James Kawashima

Baker Company, 100th Infantry Battalion

James Satoshi Kawashima was the oldest of three sons born to Sakichi and Masaki Kawashima. James grew up in the Moʻiliʻili district on the island of Oʻahu. His family had long ties to Hawaiʻi. For decades, the Kawashima’s served the Cooke family of Mānoa, where his father, Sakichi, was a trusted companion to Dr. Charles Montague Cooke Jr.

Kawashima enlisted in the Hawaiʻi National Guard’s 298th Infantry Regiment in 1935. When the regiment was federalized in October 1940, he became part of the U.S. Army’s growing Pacific defense force.

On December 9, 1941, two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he and his fellow soldiers were assigned to beach cleanup duty at Waimānalo. When a haole (Caucasian) soldier approached Kawashima and asked what he would do if the Japanese landed that day, Kawashima replied, “Your uniform and my uniform are the same. We’re not different. You’re American, I’m American too. If the Japanese attack now, I would shoot them.”

After the U.S. authorized a Japanese American combat unit, Kawashima was assigned to the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) which was made up largely of American soldiers of Japanese ancestry serving in the Hawaiʻi National Guard.

During training at Camp McCoy, the Army sought Japanese-speaking soldiers for transfer to the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). Having spent eight years of his youth in Japan, Kawashima qualified but refused reassignment as an interpreter. He insisted on remaining with the 100th to fight beside his friends. 

Serving in Company B of the 100th Infantry Battalion, he rose to Staff Sergeant, leading a platoon in both Italy and France. In October 1944, during the Battle of Bruyères, Kawashima led his men through the dense Vosges forest under constant German fire. Captain Sakae Takahashi (Co. B) warned his platoon leaders that normal foxholes were useless under tree-burst artillery; instead, Kawashima’s men dug L-shaped trenches for cover. When enemy machine-gun fire stalled their advance, he coordinated with supporting tanks and, alongside Pfc. Masaichi Miyashiro (Co. B), crawled under fire to pinpoint and silence enemy nests. This action enabled the platoon to move forward. 

The 100th Infantry Battalion became known as “The Purple Heart Battalion” for its staggering combat casualties. Though hospitalized after Bruyères, Kawashima was eager to return to his unit and was proud to have served from the beginning to the end of the war. 

Kawashima’s quiet heroism was immortalized in a wartime photograph taken near Bruyères on October 12, 1944. Having removed his sergeant stripes to avoid being targeted by snipers, he appeared to be an anonymous private standing guard beside a “Company B” sign. The image circulated for decades without identification until journalist Ben Tamashiro revealed in a 1986 Hawaiʻi Herald article that the soldier was James S. Kawashima. 

After the war, Kawashima returned to Honolulu. He and his wife, Shizue, raised five children and continued working for the Cooke family in Mānoa Valley for over thirty years. He passed away in 2005, remembered for his humility, devotion, and lifelong loyalty to his family and his country.