Oiye, George, 1922-

Biography

Staff Sergeant George Oiye was born on February 19, 1922 in a log cabin at a gold mining camp near Basin Creek, Montana. It was forty below zero on the continental divide and his Japanese-born parents and two older sisters had fifty cents to live on for the winter. The nearest store was seven miles away and was a twelve-hour trip on homemade snowshoes. They lived there for two years before moving to Helena, Montana to work in the Northern Pacific Railroad round-house; from there they moved to Trident, Montana, at the headwaters of the Missouri River, to work in a cement factory. George went to grammar school at Trident and high school at Three Forks, seven miles away. In 1938 his parents bought a small 23-acre truck farm at Logan, Montana, where they lived for the next fifty years.

When Pearl Harbor was bombed, George was enrolled in mechanical and aeronautical engineering at Montana State College in Bozeman. He was also in the ROTC and became drill sergeant and captain of the rifle team. Through his scholastic leadership he became president of the Society of Mechanical Engineers in spite of racial prejudice. His draft classification of 4-C (enemy alien unfit for military service) prevented him from volunteering for military service until February of 1943, when President Roosevelt rescinded the 4-C classification and changed it to 1-A. On May 5, 1943, Oiye was drafted into the Army Infantry and sent to Camp Shelby, Mississippi for training with the all-Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team. He was assigned to Battery C of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion.

The 522nd Field Artillery Battalion supported the 100th/442nd Infantry Regiment throughout Italy and France and became very famous for its forward observers' expertise and the accurate direction of its twelve 105mm Howitzers. One of the most famous battles of the entire second World War was the "Rescue of the Lost Battalion" by the 100th/44nd Regimental Combat Team. In this heroic engagement of October, 1944, 223 soldiers of the 36th Infantry Division from Texas were surrounded by Nazi troops in the Vosges Mountains of France. Staff Sergeant Oiye was selected to be one of the field artillery forward observers of the battle to free the "Lost Battalion," which succeeded but ultimately cost the 100th/442nd over 800 casualties.

In March of 1945, the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion was called out to support the 7th and 3rd Armies, to breach the Siegfried line in Germany, while the 100th/442nd Infantry went back to Italy to breach the Gothic line. Both efforts were successful in spite of tremendous odds and the 522nd has since been recognized for its participation in the liberation of Dachau and Berchtesgaden.

Staff Sergeant George Oiye was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army on January 4, 1946 and is identified in the aerospace and laser industry for his achievements. He retired in 1998 at the age of 76 and continues to support Japanese American WWII historical activities and Christian outreach.

From the guide to the George Oiye Album, 1943-1946, (Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.))