Pfc. Nakamura Won D.S.C. In Fight to Death

Pfc. William K. Nakamura, Seattle, announced killed in action on the Italian front in July, 1944, has been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously for his "extraordinary heroism" while in action with the 442nd Combat Team, a delayed Army dispatch said today.

Formerly a student at the University of Washington, Nakamura volunteered for the Japanese-American Combat Team. The action which won the award took place near Castellina, Italy, on a slope infantrymen dubbed "Suicide Hill" because of casualties there.

As Private Nakamura's rifle company attacked through terrain covered with scrub trees and brush, Germans opened up at close range with rifle and machine-gun fire.

Private Nakamura, without waiting for orders or protective fire from his dispersed mates, crawled across 20 yards of ground, much of it fully exposed to the enemy, to a point only 15 yards from the German emplacement. He threw four grenades, killing at least three of the enemy and knocking out the machine-gun nest. Other German fire forced the patrol to withdraw and again murderous machine-gun fire opened up on them from a farmhouse.

Again Nakamura worked his way up to the edge of a field next to the farmhouse, firing so rapidly and effectively that he pinned down the Nazi gun crew, enabling the platoon to withdraw safely. It was during the latter action that he was killed.