Medal of Honor - Shizuya Hayashi - World War II

On November 29, 1943, the men of Company A, 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate), were fighting through the difficult hills near Cerasuolo, Italy. The battalion had already spent weeks in combat, pushing north against German forces that made full use of the rugged Italian terrain. On this day, the advance was being held up by enemy positions commanding the approaches with machine guns, rifles, grenades, and automatic weapons. Among the American soldiers facing that fire was Private Shizuya Hayashi, a Browning Automatic Rifleman from Waialua, Hawaii.

Hayashi had only recently been transferred into Company A after casualties forced the 100th Infantry Battalion to reorganize some of its depleted companies. He carried the Browning Automatic Rifle, a heavy weapon capable of delivering rapid automatic fire but one that also made its operator a particularly valuable target. As German fire swept the battlefield and threatened to stop the American attack, Hayashi made the decision to move forward.

He advanced alone.

With enemy rifle and machine-gun fire striking around him, Hayashi moved toward a German machine-gun position while firing his BAR from the hip. The distance closed rapidly as he continued directly into the fire. Reaching the enemy emplacement, Hayashi overwhelmed it, killing seven German soldiers inside the position. Two more attempted to escape and were killed as they fled.

The machine gun that had been holding up the American advance was silent.

With the position destroyed, Hayashi's platoon was able to move forward approximately 200 yards. The advance, however, soon encountered another powerful enemy position. A German antiaircraft gun had been turned against the American infantry and was firing into the advancing troops. Once again, Hayashi brought his BAR into action.

He attacked the second position with the same determination he had shown against the first. Firing into the German crew and the soldiers defending the emplacement, Hayashi killed nine enemy troops. Four more surrendered, while the remaining Germans abandoned their position and withdrew.

In the course of the fighting, Hayashi had personally killed eighteen enemy soldiers and captured four. More importantly, his attacks had eliminated two positions that had been stopping the advance of his fellow soldiers. Ground that had seemed nearly impossible to cross moments earlier was suddenly open.

The numbers recorded in the official account are extraordinary, but they do not fully explain what Hayashi did. He did not simply fire from a protected position at a distant enemy. He deliberately moved toward weapons that were already firing upon his unit. He closed the distance until his BAR could be brought directly against the German crews, destroyed the first position, continued with his platoon, and then attacked again when another weapon threatened the advance.

His actions were not isolated from the larger battle. Every yard Hayashi gained allowed other soldiers to move. Every enemy position he silenced reduced the fire falling upon the men behind him. His courage created momentum at a moment when the attack might otherwise have stalled.

 For his actions on November 29, 1943, Shizuya Hayashi was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the United States Army's second-highest decoration for valor. At the time, the 100th Infantry Battalion was still an independent organization. It had not yet formally become part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, although Hayashi would later serve within the combined 100th/442nd organization. His Medal of Honor action therefore belongs to the earlier history of the original 100th, whose combat record was already being written months before the 442nd entered battle.

Hayashi survived the fighting at Cerasuolo and continued serving through the war. More than half a century later, the extraordinary actions of Asian American soldiers who had received the Distinguished Service Cross during World War II were reviewed to determine whether racial prejudice had affected their recognition. Hayashi's actions were among those reconsidered.

On June 21, 2000, fifty-six years after the battle near Cerasuolo, President Bill Clinton presented Shizuya Hayashi with the Medal of Honor at the White House. Unlike many of the men whose awards were upgraded that day, Hayashi had survived long enough to receive the medal personally.

The ceremony came decades after the gunfire in Italy had faded, but it did not change what had happened on November 29, 1943. The medal simply placed the nation's highest recognition beside an act of courage that the soldiers around Hayashi had witnessed firsthand.

A German machine gun stopped the advance.

Shizuya Hayashi went toward it.

When another weapon stopped them again, he went forward a second time.

By the end of the action, eighteen enemy soldiers were dead, four had surrendered, two positions had been destroyed, and the men of the 100th Infantry Battalion were moving forward again.

That was the action for which Shizuya Hayashi earned the Medal of Honor.

Medal of Honor Citation: 

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Private Shizuya Hayashi distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 29 November 1943, near Cerasuolo, Italy. During a flank assault on high ground held by the enemy, Private Hayashi rose alone in the face of grenade, rifle, and machine gun fire. Firing his automatic rifle from the hip, he charged and overtook an enemy machine gun position, killing seven men in the nest and two more as they fled. After his platoon advanced 200 yards from this point, an enemy antiaircraft gun opened fire on the men. Private Hayashi returned fire at the hostile position, killing nine of the enemy, taking four prisoners, and forcing the remainder of the force to withdraw from the hill. Private Hayashi's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.