04x04 - Panzer Rush

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: When a U.S. Battalion is

surrounded by Germans,

Soldiers of a segregated Japanese-American

unit fight to reach them.

Pinned at the base of what

they would call Suicide Hill,

No one moves when

given the order to charge.

Until an unlikely hero

steps up to lead the way.

NARRATOR: On June 6th, 1944,

Allied forces finally land

troops in Normandy

to open the western front.

But n*zi fanatics and diehards continue

to fight ferociously for survival.

D-day was a battle.

They still need to win the w*r.

NARRATOR: Friday, October 27th, 1944.

The Vosges mountains, France.

American sergeant Shiro Kashino

leads his soldiers along a narrow

path deep in the forest.

At 0300 hours they

struggle to see their route.

ROBERT: It's almost unimaginable

how dark it is.

The overhang of the trees, the blackness.

The total absence of any kind of city

lights that would illuminate the sky

makes it seem like you're

in the middle of a nightmare.

NARRATOR: Afraid the men of the 442nd

regimental combat team

will lose their way in the forest,

they pin squares of white paper to their

backs for the soldier behind to follow.

NARRATOR: Their mission is to rescue part

of a battalion of American soldiers

completely cut off by German forces.

The other battalion is five

miles away as the crow flies,

but the valleys dip and peak,

to greatly increase the distance.

When they volunteered for the army,

many soldiers of the 442nd lived as

detainees in incarceration camps.

NARRATOR: After the bombing

of Pearl Harbor,

an executive order signed by

President Franklin Roosevelt

forced Japanese-Americans on

the mainland from their homes.

Anyone with 1/16th Japanese

heritage is incarcerated,

Including thousands of children,

the elderly and disabled.

ROBERT: The government built ten

so-called permanent relocation camps

spread across the United States and these

were basically army shelters.

They were big barracks

with common latrines,

set in the middle of nowhere,

and surrounded by barbed wire,

and this would be the home for more

than 100,000 Japanese Americans

for the next three years of their lives.

NARRATOR: Japanese-Americans serving in

the military on December 7th, 1941

are discharged or

reassigned in February 1942.

But many young men in the

camps still volunteer

when Roosevelt activates the segregated

442nd regimental combat team a year later.

ROBERT: Well you have to

remember, these were boys.

They were youth ranging from 17,

18 years old to 21, 22 year old.

Some of them were patriots.

They wanted to fight to prove

themselves to their country.

Some of them just wanted to get out of the

camps. It was a terrible environment.

NARRATOR: After training, the

442nd fights in Italy,

and then lands in southern France.

ROBERT: They were literally

dodging b*ll*ts abroad

and they knew they had to

win to save their lives.

On the other hand they also knew they were

representing something about themselves

and their people who were still in

the camps or were still in Hawaii.

And they understood that this was

a test of who they were as Americans.

NARRATOR: After their 3:00 am start,

the 442nd arrives at their jump off

point in the late morning.

The unit they must rescue

is still three miles away.

The lost battalion is from

the 141st infantry regiment,

a sister regiment to the 442nd,

within the 36th infantry division.

The 36th Division was pretty highly

combat experienced by this time.

JOHN: It had led the way in the invasion

of South France in August 1944.

It had plunged into the

Vosges by September.

And here's where the figurative

fun began to kind of end.

NARRATOR: As the 141st

attacked to take hill 5-9-5,

First battalion pulls too far ahead.

Germans close in from behind and separate

them from their regiment,

Cutting them off from reinforcement,

resupply and relief.

NARRATOR: The encirclement kicks off the

Second World w*r version

of the Lost Battalion saga.

JOHN: It was a term left over

from World w*r I,

when you had a similar kind of situation,

where you've had a unit,

not really lost because loss

would indicate that, you know,

they're gone, or you never

know what happens to them.

No, you know precisely where they are.

You just can't get to them.

NARRATOR: Lieutenant Martin

Higgins establishes

a defensive perimeter to

secure their position.

