A native of Gallup, New Mexico, who became a war hero in Korea and earned a Congressional Medal of Honor was laid to rest a few days ago in his Route 66 hometown.
Hiroshi Miyamura, 97, died last month in Phoenix and was brought back to the town of his birth Saturday at Sunset Memorial Park cemetery, where he was buried with full military honors. The funeral was attended by hundreds, including six other Medal of Honor recipients.
The Albuquerque Journal covered the funeral. The story contained this excerpt:
He was the scrappy if diminutive child who took to wearing boxing gloves around his neck and challenging people to fights. He was the devoted family man who loved fishing at lakes around New Mexico and Arizona, who wrapped his hands around his young sons’ fingers to show them how to safely fire a gun. He was a mechanic, who for a quarter-century ran a full-service gas station in Gallup. He was a devout Christian, whose faith guided his day-to-day life.
He was very nearly a centenarian who could have chosen to enjoy his golden years undisturbed, but who instead stayed active in veterans’ issues.
“Hershey loved God,” said Pastor Bill Overton on Saturday at Miyamura’s memorial service at the First United Methodist Church in Gallup. “He loved his family. He loved the military. He loved the people he served with, and he literally gave himself.”
The story also contains a striking photo of Miyamura’s casket in the ground, with its top covered with roses, coins and dirt.
Miyamura was the son of Japanese immigrants who ran a 24-hour diner, the OK Cafe, a block from Route 66 in Gallup. One of seven children, he was born in the basement of the restaurant. According to a terrific 2017 article in the Los Angeles Times:
Hiroshi knew little about Japan. His mother died when he was 11, and his father never talked about his native land. The family spoke English at home and never saw themselves as anything but American.
Hiroshi joined the Boy Scouts and delivered newspapers on his bike. After school, he ran wild with his friends, shooting his BB gun in the rabbit brush, playing “Hopalong Cassidy” and “Flash Gordon,” digging caves in the banks of the dusty Puerco River.
They staged boxing matches in the alley behind the restaurant and goaded each other with the ethnic slurs of the time.
Miyamura took the nickname “Hershey” when his teacher couldn’t pronounce Hiroshi.
The only time he spent with the other 25 Japanese families in Gallup was on Sunday, when they gathered in an old dining car they had turned into a Japanese Free Methodist Church.
The Miyamuras’ old restaurant now is the site of The American Bar, at 221 W. Coal Ave.
He was 17 when he first tried to enlist in the military during World War II but couldn’t because the U.S. government classified him as an “enemy alien.”
It’s notable that Miyamura later said Gallup, including the local sheriff, refused to round up 800 local Japanese Americans into camps during the war. Miyamura said Gallup was the only New Mexico city to refuse those detainments.
Miyamura finally was drafted into the Army near the end of the war but didn’t see action.
That changed, however, once the Korean War began a few years later.
The Congressional Medal of Honor Society details his eye-popping heroism in 1951:
Cpl. Miyamura, a member of Company H, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. On the night of 24 April, Company H was occupying a defensive position when the enemy fanatically attacked, threatening to overrun the position.
Cpl. Miyamura, a machine-gun squad leader, aware of the imminent danger to his men, unhesitatingly jumped from his shelter wielding his bayonet in close hand-to-hand combat, killing approximately 10 of the enemy.
Returning to his position, he administered first aid to the wounded and directed their evacuation. As another savage assault hit the line, he manned his machine gun and delivered withering fire until his ammunition was expended. He ordered the squad to withdraw while he stayed behind to render the gun inoperative. He then bayoneted his way through infiltrated enemy soldiers to a second gun emplacement and assisted in its operation.
When the intensity of the attack necessitated the withdrawal of the company Cpl. Miyamura ordered his men to fall back while he remained to cover their movement. He killed more than 50 of the enemy before his ammunition was depleted and he was severely wounded. He maintained his magnificent stand despite his painful wounds, continuing to repel the attack until his position was overrun.
When last seen he was fighting ferociously against an overwhelming number of enemy soldiers. Cpl. Miyamura’s indomitable heroism and consummate devotion to duty reflect the utmost glory on himself and uphold the illustrious traditions on the military service.
According to ABC News, Miyamura’s heroism continued even after his capture:
Miyamura and fellow squad leader Joseph Lawrence Annello, of Castle Rock, Colorado, were captured. Though wounded, Miyamura carried the injured Annello for miles until Chinese soldiers ordered him at gunpoint to leave Annello by the side of a road. Miyamura refused the orders until Annello convinced him to put him down.
Annello was later picked up by another Chinese unit and taken to a POW camp, from which he escaped.
Annello and Miyamura became lifelong friends after the war.
Miyamura was a prisoner of war for 28 months. He was still a captive when President Harry S Truman awarded him the Medal of Honor. He didn’t receive his honor after until his release, from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was also given a Purple Heart, a POW Medal and a Meritorious Service Medal.
After that, Miyamura met every sitting president until his death.
Miyamura ran a Humble Oil filling station and repair shop on the west end of Gallup for 30 years and by all accounts lived a quiet and soft-spoken life. Diagnosed with PTSD, he underwent therapy and became involved in veterans affairs for the rest of his days.
Miyamura saw several spots in Gallup named after him while he was alive: Hiroshi Miyamura High School, the Hiroshi Miyamura Overpass. The town also erected a statue of him in his honor.
Upon announcement of his passing, New Mexico’s governor ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff.
(Image of Staff Sgt. Hiroshi Miyamura via the National Archives)