25 April

CPL HIROSHI H. MIYAMURA
H Co. 7th Infantry Reg, 3rd ID.
Taejon-ni, Korea,
24 & 25 April 1951.

On the night of 24 April, Company H was occupying a defensive position when the enemy fanatically attacked and was about to overrun Miyamura’s position.  CPL. Miyamura saw the danger to his men and without hesitation sprang from cover wielding his bayonet.  He killed 10 enemy soldiers in hand to hand combat.

He then administered first aid to the wounded and directed their evacuation. As another savage assault hit he manned his machine gun until his ammunition was expended.  He ordered his squad to withdraw while he stayed behind to destroy their equipment.

CPL. Miyamura then bayoneted his way through infiltrated enemy soldiers to a second gun emplacement and assisted in its operation.

When the intensity of the attack required that the company withdraw, CPL. Miyamura ordered his men to fall back while he remained to cover their movement.

He killed more than 50 of the enemy before he was severely wounded and ran out of ammo.  He stood his ground in spite of his painful wounds and repelled the attack until his position was overrun.

CPL. Miyamura was last seen he was fighting ferociously against an overwhelming number of enemy soldiers.

 – CPL. Miyamura was next seen 2 years later when he was released from a Communist POW Camp.  He had been awarded the Medal of Honor Posthumously and the award kept Top Secret just in case he was a POW. 

Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura served as Grand Marshal of the 74th annual Nisei Week Japanese Festival with the Grand Parade in 2014.  He is 95 years old this year.