For three days, the cut off battalion

fends off a series of German attacks.

All attempts to fight their way out, or

for the regiment to fight their way in,

have failed.

NARRATOR: As their remaining rations

and ammunition run low,

the situation for the Texan

regiment grows desperate.

It's not clear how long they can hang on.

NARRATOR: Sergeant Shiro Kashino and

the members of "I" company

fight for every advance in the forest

during the rescue attempt.

As they lead the American as*ault, the

Germans launch a fierce counter-attack.

"I" company's left flank becomes exposed.

Kashino identifies a platoon pinned by a

machine g*n nest on the slope above.

ROBERT: Kashino was a Japanese American

who grew up in Washington State,

and he was by all accounts

a kind of all-American boy.

He played on the football team.

He found himself uprooted and sent to the

Minidoka relocation camp in Idaho.

And I think he was impatient

to get out of Minidoka,

and he saw the army as an

opportunity to prove himself.

NARRATOR: Suddenly, Kashino bursts out to

relieve pressure on the trapped platoon.

He rushes uphill giving

the Germans a moving target.

ROBERT: Kashino distinguished himself as

consistently rising to the challenge.

If that meant risking his own

life for the soldiers he was serving,

he would do it and he did it,

time and time again.

NARRATOR: Kashino succeeds.

He draws the German fire to himself, so

the other men are able to advance.

He motions for them to loop around

and take out the machine g*n nest.

Still under intense fire himself,

he uses his Thompson submachine g*n

to cover their attack.

ROBERT: I think that kind of action both

endeared him to his men

and proved that soldiers were

capable of doing things,

you know, beyond their imaginations.

NARRATOR: With the Germans

distracted by his fire,

the others can eliminate

the machine g*n nest.

NARRATOR: As the Americans fight ahead,

a German tank creeps into

position above them.

The noise and chaos of the

battle have masked its arrival.

Tech sergeant Al Takahashi spots

the beast at the last second.

- NARRATOR: As its muzzle flares

- Feuer!

He throws himself to the side.

NARRATOR: The shell fired by the tank

lands in the dirt beside Al Takahashi,

but does not explode.

Thankfully it's a dud.

But had he jumped in the other direction,

the impact would've surely k*lled him.

The Americans fight an entrenched enemy,

spurred to make any Allied

advance as costly as possible.

PETER: It's relatively rare in the

w*r in 1944

that the Germans encircle an

entire Allied battalion.

And this chance now is too

good for the propaganda to lose.

So, German troops are ordered

to stop any rescue attempts

from the Americans of this battalion.

NARRATOR: Special mountain units are

assigned to reinforce German positions.

PETER: Gebirgsjäger, or Mountain Troops,

were already founded in the First World

w*r to defend the Austrian Alps.

They are trained to fight under

severe weather conditions.

To fight at high altitudes.

The peculiarity of the Gebirgsjäger

is that they are mostly

recruited from the alpine areas,

from Austria and from Bavaria.

NARRATOR: Major Franz Seebacher commands

the Heeres-Gebirgsjäger battalion 2-O-1.

PETER: Franz Seebacher is a relatively

young battalion commander.

He's only 26 years old

when he takes over command.

He is an Austrian, initially

enters the Austrian army,

later is transferred into the German Army,

and pursues a distinguished career

in the Second World w*r.

NARRATOR: Seebacher moves into

position with 1,000 men

armed with machine g*ns,

light a*tillery, and mortars.

PETER: The Germans have got the maps.

They know the region, they know the

strength and weaknesses of the terrain,

and they position their troops on the

defense line on the top of the hills

and can fire down on

the Americans in the valley.

NARRATOR: The German

counter attack continues

with more tank and a*tillery fire.

Feuer!

NARRATOR: Trees explode

around the soldiers

of the 442nd regimental combat team.

ROBERT: Without exception, every soldier I

spoke to spoke about the tree bursts.

