Goro Sumida fought his way unscathed through all of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team’s major battles in North Africa, Italy and France in World War II.
A regular at the 100th Battalion veterans’ clubhouse, Sumida died Oct. 25 at age 92. A service for the Aiea man will be held at 6 p.m. Monday at Hosoi Garden Mortuary. The service is open to the public, his family said.
Burial will be at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
"I understand there were a few others, but because of the high casualty rate, it was unusual to find someone who kind of served the entire time and not get killed or wounded," said retired Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, a former state adjutant general.
Sumida was born in Honolulu on March 19, 1920. His father managed Sumida Camp across from Palama Settlement.
The Farrington High School graduate volunteered for service on Nov. 14, 1941, in the Hawaii National Guard, and remained in the Army as an infantry scout until August 1945.
"I think the (World War II) service really made him appreciate his friends and friendships and people," said his daughter, Beverly Shiroma.
One of the worst battles was at Colli in Italy, where the 100th Battalion took three hills in three days at an enormous cost. A Company lost 21 men.
"The worst part is, we fight in the wintertime with summer clothing," Sumida said in 2010. "We got soaking wet. Eleven days, no more clothes. We were drinking rainwater and river water with dead Germans floating in the water."
