Hideo Akiyama
| Date and Place of Birth: | July 2, 1912 Eleele, Kauai, Hawaiian Islands |
| Date and Place of Death: | July 10, 1944 Cecina, Italy |
| Baseball Experience: | Amateur |
| Position: | Shortstop |
| Rank: | Private First Class |
| Military Unit: | Company C, 442nd Regimental Combat Team |
| Area Served: | Mediterranean Theater of Operations |
Hideo Akiyama was an American of Japanese ancestry and a devastating hitter in Hawaii's amateur baseball league. He would fight and die on the battlefield for his country.
Hideo Akiyama was born on July 2, 1912 in Eleele, Kauai in the
Hawaiian Islands. Akiyama attended Waimea High on Kauai and the
International Correspondence School. Following graduation he worked as a
surveyor for the Territorial Highway Department on Kauai and was a
shortstop and "devastating hitter" in the Hawaiian amateur league.
Akiyama was inducted in the Army on March 22, 1943. He trained at Camp
Shelby, Mississippi with Company C, 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT).
On June 2, 1944, the 442nd RCT arrived at Naples, Italy. They went into
combat around Suvereto on June 26. Private First Class Akiyama died of
wounds in Cecina, Italy on July 10, 1944.
Hideo Akiyama is buried at the Kauai County Cemetery.
Excerpts taken from In Freedom’s Cause: A Record of the Men of Hawaii Who Died in the Second World War (1949) with permission from The University of Hawaii Press.
Date Added: June 6, 2012
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