They were terrified of them.

If you can imagine being

in a forest with pine trees

stretching 60, 70 feet

above you, and then suddenly,

out of nowhere, a*tillery

fire opens up and explodes in the trees,

so you're vulnerable not just

to the hail of lead,

but to the branches that had been

burst off by this expl*si*n.

NARRATOR: Under intense pressure from

German sn*pers and shells,

the Americans must withdraw.

Fall back!

NARRATOR: They halt the German

counter attack,

but also cede some of the hard fought

gains of the day's fighting.

It's a painful set back.

NARRATOR: Saturday, October 28th, 1944.

With their rescuers still

three miles away,

Lieutenant Martin Higgins and

the remains of his battalion

of the 141st infantry regiment

face mounting challenges.

After four days of isolation with very

limited rations, they're slowly starving.

But drinking water is

their biggest concern.

JOHN: You just simply

have to have access to it.

If your soldiers are

dehydrating over time,

it doesn't necessarily mean

they're going to keel over dead any minute

but it does mean as they're

more and more dehydrated,

they become less combat effective.

NARRATOR: Just beyond their perimeter,

a muddy puddle provides their only

source of drinking water.

And worse, they have to

share it with the enemy.

A dead body would contaminate the supply.

So, both sides avoid

sh**ting any one nearby.

But even without a corpse,

it may not be safe to drink.

JOHN: There's a recognition,

that you're going to have to get

stream water, river water,

all those kinds of things where there are

microorganisms that can make you sick.

So, Halazone tablets were vital to

purify the water that you're drinking.

NARRATOR: Halazone is a

chemical compound,

that uses chlorine to k*ll

bacteria and parasites.

Debate over the effectiveness of chlorine

delayed Halazone's

widespread use until 1944,

when research proved

it safe and effective.

Two dissolved halazone tablets

make a canteen of water drinkable

in about 10 minutes.

Four tablets can be used for muddy water.

It's a low tech, portable

water purification system.

NARRATOR: The lost battalion's initial

supply of tablets only lasted for one day.

They desperately need more Halazone, food,

medical supplies for the wounded,

and batteries for the radio.

The first attempt to

resupply by air failed

when cloud cover made it

impossible to identify their location.

But the pilots remain determined.

- Now with the sound of P-47s in the air

- Alright, guys.

Higgins and the men get ready for

the delivery of provisions.

They've prepared a visual cue to alert

the aircraft of their position.

JOHN: They're going to try and

signal by taking off anything

that's light colored or white colored that

they can use to string together

that might catch a

pilot's eye as he's flying over.

NARRATOR: The fabric creates a signal.

With the lost battalion

surrounded by Germans,

the pilots must drop the

canisters in the right spot.

NARRATOR: Higgins and the men watch as

the containers float down from the sky.

And one by one, they

land in enemy territory.

All the supplies fall into German hands.

JOHN: You talk about going

from the high to the low,

Here comes the planes,

here comes our supplies.

Awesome. I'm going to get to eat,

I'm going to get maybe some water

and it's like, "No, I'm not getting that.

My mortal enemy is getting that."

NARRATOR: Without re-supply,

the lost battalion's situation

grows more desperate.

JOHN: Higgins is probably worried about

the steady decline of his command.

He's got more and more people wounded.

Fewer medical supplies

to take care of them.

He's probably worried about conserving

his a*mo. And there's the unknown.

Is help going to be able to get to you?

NARRATOR: Suddenly, the

Americans in the perimeter

hear the sound of an

incoming a*tillery shell.

(expl*si*n)

NARRATOR: As part of the

36th infantry division,

the lost battalion is under the command of

American Major General, John Dahlquist.

The 141st is pinned down, sir.

Annoyed that the 141st could

not rescue their own men,

Dahlquist had called in the 442nd

regimental combat team to do the job.

He continues to be frustrated by

the failure of the rescue

and floundering relief attempts.

