Nisei, Target Of Legion, Dies As Hero on Leyte

By LEIF ERICKSON

Associated Press Foreign Staff

UNITED STATES ARMY HEADQUARTERS, Feb. 16. -- Frank T. Hachiya, 25 years old, of Portland, Or., one of 16 Japanese-Americans whose names have been stricken from the county memorial roll by the Hood River, Or., American Legion Post, died while performing a dangerous volunteer mission, the Army reported yesterday.

Hachiya, attached to the 7th Division, was wounded fatally on Leyte December 30. He died January 3 after most of the men in his regiment volunteered to give him blood transfusions.

Lieut. Howard Moss, Hachiya's commanding officer, said Frank volunteered to cross a valley under Japanese fire to scout an enemy position.

"A Jap sniper let Frank have it at close range," Moss related. "Frank emptied his gun into the sniper. Shot through the abdomen, Frank walked back up the hill. Medics gave him plasma and started him to a hospital. He was operated on immediately but the bullet had gone through his liver and he died."

Hachiya attended the University of Oregon. He enlisted, shortly after Pearl Harbor. He had served through the Kwajalein and Eniwetok invasions. His father, Junkichi Hachiya, is in a War Relocation Authority camp.