Hiroshi (“Hershey”) Miyamura: Medal of Honor, Korean War

Toward the end of WWII, 18-year-old Hiroshi Miyamura tried to join the U.S. Army to fight in the war. He was told by the recruiters, as so many other Japanese-American young men were, that he would have to prove himself, that he was loyal to the country. He was finally allowed to join and was assigned to the Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team. He arrived in Europe as the war was ending and did not see combat.

Miyamura stayed in the Army, and, when the Korean War broke out, he was a corporal and a machine-gun squad leader with the 3rd Infantry Regiment. His unit arrived in Korea in November of 1950 in the dead of winter. He says that it was as cold as he had ever been. In those early months, the allied U.N. Forces, mostly American troops, had driven the enemy almost to the Yalu River that forms the border between North Korea and China.

On the night of April 24, 1951, some 250,000 Chinese troops entered the fight and began a massive attack all along the lines. Many units were battered or crumbled in the face of this massive onslaught. Miyamura and his machine gun squad were ordered to provide cover for his unit’s withdrawal. Cpl. Miyamura had five riflemen and 10 machine gunners in his squad. They knew that they were overwhelmingly outnumbered and that their chances of surviving this were slim at best.

Miyamura and his men waited in the dark, listening to the enemy advancing through the darkness. The Chinese troops were banging pots and pans and blowing whistles in an effort to rattle the nerves of the Americans in front of them. Then, all of a sudden, flares were popped and the night sky lit up, showing the massive numbers of Chinese coming at them in waves, shouting as they came.

The 15 men in Miyamura’s machine gun squad began laying down an intense fusillade of .30-caliber machine-gun fire at the oncoming enemy. They just kept coming, waves of them. At one point, Miyamura left his machine gun and charged into the oncoming Chinese with a rifle and bayonet. He bayonetted 10 Chinese before returning to his machine gun position and continued firing until it jammed. He then bayonetted his way through several more Chinese to get to another machine gun.

At this point, Miyamura could see that the Chinese were starting to get around them. He ordered the rest of his men to withdraw and said he would stay to provide cover for their withdrawal. He kept pouring machine-gun fire into the charging Chinese.

Then American artillery rounds started exploding all around his position. He figured that they thought all of the Americans had made it off of the mountain. Well, they had. All but him. His actions had allowed the rest of his men to get off of that deadly position. By this time, he had killed over 50 of the enemy.

Miyamura then started to move off the mountain as well. He bayonetted several more Chinese, but one of them was able to drop a grenade as he fell dying. Miyamura kicked it away, but it blew and peppered his legs with shrapnel. He kept going down off the mountain until he collapsed from his injuries and blood loss. He fell into a ditch and went unconscious.

When he woke up later, he became aware of the sound of footsteps all around him. It was the advancing Chinese. He tried to play dead, but one of the Chinese soldiers saw that he wasn’t dead, and, speaking to Miyamura in English, took him as a prisoner of war.

Miyamura was marched for a month in the intense cold, along with many other captured soldiers, to a POW camp where he would be held for another 27 months before being released to the Americans at the “Freedom Village” at Panmunjon on August 23, 1953. He had lost over 50 lbs. during his captivity. When Cpl. Hiroshi Miyamura was handed over to the Americans at Panmunjon that day, he was surprised to find out that he had been awarded the Medal of Honor for his selfless acts of courage on that night of April 24, 1951.

The second video with this article is of Miyamura later on in life speaking about the events that happened that night and his captivity and return home. His humility and love of country are evident throughout.

The Veterans Site honors Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura’s courage under fire and his love of country and his loyalty to his men during one of the most ferocious battles of the Korean War. Thank you for showing us the meaning of the love of country.