Thinking about James Okubo, who earned the Medal of Honor for actions between today and November 4, 1944 as a medic at Biffontaine, France, when he aided 23 soldiers while under intense German fire.

Okubo was born in Anacortes, Washington and was interred with his family at the Tule Lake, CA and Heart Mountain, WY camps for Japanese-Americans. 

He joined the Army in 1943 as part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which was composed of Japanese-Americans from Hawaii and the mainland. You can learn more about them at the Go For Broke National Education Center.

Most notably, on October 28, 1944, Okubo crawled under smalls arm fire and explosions to crawl two wounded comrades to safety. Then on November 4, 1944, Okubo he ran 75 yards through grazing machine gun fire (!) to pull a crewman from a burning tank. Okubo received the Silver Star for his leadership and courage.

After the war, Okubo became a dentist in Detroit, and he was sadly killed in a car crash in 1967. A review of valor awards Japanese-American troops in the 1990’s resulted in Okubo’s Silver Star being upgraded to the Medal of Honor, which President Clinton presented on June 21, 2000. This article is a great overview on Okubo’s life. Honor and remember James Okubo.