Mikio Hasemoto

He replaced damaged weapons and fought off a hostile attack.

Mikio Hasemoto was born in Honolulu on 13 July 1916. He attended Hawaiian Mission Academy and worked as a stevedore for Castle & Cooke before induction into the Army at Schofield Barracks on 30 June 1941. He served with the 298th Infantry and became a member of Company B, 100th Infantry Battalion, the segregated Japanese American unit formed in Hawaii.

The battalion trained at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, and Camp Shelby, Mississippi, before deploying through North Africa to Italy. Hasemoto served as an automatic rifleman during its advance toward the German winter defences.

On 29 November 1943 near Cerasuolo, approximately forty enemy soldiers attacked his platoon's left flank. Two machine gunners advanced while firing. Hasemoto engaged them with his automatic rifle until enemy fire damaged it. He ran back for another weapon and returned to the fight. When that rifle jammed, he again crossed the beaten ground, obtained an M1 rifle and resumed firing beside his squad leader.

Their resistance broke the attack. As the remaining opponents withdrew, the two men advanced and dealt with the last defenders. Hasemoto continued fighting during the following attacks and was killed shortly afterward, before the battalion had broken through the winter positions.

He initially received the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously. A later review of awards to Asian American soldiers recognized that his conduct merited the Medal of Honor. President Bill Clinton presented the upgraded award at the White House on 21 June 2000. Hasemoto is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Honolulu, returning him to the island where his civilian life and military service began.