Takeichi Miyashiro, 89, decorated WWII veteran

Advertiser Staff

Takeichi "Chicken" Miyashiro, a decorated member of the famed 100th Infantry Battalion during World War II, died Nov. 20 in Honolulu. He was 89.

Miyashiro, who was born in Kohala on the Big Island, graduated in 1934 from Hilo High School, where he was a star athlete. He worked for Standard Oil Co. in Hilo before enlisting in the Army.

Miyashiro was assigned to Company C of the 100th Infantry Battalion, which was made up of Americans of Japanese ancestry.

In July 1944, Lt. Miyashiro led a squad to eliminate a German machine-gun nest in a house in Castellina, Italy. Although it was under constant sniper fire, the squad captured the house.

During three counterattacks, Miyashiro ordered most of his men to withdraw. But he and a machine-gunner held their post, broke up the attack and took a heavy toll of the enemy.

Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, commander of the U.S. Fifth Amy in Italy, wrote at the time that Miyashiro was armed with just an M-1 rifle but managed to "cut the enemy platoon to a squad and repulsed the assault."

Miyashiro was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest medal for valor, and was also the recipient of a Silver Star.

He was wounded three times and became a German prisoner of war. He spent five months in a Polish prison camp until he was freed by the Russians in 1945.

After the war, Miyashiro returned to Hawai'i and Standard Oil, where he retired as a plant foreman.

Miyashiro is survived by his wife, Lorraine; daughters, Nellis Kunieda, Allyn Horikoshi and Sonya Kuboyama; five grandchildren; brother, Tsuneyoshi; and sister, Margaret Iraha.

Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Hosoi Garden Mortuary.