This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Duane Kimbrow-Historian
to remember
Tahara, Cooper T. (KIA WWII/442nd RCT), Pfc.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Florin
Casualty Date Nov 05, 1944
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Gun, Small Arms Fire
Location France
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Sacramento Memorial Lawn Cemetery - Sacramento, California
Pior to the service, PFC Tahara had been trained to be a diesel mechanic. He and his family were in the Rohwer Relocation Center (Internment Camp), near Camp Shelby, in Arkansas. PFC Tahara enlisted on 20 October 1941. He received his basic training at Camp Roberts, San Luis Obispo. He was also stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas and Fort George Meade, Maryland.
He went overseas in September 1944 as a first replacement with I Company, 3rd Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, in Italy. Shortly thereafter his unit went over to France and fought in the Battle of Bruyeres," the Lost Battalion Rescue", and in the Vosges Mountains-St. Die Campaigns. (See details below).
PFC Cooper Tahara was killed in action by enemy fire near La Houssiere, France on November 5, 1944.
He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Combat Infantryman's Badge.
Though originally interred at the American Military Cemetery in Epinal, France his body was transferred to the Sacramento Memorial Lawn in Sacramento, California.
Bronze Star Citation
For heroic achievement in connection with military operations against an enemy of the United States in France. On 5 November 1944, during an advance near La Houssiere, France, Private First Class Tahara's company was pinned down by enemy machine gun fire from two concealed emplacements. With deadly automatic rifle fire, he dispersed one crew and forced the other to abandon its position. When the enemy launched a fierce counter-attack the following morning, he vigorously defended an exposed flank of his company and stood his ground to cover withdrawing comrades until wounded mortally by hostile fire. Private Tahara's aggressiveness, his unselfish actions and supreme devotion to duty, live on as an inspiration to the men with whom he fought."
G.O. # 318, 3rd Army, 9 November 45
He participated in the Rome-Arno Campaign: January 25, 1944 to September 1944 Rhineland Campaign-Vosges: October 10, 1944 to November 1944
Notes:
A description of the combat conditions in which PFC Tahara was killed follows:
at http://www.ajawarvets.org/campaigns/campaign_08_vosges_mtn.cfm.
