Hiroshi miyamura headstone inscriptions

Hiroshi "Hershey" Miyamura (Japanese: 宮村 浩, October 6, 1925 – November 29, 2022) was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the United States military's highest award for valor, for his actions during the Korean War. He was one of the last two surviving Medal of Honor recipients of the Korean War, along with Ralph Puckett Jr. While he was held as a prisoner of war, the award was classified as top secret.

Hiroshi Miyamura was born in Gallup, New Mexico, to Yaichi Miyamura (June 3, 1888 – December 23, 1965) and Tori Matsukawa (December 10, 1896 – August 20, 1936), Japanese immigrant parents, making him a Nisei, a second-generation Japanese American. His parents had moved there in 1922 and bought a 24-hour diner. He was the fourth of eight children. His mother died when he was 11. He got the nickname "Hershey" because his 4th grade teacher could not pronounce his first name correctly.

World War II

When the United States entered World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the relocation and internment of Japanese Americans due to fears that some would turn out to be traitors. However, for communities outside the sensitive coastal "military zone", this was not mandatory, and local authorities could not decide what they wanted to do. In Gallup, the Japanese-American residents were left alone.

Miyamura joined the United States Ar

Active US Army formation

Military unit

The 3rd Infantry Division (3ID) (nicknamed Rock of the Marne) is a combined armsdivision of the United States Army based at Fort Stewart, Georgia. It is a subordinate unit of the XVIII Airborne Corps under U.S. Army Forces Command. Its current organization includes a division headquarters and headquarters battalion, two armored brigade combat teams, one aviationbrigade, a division artillery, a sustainment brigade and a combat sustainment support battalion along with a maneuver enhancement brigade. The division has a distinguished history, having seen active service in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Global War on Terror. The Medal of Honor has been awarded to 61 members of the 3rd Infantry Division, making the division the most honored in the Army.

The division fought in France in World War I. In World War II, it landed with General Patton's task force in a contested amphibious landing on the coast of Morocco, North Africa, overwhelming Vichy French defenders in November 1942. In 1943, the division invaded Sicily in July, and invaded Italy at Salerno in September, before fighting in France and finally Germany. Medal of Honor recipient Audie Murphy, featured in the Hollywood movie To Hell and Back, was a member. The division also served in the Korean War. From 1957 until 1996, the division was a major part of the United States Army's presence in West Germany as part of the NATO alliance.

History

World War I

The War Department directed the organization of the 3rd Division on 12 November 1917 at Camp Greene, North Carolina, seven months after the American entry into World War I. Organization began on 21 November 1917, around a nucleus of Regular Army units that had been stationed at Camp Greene, Camp Forrest, Georgia, Camp Shelby, Mississippi, Camps Stanley and Travis, Texas, Camp Stuart, Virginia, Forts Bli

Near Phoenixville in Chester County, Pennsylvania — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)

New Mexico Medal of Honor Recipients. . ,

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/11/2022 (814 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PHOENIX, Ariz. (AP) — Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura, the son of Japanese immigrants who was awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor for holding off an attack to allow an American squad to withdraw during the Korean War, has died.

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society announced that Miyamura died Tuesday at his home in Phoenix. He was 97.

Born in Gallup, New Mexico, Miyamura’s parents operated a 24-hour diner near the Navajo Nation where the family interacted with the diverse population of miners and travelers who passed along Route 66.

Miyamura’s mother died when he was 11 and his father never talked about Japan, Miyamura said in later interviews. He would earn the nickname “Hershey” because a teacher couldn’t pronounce his first name.

Miyamura worked as an auto mechanic during high school. He joined the U.S. Army late in World War II after the federal government lifted restrictions on Japanese Americans serving. Miyamura was allowed to join the 442nd Infantry Regiment, composed almost entirely of “nisei” — those born in the U.S. to parents who were Japanese immigrants.

After the war, Miyamura met Terry Tsuchimori, a woman from a family who had been forced to live at the Poston internment camp in southwestern Arizona following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. They married in 1948 and had three children.

Miyamura continued to serve in the Army Reserves and was called into action during the Korean War.

On the night of April 24, 1951, near Taejon-ni, Miyamura’s company came under attack by an invading Chinese force. Miyamura ordered his squad to retreat while he stayed behind and continued to fight, giving his men enough time to evacuate.

Miyamura and fellow squad leader Joseph Lawrence Annello, of Castle Rock, Colorado, were captured