DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Ed Yamasaki, holding a fold-out picture of I Company of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, wrote "And Then There Were Eight," a history about the unit's rescue of the "Lost Battalion" in World War II.
Famous battle Following 24 days of one of the most intense battles of World War II, a segregated unit made up mainly of Japanese-American volunteers was reduced to just eight infantry soldiers.
claimed all but 8
The rescue of the "Lost Battalion"
Schedule of events
remains one of the 442nd's finest hoursBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com"We started out with 140 riflemen," said Edward Yamasaki, current chapter president of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team's I Company. "There were only eight soldiers standing at the end," he said.
The battle in northeast France became known as the rescue of the "Lost Battalion."
Official Army records say four riflemen from I Company survived the battle. But Yamasaki said four years of research and interviews with survivors of the battle helped him and a team of volunteers here and on the mainland determine there were at least eight.
Last month, Yamasaki's work was published in a 466-page book -- "And Then There Were Eight" -- which tells the history of I Company, using personal recollections, photos and images from the 598 men who served in the "Go for Broke" unit.
The book will be on sale this weekend as the 442nd celebrates its 60th anniversary with a memorial service beginning at 9 a.m. tomorrow at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl.
There will also be a luncheon banquet Sunday at the Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel which will honor U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, who earned a Medal of Honor as a member of the 442nd.
This is the first time the 442nd will officially recognize Inouye as a war hero and politician, unit members said.
The story of the rescue of the 1st Battalion of the 141st Regiment, 36th Division, is considered one of the Army's classic battles.
Yamasaki, 78, said the battle took place in the forest and fog surrounding France's Vosges Mountains.
"The trees were so tall and their branches interwoven," Yamasaki said, "that even in the day they blocked out the sun. It was cold, dark and rainy."
The 141st Regiment from Texas found itself surrounded by the Germans, Yamasaki said. Other battalions from the regiment tried in vain to reach the unit, which became known as "the Lost Battalion."
In the preface of his book, Yamasaki, who served as a chaplain's assistant in the company from March 1943 until the end of the war, points out that on Oct. 23, 1944, the 442nd was recuperating after eight days of intensive house-to-house fighting to liberate the villages of Bruyeres, Biffontaine and Belmont.
"We were supposed to be resting," Yamasaki said, "when Maj. Gen. John Dalquist ordered the 442nd to rescue the endangered unit at all cost."
"By Oct. 27 the lost battalion was cut off for five days. Ammunition was running out. They were out of water. They were out of food."
Reports said there were still 275 men still alive, Yamasaki writes.
"It was still the 140 riflemen in I Company's three platoons that had to do all the fighting," Yamasaki said.
"Just like in Iraq today: No matter what you hear about all those high-tech weapons systems, you still have to walk it in."
Both I and K Companies lost all of their officers. They each started the battle with more than 100 riflemen. Only 18 soldiers in Company K survived along with the eight in Company I.
"It was just a slaughter," said Yamasaki, describing the battle.
Overall, the Japanese-American soldiers suffered massive casualties, 814, in the 442nd's I and K companies and the 100th Battalion's A company, Yamasaki writes. Of the 275 men of the Texas battalion, 217 were rescued. Some of their stories are contained in Yamasaki's book.
Sgt. Barney Hajiro, an I Company soldier, was singled out for a Medal of Honor for his part in leading a charge but was instead awarded the Distinguished Service Cross after the battle. He was among the 20 Japanese Americans who in 2000, with the help of U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, was finally recognized and awarded the nation's highest award for valor -- the Medal of Honor -- at a White House ceremony.
More than 130 personal recollections are contained in Yamasaki's book. There are numerous photos of the soldiers training in Mississippi, on the battlefield in Italy and France, and various postwar reunions here and on the mainland.
The book contains the history of the formation of the 100th Battalion, which was created first and later merged as part of the 442nd. The book took so long, Yamasaki said, "because the men at first didn't want to participate. I kept telling them that it was an important story to tell and to leave for future generations."
Yamasaki said there has never been a way to keep track of the 589 men who served in Company I. In his book, "Americans: The Story of the 442nd Combat Team," published in 1946, author Orville Shirley listed 8,256 soldiers from Hawaii and the mainland as belonging to the 442nd and the 100th Battalion. The 100th Battalion, although formed first in 1942, became one of three battalions of the 442nd.
"We try to contact everyone here and on the mainland in the northwest and California," Yamasaki said, "but so many of them aren't active members and don't come out to our meetings."
"This was not just a Hawaii unit," Yamasaki said. "A lot of the replacement guys volunteered from those internment camps. You really wonder what made them volunteer."
In his preface Yamasaki writes that there is a common thread underlining all of the personal stories: "an uncommon loyalty to country and to their comrades and families -- which, after the war, turned into an uncommon bond of friendship and devotion to one another that survives the passage of time and the separation of distance."
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Schedule of events for the 60th anniversary of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. 442nd’s anniversary events
TODAY
>> Talk by Yukiko Sugihara, widow of Japanese Consul General Chiune Sugihara, whose actions in 1940 are credited with saving the lives of more than 6,000 Polish Jews to whom Sugihara issued exit visas. 10 a.m., Japanese Cultural Center.
>> "Uncommon Courage." A film by Gayle Yamada on Japanese Americans who served in the Military Intelligence Service as interpreters and code breakers in the Pacific in World War II. 4:30 p.m., Art House Theaters, Restaurant Row.
>> "Journey of Honor." A film by Stuart Yamane, following a dozen Japanese Americans who toured the battlefields of Europe years after the war. Art House Theaters, 7 p.m.
TOMORROW
>> Memorial Service. National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, 9 a.m. Speakers include University of Hawaii President Evan Dobelle and retired Army Gen. David Bramlett.>> "Daniel K. Inouye: An American Story." A film by Heather Giugni. Fund-raiser for the USS Missouri Memorial association, aboard USS Missouri on Ford Island. Tickets are $150. 5:30 p.m. Call 455-1600, ext. 223.
>> Military Intelligence Service 60th-anniversary banquet. 6 p.m., Hale Koa Hotel.
>> "Go for Broke," 1951 Hollywood version of the history of the 442nd. 7:30 p.m., Art House Theaters.
>> "Uncommon Courage" on PBS Channel 11 at 8:30 p.m.
>> "Journey of Honor" on PBS Channel 11 at 9:30 p.m.
SUNDAY
>> Sixtieth-anniversary banquet. Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel, 10 a.m.