Let's go! Let's go!

JOHN: I think his impatience

is pretty understandable.

He's got a battalion of

his guys that's cut off.

He's got other units that need

to fight their way to them.

The last thing on Earth that he wants

is one of his battalions to be destroyed,

obviously for its own sake,

but this also can be devastating

to a division's morale,

to its fighting prowess.

NARRATOR: To deliver essential

rations and supplies,

Dahlquist plans to fire

a*tillery shells on his own men.

Well behind the line, items like

concentrated food rations,

water purification tablets

and medical supplies,

are carefully wrapped and

inserted into hollow shells.

You fire them into the perimeter,

because you don't really

have to worry about weather

and your observers know where the

isolated battalion is.

But it is, you know, a reasonably

ingenious kind of solution to this,

but it's only a very temporary patch,

it's designed to get you by for a few more

hours until you figure out a better way.

NARRATOR: A smoke shell lands outside the

lost battalion's defensive perimeter.

It has been fired to confirm

the coordinates of their camp.

With a series of adjustments

from their a*tillery observer,

The shells start to explode overhead.

They land in the trees and spill

rations on to the ground.

Once collected, the meagre supplies are

shared amongst more than 200 soldiers

who continue to hold out on the hilltop.

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, the rescue force

continues their approach.

With little ground gained,

Sergeant Shiro Kashino

and the other men of the 442nd

regimental combat team

dig in for the second night

of their relief mission.

In contrast to the Sergeant,

Private Barney Hajiro grew up in Hawaii,

and was not incarcerated.

And unlike Kashino, Hajiro's

considered a problem soldier.

ROBERT: Barney Hajiro was a

fascinating character

because he had a reputation from

the day he was in the army

of being both a kind of slacker

and a kind of trouble maker.

He was a fiery youth

who got in fist fights,

and constantly was in trouble both with

his peers and with his commanders.

Okay guys.

Prepare to move out.

NARRATOR: Now he and the others face

another long, wet night.

In the middle of the forest

there are no comfortable billets,

comfortable billets, or

structures of any kind.

ROBERT: It was the end of October.

It was starting to turn into winter.

It was cold, it started to

rain, and their nightly routine

was to dig a trench, huddle into it,

hope they were protected against tree

bursts, and just tuck in for the night.

NARRATOR: Another ongoing problem is

supplying the 442nd with food.

As with the lost battalion, the rescuers

also have had an unstable supply line.

The isolation and the terrain makes it

difficult for trucks to reach the front.

3rd battalion commander,

Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Pursall

calls for volunteers to retrieve

rations delivered to a nearby road,

Kashino agrees to lead the supply run,

but is reluctant to depart immediately.

ROBERT: Kashino sensibly pointed

out that the noise of the supply trucks

would attract the

attention of the Germans.

NARRATOR: He wants to wait for an hour,

in case the Germans target

the delivery location.

But Pursall disagrees

and issues a direct order.

Alright guys, listen up!

I need five volunteers.

ROBERT: So, he got up and gave his men the

order to follow him down the trail

to the supply trucks.

NARRATOR: Kashino leads his men

through the dark, quiet forest.

NARRATOR: In the distance, the supply

trucks make their way up a narrow road.

Before the soldiers can advance more than

200 yards, there is a massive expl*si*n.

NARRATOR: As Sergeant Shiro Kashino leads

his men down a dark mountain path

to meet their supply trucks,

the forest around them bursts into flames.

Exactly what Kashino predicted

would happen did happen.

The Germans were able to locate the troops

from the noise of the supply train

and they opened fire.

NARRATOR: The soldiers of the

442nd regimental combat team

do not have time to find cover.

The barrage is too intense.

The blast injures eight men.

When the fire lifts, Kashino

and the others less injured

help the wounded to the aid station.

Later, when Kashino arrives at

the battalion command post,

he finds Lieutenant

Colonel Alfred Pursall.

