In April 1945, just weeks before Germany’s surrender, Second Lieutenant Daniel Inouye led his platoon up a ridge near San Terenzo in Tuscany, Italy, against a heavily fortified German position. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, composed almost entirely of Japanese American soldiers whose families were being held in internment camps back home, had been fighting across Italy for two years. Many enlisted specifically to prove their loyalty to a country that had imprisoned their relatives. Inouye had already been shot in the stomach by a sniper early in the assault. He kept moving. He charged the first German machine gun nest alone, neutralized it with grenades and his submachine gun, then did the same to a second position. When he stood to throw a grenade at the third nest, a German soldier fired a rifle grenade from ten yards away. It exploded at Inouye’s right elbow. He later described looking down at the arm dangling from his body and seeing his live grenade still gripped in a fist that suddenly did not feel like his own. He shouted to his men to stay back, pried the live grenade free with his left hand, and threw it into the bunker. He then picked up his Tommy Gun with his left hand and continued firing until a bullet struck his leg and he lost consciousness from blood loss. His right arm was amputated that night without anesthesia. #ww2 #militaryhistory #interesting