Charlie Company, 100th Battalion, 442nd RCT
Born in ʻAiea, Hawaiʻi, in 1923, Kakuto Higuchi enlisted in the U.S. Army in March 1943, volunteering for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
After training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, in early 1944, he became part of the third group of early replacements sent from the 442nd Regimental Combat Team to the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate), a seasoned unit that had been engaged in heavy combat in Italy since September 1943. By the time Higuchi joined them, the 100th had earned a reputation for its toughness and high casualty rate, often referred to as “The Purple Heart Battalion.”
Assigned to Company C, Higuchi entered a unit hardened by months of brutal fighting and quickly adapted to the demands of front-line combat. He later saw action in France, including the fierce fighting at Biffontaine in the Vosges Mountains, where the 100th and 442nd faced determined German resistance in dense forests and difficult terrain.
After the war, Higuchi worked as a fire captain with the U.S. Navy. He retired in 1973 and went on to travel extensively throughout the world.