NARRATOR: Kashino calls out his commanding

officer

for putting them in a needlessly

dangerous situation.

Those men died out there because of you!

He adds that any of

the men would rather starve

than for others to suffer the

casualties caused by the order.

From a military perspective,

Kashino crosses a line.

Sergeant, that's how the army works.

ROBERT: It's a complete

violation of military law.

A junior ranking non-commissioned officer

cannot question the

direct orders of a superior.

NARRATOR: With the attack

on the supply detail,

casualties amongst the Japanese-American

soldiers continue to mount

across their front, after two

days of fighting to rescue

the members of the 141st

infantry regiment.

And the lost battalion still remains about

two miles past their present location.

ROBERT: They would advance

through the dark forest,

they would meet a hail of

machine g*n fire, duck for cover,

and then they would crawl up

the hill a little bit more.

As a result, the men really

never knew where they were.

They just knew that somewhere out there

someone was firing a g*n at them,

and they had to keep going.

Sunday October 29th, 1944.

In the morning fighting,

the soldiers from the Japanese

American unit gain a little ground

against the entrenched German defenses.

But for 36th infantry division commander

Major General John Dahlquist,

this is not good enough.

Dahlquist believes that there

should be more progress.

He takes the unusual step of visiting

the front during the battle.

Forward!

Come on!

JOHN: He does not trust his leaders.

And in that sense, perhaps he's more of

a micromanager than is necessary.

JOHN: This is something that

should be an incredible force multiplier,

to have a two-star general right

there in the front line saying,

"Hey, you know what? I'm not just telling

you guys to go forward.

"I'm leading you forward."

As barrages descend, the men are

forced to take cover.

JOHN: Dahlquist never really adjusts to

the reality of the moment,

of saying, "Oh, now I see what

you guys are up against."

NARRATOR: Instead, he causes confusion by

ignoring the chain of command.

He engages directly with the soldiers

and badgers them to advance.

Finally, 3rd battalion commander,

Lieutenant-Colonel Pursall

reaches a breaking point.

These are my boys!

He shouts for

Dahlquist to get off his front.

For Lieutenant Colonel Pursall to turn on

the General this way,

he would have to be

completely at his wits end.

And from an enlisted

soldier's perspective,

to see these two key authority

figures bickering in this way

does nothing for your unity and morale

to go forward on this mission.

NARRATOR: Within the lost

battalion's defensive perimeter,

The sound of planes again fills the air,

with the goal of dispensing

lifesaving supplies.

It's the third attempt to deliver goods by

air drop, and it proves successful.

Food, medical supplies, and

ammunition spill out from canisters.

It all buys Lieutenant Martin

Higgins and his men some relief.

JOHN: It's gotten better. It's gotten more

manageable, but it is not at an end.

You hope in that time,

that friendly forces are going to be

able to fight their way to you.

Until that happens,

your crisis has not ended.

NARRATOR: In the meantime, Sergeant Shiro

Kashino

and the soldiers of 3rd

battalion of the 442nd

have fought to close in

on the lost battalion.

They face another advance

across treacherous terrain.

At the end of the ridge,

just over a mile away,

Higgins and his men wait for rescue.

But to get there, third

battalion must clear the slope.

The dug in German soldiers

exact a toll for every gain.

Even as they try to ascend, the German

fire closes in from all around them.

NARRATOR: After trying to outflank

the Germans,

members of the 442nd regimental combat

team have stalled along a narrow front,

in their quest

to reach the lost battalion.

ROBERT: The battle was really

one of inches,

and they were almost

helplessly pinned down.

And not knowing where the next

expl*si*n would come from,

not knowing where the next

grenade would be thrown,

not knowing where the next

machine g*n fire would open up.

Fix bayonets now!

NARRATOR: An order comes

down the line: Fix bayonets.

A bayonet is a knife blade attached

to the end of a military r*fle.

Soldiers train to wield

bayonets in a thrusting motion

to cause deep and fatal internal wounds.

