Hometown: Kingsburg, CA
Branch: U.S. Marine Corps
Unit: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 29th Regiment, 6th Marine Division
Date of Sacrifice: May 19, 1945 - KIA on Okinawa Island
Age: 23
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945

Victor “Vic” Hanson Jr. grew up as an only child in Kingsburg, California. Nestled in the San Joaquin Valley between the Pacific coast and the Sierra Nevada mountain range, Kingsburg’s fertile fields were largely populated by hard-working Swedish immigrant farmers whose vineyards produced raisins and table grapes.

During his youth, Victor’s family struggled through numerous hardships. His mother died in childbirth and his father, Victor Sr., was blinded in a sulfur machine accident in the vineyard. The task of helping to raise young Victor fell to his grandparents, Nels and Cecelia Hanson.

Victor Hanson Jr. graduated from Kingsburg High School in the spring of 1940. In high school and at Reedley Junior College in California, Hanson was an excellent student and standout football player. His large frame and talents as an end caught the attention of famed football coach Amos Alonzo Stag at College of the Pacific in Stockton, California.

Joining the cause

Victor held a summer job at the California Packing Corporation in Kingsburg before enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps in June of 1942, at the age of 20. Six months earlier, Imperial Japan carried out a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii—bringing the United States fully into World War II and prompting many young American men to come to their country’s defense.

Hanson was sent to Marine boot camp at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and later shipped to the war’s Pacific theater, where he received amphibious assault training at Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands.

Operation Iceberg

By the spring of 1945, the war in Nazi-occupied Europe was nearing its end. America’s War Department turned its focus to the Pacific theater and a decisive push toward Japan. American land, sea, and air forces methodically seized control of Japanese “home islands” one by one and at a heavy cost.

After the brutal Battle of Iwo Jima, one major island remained as a barrier, protecting mainland Japan from a direct assault. A plan code-named Operation Iceberg was launched in April, 1945, to take the isolated island of Okinawa. Allied victory at Okinawa would clear the way for an invasion of Japan.

At first, Japan’s 32nd Army—with 130,000 entrenched troops—put up little resistance as American Marines landed on Okinawa. Japanese forces were ordered to hold fire until the Americans had moved into the middle of a triangle of Japanese defensive positions.

Sugar Loaf Hill

Promoted to Corporal, Victor Hanson Jr. had been trained as a Fire Team Leader and assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 29th Regiment, 6th Marine Division. On Okinawa, the 29th Regiment was tasked with taking a small hill, code-named Sugar Loaf Hill in a drive to sweep across the island.

The Marines moved quickly toward Sugar Loaf. But as they advanced up its slope, they were met by intense enemy machine gun fire. Three platoons were pinned down.

In his book, Ripples of Battle, author and military historian Victor Davis Hanson—Cpl. Hanson’s nephew and namesake—cites the official history of American operations on Okinawa:

A platoon of Company F also tried to advance along the ridge toward the west, but the leader was killed and the platoon withdrew under heavy mortar fire.

On the next day, 19 May, the 4th Marines relieved the exhausted 29th Marines. During the 10-day period up to and including the capture of Sugar Loaf the 6th Marine Division had lost 2,662 killed or wounded; there were also 1,289 cases of combat fatigue.

Cpl. Hanson’s Final Moments

Cpl. Victor Hanson Jr. was lost in the battle to take Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa. Robert J. Sherer, a first lieutenant who witnessed Hanson’s final moments, recounts Cpl. Hanson, “standing to hurl a grenade and being hit by fire by the enemy machine gun.” Hanson was struck in the right thigh and bled to death quickly from the massive wound.

The next day, his 29th Marines were relieved and evacuated from the battle. In the brutal fighting against the entrenched Japanese on Okinawa, Cpl. Hanson’s 29th Regiment suffered a staggering 82% casualty rate.

The successful but costly Battle of Okinawa was the last major battle of World War II.

Cpl. Victor Hanson Jr. was laid to rest in his hometown of Kingsburg, California. In the center of Kingsburg—on land once owned by grandparents Nels and Cecelia Hanson—the city established Memorial Park, locally known as “Hanson’s Corner.” Within the park is a small memorial dedicated to the four “fighting Hansons” who served in WWI and WWII.

Sources
The Kingsburg Recorder, September 3, 1942: Local Boys Team Prospects for College of the Pacific
The Kingsburg Recorder, May 31, 1945: Victor Hanson Dies in Action
City of Kingsburg: About Kingsburg
Victor Davis Hanson—Ripples of Battle
Victor Davis Hanson—The Second World Wars
The History Channel: Battle of Okinawa
The National WWII Museum: Battle of Okinawa
The National WWII Museum—The Invasion of Okinawa: A Little Hill Called Sugar Loaf
Hoover Institution—A Classicist Farmer: The Life and Times of Victor Davis Hanson
Burial Site: Find a Grave