such an honor since he was eight years old.

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Speaker 1: One day, during an argument, he told her quote, just

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Speaker 1: you wait, when I grow up, They're going to name

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Speaker 1: a ship after me. His dream came true in nineteen

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Speaker 1: forty seven when the Wilson Victory, the very ship that

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Speaker 1: carried his unit back from the war, was renamed the

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Speaker 1: Private Sadal s Muna Moor. I'm Gabe Luzier and hopefully

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Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with

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Speaker 1: the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and

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Speaker 1: Instagram at TDI HC Show and if you have any

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Speaker 1: comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my way

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Speaker 1: by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks

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Speaker 1: to CASB. Bias for producing the show, and thanks to

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Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow

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Speaker 1: for another day in History class