But they're rarely used.

JOHN: A lot of people would rather be in a

gunfight than a knife fight,

because a knife fight is very personal,

and very much physical and all that,

versus just trading b*ll*ts with

someone in the abstract.

The bayonet is really the

desperation kind of weapon.

An officer gives an order to

fix bayonets only under

the most desperate circumstances.

NARRATOR: As the soldiers

attach the blades,

they discover that any discernible

movement attracts a hail of b*ll*ts

from the German defenders above.

NARRATOR: Trapped and exposed,

more men are shot,

including sergeant Shiro Kashino.

ROBERT: We don't know a lot except that he

was constantly exposing himself to fire,

and at a certain point he was wounded for

the third time within a matter of days

NARRATOR: Barney Hajiro sees that his

platoon leader is bleeding.

He insists that Kashino seek medical care.

Years later Hajiro would tell me, almost

with incredulity that, you know,

"Here I am, I'm a private and I'm telling

a sergeant he's gotta go back,"

and he was amazed that Kashino, who had

never turned away from any challenge,

must've been so wounded that

he in fact did go back.

NARRATOR: Overlooking the ridge,

Major Franz Seebacher

observes the American

forces amassing below.

The Americans don't receive

a lot of support from the air

or support of armor or a*tillery.

They are fighting like the Germans.

A battle of attrition and both sides

are low on ammunition and men.

In the end, it is a brutal place to fight.

NARRATOR: But Seebacher knows

he has no choice.

They must protect these heights of land,

to have any chance of halting the Allied

advance before they reach the Rhine river.

Still pinned down on the ridge

by heavy machine g*n fire from above,

the Americans receive the order to charge.

But for an instant, no one, including

Private Barney Hajiro, advances.

ROBERT: Hajiro told me many years later

that you can't go backwards,

you can only go forwards.

He looked at his men, he saw

that they were pinned down,

he knew that they would all die on

that hill if they didn't do something.

NARRATOR: With his Browning

automatic r*fle ready,

Hajiro locates extra ammunition

and turns to his assistant B.A.R. man,

Private Takeyasu Onaga.

Onaga tells Hajiro to

take his P-38 if he gets shot.

ROBERT: Hajiro remembered

that very vividly,

that a look of sadness just crossed

his fox hole buddy's face.

And it was probably in that

split second before Hajiro stood up

and started leading the charge.

NARRATOR: With Hajiro in the lead,

the rest of "I" company follows.

ROBERT: I think the best part

of him came out in battle,

and it's one of those strange

circumstances that men can be tested,

and find within themselves resources

that they never knew they had.

And I think that was

very true of Barney Hajiro.

NARRATOR: Men are immediately cut down by

machine g*n fire and a*tillery blasts.

Close on the heels of his

friend, Assistant B.A.R. man Onaga

stops to lift a tree that

has fallen on a fellow soldier.

Onaga then continues his

advance up the hill,

targeting enemy soldiers with a grenade.

Without warning, a

b*llet rips into his throat.

Hajiro sees his friend fall.

ROBERT: I think he was angry.

I think he was horror stricken,

and also remember he was

losing his ammunition man.

So he knew he had a

magazine to make his point,

and he ran like a mad man

firing all the way.

NARRATOR: The soldiers of the German

201st mountain batallion

hold steady against

the American attackers.

PETER: It's undoubtedly unnerving to see

men coming up the hill,

screaming and shouting.

This is a situation when the

w*r gets purely emotional

and totally unpredictable.

NARRATOR: Pinned down for days,

the stalemate breaks

and taking prisoners isn't a priority.

Private Barney Hajiro

continues his charge up the hill,

and locates another machine g*n nest.

ROBERT: A BAR weighs 15 or 20 pounds,

you're wearing you're helmet,

you're carrying this equipment.

You're running up a steep hill.

I don't know how he did it.

You have to have a rush of adrenaline that

just powers you through these things.

