Yasuyuki Kurokawa

Baker Company, 100th Infantry Battalion

 

Yasuyuki Kurokawa (Co. B, 100th Inf. Bn.) [Courtesy of Julie Kurokawa]
Yasuyuki “Yasu” Kurokawa, known to his fellow soldiers as “Krack” because they found his last name difficult to pronounce, was born in 1917 and raised in Papaikou, Hawaii, the son of Junzo Kurokawa and Asa (née Nishiyama) Kurokawa. One of eight children — three brothers and four sisters — Yasuyuki graduated from Hilo High School in 1937. Before his induction into the U.S. Army in December 1940, he worked as a machinist for the Papaikou Plantation.

During World War II, Yasuyuki served in Baker Company, 100th Infantry Battalion. His brother, Juro Kurokawa, his wife, and their four children were incarcerated during the war at Jerome, Arkansas, and later at Heart Mountain in Wyoming.

The 100th landed in Salerno, Italy, and, as Yasuyuki liked to say, “marched up the boot” through the rugged Italian countryside. He took part in some of the most intense fighting of the European campaign. He even recalled capturing a German soldier who had taken refuge in a tree, his arms raised in surrender as he cried out, “Kaput!”

Yasuyuki was wounded twice in combat — first in late-November 1943, and again on July 19, 1944. He was pinned down from November 28 – 30, 1943, by German soldiers on Hill 900 near Scapoli, Italy. He recovered once in the south of France and another time in either Pompeii or Naples, where he watched Mount Vesuvius erupt. The shrapnel wounds he received left lasting scars on his back and right shoulder, reminders he carried for the rest of his life.

Yasuyuki “Krack” Kurokawa served honorably from September 12, 1941, to June 24, 1945. For his bravery and service, he was awarded the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Bronze Star, and the Good Conduct Medal, and, with his unit, earned the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Defense Service Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal.