William Kenzo Nakamura

William Kenzo Nakamura was born in Seattle on January 21, 1922. His father George Takichi Nakamura, who had been a sword-maker in Japan, was a Seattle barber. He grew up in the International District, graduated from Garfield High School, attended the University of Washington, and during the summers worked in a salmon cannery at Union Bay, Alaska. One month after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, his mother died of cancer. Shortly after, that he and his family, along with many other local families of Japanese descent, were forced to live at the Minidoka Relocation Center, an internment camp, near Hunt, Idaho. Nakamura was twenty years old at the time. Despite the injustice of their treatment, he and his older brother George, both fiercely proud Americans, volunteered to serve their country in the fight against Japan. They joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 34th "Red Bull" Division, U.S. 5th Army, a regiment made up almost entirely of Japanese Americans, which would go on to suffer over 8,800 casualties and become the most decorated military unit in U.S. history. Major Orville Cresap Shirey, of the 442nd, wrote about the heroism displayed by the men of his unit in his book, "Americans: The Story of the 442nd Combat Team." In it he wrote about what happened on July 4, 1944, during one of the war's bloodiest battles: "Private First Class William K. Nakamura distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action, near Castellina, Italy. During a fierce firefight, PFC Nakamura crawled to within fifteen yards of an enemy machine gun that had pinned down his platoon, silenced the gun, and killed the crew with hand grenades. Later, when the platoon was being pulled back it was again pinned down by fire from concealed machine guns. On his own initiative, PFC Nakamura crawled twenty yards toward the hostile nest with fire from the enemy machine gun barely missing him, to a point from which he could observe the guns and fired clip after clip of ammunition with his rifle, keeping the enemy gunners down until his platoon reached cover." The hero who had single-handedly saved his platoon was later found in this last position dead from a sniper's bullet to the head. Nakamura was immediately recommended for the Medal of Honor by his commanding officer, but the award was denied. It took the United States government almost fifty-six years to acknowledge that racism had deprived Nakamura and many other heroes of color the honor they deserved, but on June 21, 2000, Nakamura was finally awarded the military's highest honor from a grateful nation. In a ceremony at the White House, his surviving family was presented with his Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton. The William Kenzo Nakamura Federal Courthouse in Seattle, Washington is named in his honor.