Hometown: Visalia, CA
Branch: U.S. Army 
Unit: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Military Honors: Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: July 15, 1944 - KIA near Pieve di Santa Luce, Tuscany, Italy
Age: 26
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945

Kazuo Otani’s parents, Yoichi and Shizuo (Ishizaki) Otani, immigrated to the United States from Japan in the early 1900s, landing in central California. Sometime after Kazuo was born on June 2, 1918, the family moved to Visalia—in California’s agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley. At the time, Visalia was a town of about 9,000 people.

Kazuo graduated from Visalia Union High School with the class of 1937. Four years later, on December 7, 1941, Imperial Japan launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

A shocked nation—strongly opposed to direct involvement in a second global war—was suddenly faced with reality. A day later, on December 8, 1941, the U.S. Congress declared war on Imperial Japan. Germany and Italy, allies of Japan, declared war on the United States three days later.

With Imperial Japanese victories in Guam, Malaya, and the Philippines, after Pearl Harbor American war planners were fearful of an invasion on America’s Pacific Coast. Japanese Americans, including the Otani family, faced suspicion and distrust from their home country.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, a policy that authorized the arrest and relocation of anyone of Japanese descent to military internment camps further inland. In the name of national security and “protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense premises,” more than 100,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were forcibly removed from their homes, farms, and businesses—and confined under armed guard.

23-year-old Kazuo was working at a citrus farm near Visalia at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. He and his family—including brothers Ted and Tom—were detained at what the U.S. government called a “Relocation Camp” at Gila River, Arizona.

Despite this mistreatment, many Americans of Japanese descent went to great lengths to prove their allegiance to the United States. Japanese American men of draft age were designated as “enemy aliens,” and at first barred from enlisting in the armed forces.

Many “Nisei” (the first generation born to Japanese immigrants in their new country) volunteered to fight for their American homeland—making their case from behind the barbed wire of internment camps.

Finally, on February 1, 1943, President Roosevelt activated the U.S. Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team—established as a segregated Japanese American unit and trained to fight in WWII’s European Theater.

Kazuo Otani would receive training at Camp Robinson in Arkansas, Camp Crowder in Missouri, Camp Carson in Colorado, and Camp Shelby in Mississippi.

Rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant, Otani and his 442nd Regimental Combat Team were shipped overseas to join the Allies’ Italian Campaign, entering combat on June 26, 1944.

On July 15, 1944, a few weeks after joining the effort to remove the German Army from Italy, Otani’s unit was fighting in the hills of Tuscany. SSG Otani’s courage under fire would earn him the nation’s second-highest military decoration, awarded for extraordinary heroism: the Distinguished Service Cross.

His actions on that day would cost Kazuo Otani his life, at age 26. His Distinguished Service Cross medal was presented to his parents at their detention center, in March of 1945.

In 1996, 52 years after Otani gave “the last full measure of devotion” to his country, federal legislators called for a review of his service record—and those of other Japanese American service members from World War II—to determine whether any of them had been passed over for the Medal of Honor due to the discrimination of the time.

As a result of that review, on June 21, 2000, 22 men who served in segregated units during World War II had their Distinguished Service Cross medals upgraded to Congressional Medals of Honor—the nation’s highest award for military valor in action.

SSG Otani’s Medal of Honor citation describes his actions:

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Staff Sergeant Kazuo Otani (ASN: 39089432), United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty while serving with Company G, 2d Battalion, 442d Regimental Combat Team, attached to the 34th Infantry Division, in action against the enemy on 15 July 1944, near Pieve Di S. Luce, Italy.

Advancing to attack a hill objective, Staff Sergeant Otani’s platoon became pinned down in a wheat field by concentrated fire from enemy machine gun and sniper positions. Realizing the danger confronting his platoon, Staff Sergeant Otani left his cover and shot and killed a sniper who was firing with deadly effect upon the platoon.

Followed by a steady stream of machine gun bullets, Staff Sergeant Otani then dashed across the open wheat field toward the foot of a cliff, and directed his men to crawl to the cover of the cliff. When the movement of the platoon drew heavy enemy fire, he dashed along the cliff toward the left flank, exposing himself to enemy fire. By attracting the attention of the enemy, he enabled the men closest to the cliff to reach cover.

Organizing these men to guard against possible enemy counterattack, Staff Sergeant Otani again made his way across the open field, shouting instructions to the stranded men while continuing to draw enemy fire. Reaching the rear of the platoon position, he took partial cover in a shallow ditch and directed covering fire for the men who had begun to move forward. At this point, one of his men became seriously wounded.

Ordering his men to remain under cover, Staff Sergeant Otani crawled to the wounded soldier who was lying on open ground in full view of the enemy. Dragging the wounded soldier to a shallow ditch, Staff Sergeant Otani proceeded to render first aid treatment, but was mortally wounded by machine gun fire. Staff Sergeant Otani’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.

In the June 21, 2000 ceremony on the White House South Lawn, President Bill Clinton presented the Medal of Honor to SSG Otani’s 80-year-old brother, Ted, who told The Fresno Bee: “He was glad to go in…he figured he’d fight for his country.”

Staff Sergeant Kozuo Otani was laid to rest in Veteran’s Liberty Cemetery in Fresno, California.

Under their motto “Go for Broke,” the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team achieved fame as one of the most highly decorated units of World War II. According to The National WWII Museum, their actions “distinguished them as the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of the US military.”

Sources
U.S. Department of Defense—Medal of Honor Monday: Army Staff Sgt. Kazuo Otani
Congressional Medal of Honor Society: Kazuo Otani
Military Times—The Hall of Valor Project: Kazuo Otani
Japanese American National Museum—Discover Nikkei: Kazuo Otani (KIA 7/15/1944)
Go for Broke National Education Center: 442nd Regimental Combat Team
The National WWII Museum: Going For Broke: The 442nd Regimental Combat Team
The Fresno (California) Bee, Jun. 22, 2000: Heroes Live On
HonorStates.org: Kazuo Otani
The Sanger (California) Herald, Mar. 11, 1949: K. Otani Services Slated On Saturday
Burial Site: Find a Grave