by Ruth Sasaki
Americanism is not a matter of race or creed, it is a matter of the heart.
–Harry S. Truman
In a recent conversation with two Topaz survivors, as so often happens, the talk drifted to a family both had known in Berkeley before the War. One mentioned one of the sons–“John”–and added wistfully, “He was so handsome!” Then there was a pause.
In my childhood, such silences were respected, the talk allowed to continue on a different subject. And that’s why so many of us grew up knowing so little about our families’ lives before 1945.
This Veterans Day, we share the story of John Yukiharu Harano. Many thanks to the Sons and Daughters of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team for their efforts to preserve the stories of Nisei WWII veterans.
John Harano was born in Berkeley in 1924 to a large family. He had five brothers and three sisters; John was in the middle. He went through the Berkeley public school system (McKinley, LeConte, Willard), played basketball, and was active in the Boy Scouts Troop 26. He was the kind of young man who was selected to participate in a Boy Scout leadership conference.
John was set to graduate from Berkeley High in June 1942. Instead, along with his parents, younger brother, Roy, eldest brother George and family, and almost all the other Japanese Americans living in the San Francisco Bay Area, he was incarcerated in Tanforan Assembly Center; then transferred in the fall to a concentration camp in Utah known as the Topaz Relocation Center.
John was in the third group of volunteers to leave Topaz for Camp Shelby, MS in June 1943. Here he underwent basic training in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, I Company.
In April 1944, John’s mother, Toku, was admitted to the Topaz Hospital and diagnosed with breast cancer. Four days later, the 442 left Camp Shelby for Virginia, their departure point for Naples, Italy. When his mother died in early June, John was far away in Bagnoli, a staging area near Naples, waiting to be deployed to Anzio.
On June 26, the 442 joined the 100th Infantry Battalion, the battle-hardened unit comprised of Hawaiian Nisei, and went into action against the Germans near Suvereto in northern Italy. In late September they sailed to Marseilles and made the long haul north to join the Rhineland-Vosges campaign.
After heavy fighting, the 100th/442nd liberated the towns of Bruyéres and Biffontaine in late October. They were then called on to rescue the 1st Battalion, 141st (Texas) Infantry, which had become surrounded by the Germans in the Vosges Mountains. Two previous rescue attempts by other battalions of the 141st had failed. One attack line involved traversing steep terrain (later called “Suicide Hill”) and capturing a ridge which was held by the Germans.
Over five days of intense fighting, October 26-30th, the 100th/442nd managed to break through German defenses and rescue the 211 remaining members of the “Lost Battalion,” suffering more than 800 casualties to do so. John’s I Company, 185-men strong before the attack, emerged with only eight men unhurt.
On November 12, Major General John E. Dahlquist, whose decisions had gotten the 141st trapped, and who had then ordered the 100th/442nd to rescue them, ordered a review of the Nisei troops to thank them for their successful efforts. He expressed annoyance that so few had shown up for the review and was then informed that the soldiers present were all that remained standing.
Staff Sergeant John Harano was not among them. He was killed leading his unit in an attack on “Suicide Hill” on October 29. He was 20 years old.
What might he have achieved had he lived? What did he achieve by his death? On July 15, 1946, on presenting a citation to the 442nd/100th, then-President Harry S. Truman, paraphrasing his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, said, “…Americanism is not a matter of race or creed, it is a matter of the heart…”, and concluded, “You fought not only the enemy, but you fought prejudice–and you have won.”1
Seventy-eight years after John’s death, Mr. Harano’s neighbors in Block 20 in Topaz still remember how they felt each time they passed the Harano barrack and saw the Gold Star flag in the window. “Johnny’s” sacrifice, and the sacrifice of all the other Nisei soldiers who fought in WWII, is remembered–not only by the Japanese American community, but by the descendants of the Texas soldiers who were rescued from the hill that day.
In 2021 the United States Post Office issued a stamp honoring the Nisei soldiers of WWII. At the Los Angeles celebration, Leslie Tramer, daughter of 141st Infantry radio operator Erwin Blonder, told how her father brought his three daughters to 442 reunions to meet the men who had risked all to save his battalion. He wanted to ensure that the heroes would be more than just names to his daughters, as well as succeeding generations.2
As President Truman said, the Nisei soldiers of WWII defeated the enemy and won the battle–but 78 years later, we are still fighting the war.
Note: S/Sgt. Harano was buried in the U.S. Military Cemetery at Epinal, France. In 1948, his remains were returned to his brother Earl in North Platte, NE, and “Johnny” was laid to rest next to his parents. S/Sgt. Harano was awarded many medals, including a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, and, in 2010, a Congressional Gold Medal along with other members of the 100th/442nd RCT.
Sources:
John Yukiharu Harano. Sons & Daughters of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 2021.
1: Remarks Upon Presenting a Citation to a Nisei Regiment. Truman Library. Accessed Oct. 12, 2022.
2: Go For Broke Soldier Stamp–LA ceremony. (Remarks by Leslie Tramer, daughter of 141st Infantry survivor Irwin Blonder, begin at 1:14:35)
Related resources/articles:
History of the 442/100th and interview with Erwin Blonder. Stamp Our Story. Accessed 10/13/2022.
Khizr Khan’s words echo for Japanese American WWII Gold Star families
Uncle Tom: Not Knowing How to Miss You
About the contributor: Ruth Sasaki was born and raised in San Francisco after the War. The Takahashis, her mother’s family, were incarcerated in Tanforan and Topaz. A graduate of UC Berkeley (BA) and SF State (MA), she has lived in England and Japan. Her short story “The Loom” won the American Japanese National Literary Award, and her collection, The Loom and Other Stories, was published in 1991 by Graywolf Press. Ruth is the editor of the Topaz Stories project.
Copyright R. A. Sasaki, 2022. All rights reserved.
Thanks for this great story. I was in troop 26 and never heard this story – it absolutely needs to be told to all the younger generations living in Berkeley today.
Thank you, Hiro. Please feel free to share the link with friends and family.
The Sons and Daughters of the 442nd RCT is gathering information about Japanese American veterans who died in WWII, from which much of the source material about John Harano’s time in the 442 was drawn. Check out their website: https://442sd.org/
John’s story is only one of many. I focused on him because I have Nisei friends who were neighbors of Mr. Harano in Topaz and they remembered John. I agree with you that it’s important to share this story and to remember the upstanding young men who were basically used as “cannon fodder” while their families were incarcerated behind barbed wire by the government they served. That so many survived, and prevailed, is only a testament to their grit and dedication, and the sacrifice of those who did not.