A graduate of Punahou and later, in 1935, the University of Hawai‘i, where he was the captain and star of the football team as well as student commandant of the ROTC regiment, Jack Johnson’s (1913-1944) first job after graduation from
A graduate of Punahou and later, in 1935, the University of Hawai‘i, where he was the captain and star of the football team as well as student commandant of the ROTC regiment, Jack Johnson’s (1913-1944) first job after graduation from UH was agriculturist at McBryde Sugar Co. on Kaua‘i.
Then in 1940, when he was called to active duty with the Hawai‘i National Guard, he became one of the few non-Nisei members of the Army’s famous 100th Battalion.
During WWII near Pozzilli, Italy on Nov. 5, 1943, while attacking German soldiers defending hills 590, 600, and 610, Capt. Johnson, then the 100th’s executive officer, was wounded in the leg by a land-mine explosion, though not seriously.
But later on Jan. 25, 1944, at Cassino, Italy, then Maj. Johnson was badly wounded by machine-gun fire, and as he crawled for cover he detonated a mine at full force and died a few hours later at an aid station while resting against battalion chaplain Israel Yost’s chest. Yost remembered him, saying sometime earlier following a burial ceremony, “You do a nice job. But don’t bother to take much time when my time comes.”
Company A commanding officer Capt. Mitsuyoshi “Mits” Fukuda later said, “His was a great loss for he was well-liked and respected by the men.”
And whenever 100th Battalion veterans met after the war and recalled Cassino, they would all remember the tough, fair and friendly haole officer who was one of them and would always be.
Major John A. Johnson Jr., 100th Infantry Battalion, is buried on American soil at Nettuno, Italy. He left a widow when he died, the former Elizabeth Sinclair Knudsen of Kaua‘i, and Johnson Hall at the University of Hawai‘i Manoa campus is named for him.
