World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseJoe Ryo Hayashi was born in Salinas, California United States to Japanese immigrants. He enlisted in the US Army in Los Angeles, California in May 1941 and volunteered to join the 442nd Regimental Combat Team consisted mostly of Americans of Japanese ancestry. On 20 Apr 1945, while in combat near the village of Tendola, Italy, Private Hayashi dragged a wounded fellow soldier to safety, and then exposed himself to small arms fire in order to effectively direct mortar fire on German positions established on a commanding hill; he and his squad later found that the mortar fire successfully destroyed three machine gun positions. Two days later, on 22 Apr, he led a squad up a steep hill where several German machine gun positions were located. He threw a grenade into the first emplacement they encountered, forcing the Germans at that position to surrender. Seeing four other machine guns still firing on the Americans, now advancing alone, he continued the attack. He threw a grenade into the next machine gun position, then crawled to the right flank of another where he killed four German soldiers and forced the others to flee. While in pursuit of the fleeing Germans, he was struck down by a burst of machine pistol fire. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross medal for the actions of Apr 1945. He was also posthumously promoted to the rank of sergeant. He was buried at the Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles, California. In Jun 2000, the medal was upgraded to the Medal of Honor, the highest award of the US military.

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