A Company
Naoji Yamagata was born in November 1918 in the Territory of Hawaii. On June 30, 1941 he was inducted into the Hawaii National Guard and assigned to Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu. At the time of his induction, he was a student in business administration.
Along with other Japanese American soldiers in the Guard, he was transferred to the newly created Hawaiian Provisional Battalion the following year which was designated the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) in June 1942 after the unit arrived in Oakland, California.
Yamagata served in the Naples-Foggio, Rome-Arno and Rhineland Campaigns and was awarded a Purple Heart. He was honorably discharged on July 28, 1945 with the rank of First Sergeant.
After the war, in August 1946 Yamagata became the first Executive Secretary of the newly formed Club 100 with its headquarters in Honolulu, Hawaii.
![Takeo Ige, Peter Oshima, Naoji Yamagata, Chikami Hirayama [Courtesy of Goro Sumida]](https://www.100thbattalion.org/wp-content/gallery/yamagata_naoji/sumida_leighton_051_kccx.jpg "Takeo Ige, Peter Oshima, Naoji Yamagata, Chikami Hirayama [Courtesy of Goro Sumida]")
![?, ?, ?, Naoji Yamagata, ? [Courtesy of Gary Yamagata]](https://www.100thbattalion.org/wp-content/gallery/yamagata_naoji/yamagata_naoji-003x.jpg "?, ?, ?, Naoji Yamagata, ? [Courtesy of Gary Yamagata]")