Soldier
Okutsu joined the US Army in March 1943.
Ohata volunteered to be part of the all-Nisei 100th Infantry Battalion. This army unit was mostly made up of Japanese Americans from Hawaii and the mainland.
On April 7, 1945, Okutsu was serving as a technical sergeant in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. During a battle on that day, on Mount Belvedere in Italy, he single-handedly destroyed three enemy machine gun emplacements. He was awarded the Army's second-highest decoration, the Distinguished Service Cross, for his actions.
A 1990s review of service records for Asian Americans who received the Distinguished Service Cross during World War II led to Okutsu's award being upgraded to the Medal of Honor. In a ceremony at the White House on June 21, 2000, he was presented with his Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton. Twenty-one other Asian Americans also received the medal during the ceremony, all but six of them posthumously.
Okutsu died at age 81, three years after receiving the Medal of Honor, and was buried in East Hawaii Veterans Cemetery No. 2, Hilo, Hawaii.
Read more about this topic: Yukio Okutsu
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