NARRATOR: He continues to climb, but as he

approaches a third machine g*n nest,

his luck runs out.

ROBERT: Barney just felt this

b*llet rip through his arm,

and he had to fall but by that

time you know his men were behind him,

they were taking out the Germans.

What he set out to do he accomplished.

That is lead this charge up the hill.

NARRATOR: The medic wants to send

Hajiro down to the first aid post,

but he refuses.

NARRATOR: He lost his BAR, but

his fighting spirit was still there,

he said, "If I had a

g*n I would've kept firing".

- Get outta here!

- I'm okay! I'll keep fighting!

NARRATOR: In the end, Hajiro acknowledges

the gravity of his injury

and agrees to withdraw,

though he refuses help.

ROBERT: He wanted to make sure that the

people who needed help more than he did

could get it,

and I think it's a kind of

badge of honor to be the last man

and to make sure that everybody

else is taken care of before you are.

NARRATOR: After losing Shiro Kashino and

Barney Hajiro, along with numerous others,

the 442nd pushes the Germans back.

But they've not yet made contact

with the lost battalion.

The next morning, on Monday, October 30th,

a patrol of Japanese-American soldiers

advances through the woods.

ROBERT: The b*ttlefield was deserted,

there was a strange calm,

and so they inched forward,

not knowing exactly what to expect,

being afraid that maybe there were

machine g*ns awaiting them.

Maybe there was more mortar fire.

NARRATOR: They discover a communications

wire and decide to follow it.

When you've got two friendly units in

such close proximity, it's always dicey.

I think now also within the forest, given

what's happened for almost a week,

I think that only adds

to the stress level.

NARRATOR: They detect movement

and ready themselves.

A figure emerges from behind a tree.

It's a fellow American

from the lost battalion.

ROBERT: Mutt Sakumoto, who was the first

one to encounter the Los Battalion,

didn't know what to say and so he

just sort of fumbled and said,

"Hey, you guys want some cigarettes?"

And that turned out to be a

just a great, humble,

wonderful acknowledgement of what

both sides had been through.

A cigarette was just a great relief after

the horrors they had experienced.

NARRATOR: After seven days of isolation,

the surviving members of first battalion,

141st infantry regiment, are rescued.

Of the original 274 soldiers,

211 descend the hill,

Including 32 wounded.

NARRATOR: There's much press coverage,

but the images released by

the United States Army

do not acknowledge the role of

the Japanese-American soldiers

who sacrificed so much.

From the segregated 442nd,

52 are k*lled during the mission

and 280 are wounded.

Their casualties likely exceed

the number of men rescued.

Two weeks later, Major General

John Dahlquist orders the 442nd assembled

to award a presidential unit

citation for the action.

He's angry when the number of soldiers

present was lower than he expected.

One of his officers has to inform him:

"That's all that's

left of the 442nd, sir."

After he recovers, Sergeant Shiro

Kashino continues to fight.

He will earn a Silver Star,

two Bronze Stars,

and six Purple Hearts for his service.

While nominated for a

Distinguished Service Cross,

He's wrongfully convicted by

court martial and stripped of his rank

and disqualified for the medal.

More than 50 years later, a military

investigation clears Kashino's name.

ROBERT: His fellow soldiers

petitioned the army

for some recognition after many years,

which he finally got, but unfortunately

about six months after he died.

NARRATOR: While Private Barney Hajiro

is nominated for the Congressional

Medal of Honor,

He receives the Distinguished

Service Cross instead,

because of his Japanese heritage.

It would take more than

55 years for the American government

to acknowledge that

he had rightfully earned

the nation's highest military award.

It was conferred on June 21st, 2000

by President Bill Clinton.

By the end of World w*r II,

the 442nd regimental

combat team proves to be

one of the most highly decorated

units in the United States Army.

They would return to Italy to break the

Gothic Line in the spring of 1945,

while the w*r in Europe still raged on.