US Medal of Honor recipient Hiroshi Miyamura dies at 97

LTC Eugene Chu
..."On the night of April 24, 1951, then-Cpl. Miyamura was startled to see masses of Chinese troops creeping toward his machine-gun squad, illuminated by a trip flare on a scorched hillside near the border between North and South Korea. He fixed his bayonet and charged forward, killing about 10 enemy soldiers in hand-to-hand combat before returning to his men and administering first aid to the wounded, according to his Medal of Honor citation.

Taking charge of the machine gun, Cpl. Miyamura fired at waves of approaching soldiers until he was nearly out of ammunition. After ordering his men to withdraw, he remained behind to provide cover and dismantle the gun, preventing it from being taken into enemy hands, and scrambled to reach another U.S. emplacement. Along the way, he said, he shot and bayoneted a Chinese soldier who dropped a live grenade, sending shrapnel flying into his legs.

Bloodied but still mobile, he arrived at the next American position and helped direct the defenses. Once again, he found himself on the verge of annihilation and ordered his remaining men to fall back while he remained to cover them.

“He killed more than 50 of the enemy before his ammunition was depleted and he was severely wounded,” the Medal of Honor citation said. “He maintained his magnificent stand despite his painful wounds, continuing to repel the attack until his position was overrun. When last seen he was fighting ferociously against an overwhelming number of enemy soldiers.”

Mr. Miyamura said that he passed out from exhaustion and blood loss, and woke up a prisoner of war.

“Don’t worry,” a Chinese officer told him, “we have a lenient policy.”

Over the next five weeks, he was forced to march 300 miles to a POW camp near the Chinese border. He later told the Los Angeles Times that he survived the trek while eating bug-infested rations — small bags of millet and barley — and dandelions and grass that he tore from the ground. At times, he hallucinated that he was back at the all-night diner that his father owned in Gallup, N.M., eating pancakes at the counter.

Conditions at the POW camp were not much better. Some prisoners died of dysentery, and by the time he was freed in August 1953, 28 months after he was captured, he weighed less than 100 pounds. (He stood 5-foot-10.)

When he was taken back to a U.S. military installation in Korea, he worried that he might be court-martialed for his company’s losses on the battlefield. Instead, he was told that he had been promoted — he ultimately attained the rank of staff sergeant — and learned that he had been awarded the Medal of Honor. The award was previously kept secret out of concern for his safety in captivity."