HIROSHI 'HERSHEY' MIYAMURA

On 24 April 1951, when Chinese communist soldiers attacked US Company H in the hills near the Imjin River, this corporal held back the tide and protected his men

- JACKSON VAN UDEN

Hiroshi ‘Hershey’ Miyamura was drafted into the US Army in January 1945, in the final months of the Second World War. The young Japanese-American eagerly joined the war effort – proving that he was just as patriotic as everyone else during a time when Americans with Japanese heritage were being placed in internment camps, and their loyalty was under question by US government policy.

During the war Miyamura would briefly serve with the 442nd Infantry Regiment, a JapaneseAmerican unit, in which he received training as a machine gunner before returning to the United States due to ill health. He was later discharged after Japan surrendered, leaving him to enlist in the US Army Reserve. Miyamura, when asked why he joined the Reserve, replied: “I thought that with my training that I would be ready to serve again if my country needed me.”

In 1950 Miyamura was called up by the US Army to serve in the Korean War. However, he was not expecting to participate in any fighting, and claimed he’d thought they were heading out to do a “little police work”. By April 1951 Miyamura and his company, Company H, found themselves camped on the eastern side of North Korea. He and the rest of his company watched from their position as the Chinese communist forces swelled on the north side of the Yellow River.