Allan Ohata facts for kids
- In this Japanese name, the family name is Ohata.
Allan Masaharu Ohata (September 13, 1918-October 17, 1977) was a United States Army soldier. He received the Medal of Honor because of his actions in World War II.
Early life
Ohata was born in Hawaii to Japanese immigrant parents. He was a Nisei, which means that he was a second generation Japanese-American.
Soldier
One month before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Ohata joined the US Army in November 1941.
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.
For his actions in November 1943, Ohata was awarded the Army's second-highest decoration, the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC). In the 1990s, there was a review of service records of Asian Americans who received the DSC during World War II. Ohata's award was upgraded to the Medal of Honor. In a ceremony at the White House on June 21, 2000, his family was presented with his medal by President Bill Clinton. Twenty-one other Asian Americans also received the medal during the ceremony, but only seven of them were still alive. According to the story he shared with his brother, "[H]e held a hill by himself and a lot of people died except him. He said the enemy came from both sides, and [at] one point he came from one side and the enemy soldier came from the other end. The only reason he lived was because he saw the guy first."
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