From Battlefield to Healing Hands
By Nadia Vick
Dr. Dick Daisuke Momii — Veteran, physician, and lifelong servant to his community. A portrait of courage and compassion. In Shane Sato, Portraits of Courage: Photographs by Shane Sato, photograph of Dr. Dick D. Momii.
Dick Daisuke Momii
January 29, 1924 – November 12, 2019
Dick Daisuke Momii was born on January 29, 1924, on a farm in Brighton, Colorado, the son of George Shumpei Nawata and Takeno Momii.[1] His parents immigrated to the United States, his father first living in Hawaii and Wyoming before settling in Colorado.[2] One of seven children, Dick lost his mother when he was just three years old. His early life was marked by hardship: the family moved from farm to farm as sharecroppers, which meant that Dick was constantly changing schools and never had a stable home. Most of his childhood and adolescence was spent working the fields to help support the family.[3] Yet, within the close-knit community of his family, he learned values that would guide him throughout his remarkable life: humility, service, perseverance, and quiet strength.
Graduating from Fort Lupton High School, Dick earned a two-year scholarship to the University of Colorado in 1941.[4] His father had always told him that education was the only way to get off the farm, and Dick carried this belief with pride. Despite his family’s poverty, which kept him from extracurricular activities, he focused on academics, his father seeing higher education as the way to honor his heritage. He entered college in 1941, but when his scholarship ran out in 1943, his path turned toward service.[5]
As a young man, Dick’s life was upended by the onset of World War II. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, many Japanese Americans were subjected to mass internment and classified as “enemy aliens.” Japanese Americans in Colorado were not interned because Colorado Governor Ralph Carr refused to have his citizens interned. Despite this grave injustice, many second-generation Japanese Americans volunteered to serve the very country that had incarcerated their families. Dick’s oldest brother volunteered in 1941, and eventually three of the Momii brothers, including Dick, would serve.[6] He himself chose to volunteer before his older brother was drafted, hearing his father’s words echoing that “you were better than they are” when confronted with discrimination.[7] At school, he heard the announcement of Pearl Harbor over the loudspeaker and later reflected that he felt very lost, as if the Japan his father had spoken so highly of had forsaken him.[8]
In 1943, he joined the newly formed 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated U.S. Army unit composed almost entirely of Japanese American soldiers. The unit adopted the motto “Go For Broke,” a Hawaiian gambling term that reflected their commitment to give everything—risking it all—for their country.[9] The 442nd would go on to become the most decorated unit of its size and length of service in U.S. military history, with more than 4,000 Purple Hearts, over 4,000 Bronze Stars, approximately 560 Silver Stars, 21 Medals of Honor, and at least seven Presidential Unit Citations.[10]
Dick served with distinction as a First Lieutenant, helping to liberate Italy and fight across the European Theater, including in France and Germany.[11] In October 1944, the 442nd achieved one of its most heroic feats: the rescue of the “Lost Battalion” in the Vosges Mountains of France. Though the mission was successful, it came at a great cost, over 800 men of the 442nd were wounded or killed to save 211 trapped soldiers.[12] The Battalion they saved, the 1st Battalion of the 141st Infantry Regiment from Texas, had been surrounded by German forces and cut off from reinforcements.[13] Fighting through dense forests, rugged terrain, and relentless German resistance, the 442nd pressed forward despite mounting losses. Their extraordinary sacrifice not only cemented the Regiment’s reputation as one of the most decorated units of World War II but also stood as a powerful testament to the loyalty and courage of Japanese American soldiers, many of whom had families imprisoned in U.S. internment camps at the time.[14] The bravery of Dick and his fellow soldiers not only changed the course of the war but also helped rewrite what it meant to be an American.
After arriving in Marseilles and eventually deploying to Italy, Dick experienced three weeks of combat—long enough to earn a Combat Infantry Badge.[15] He later recalled praying for the first time during battle, unsure whether to pray to Buddha, like his father, or to God. When the war ended, he was stationed in northern Italy near Carrara and felt immense relief, as rumors had circulated that his unit might be sent to fight in Japan.[16] Following combat, Dick served in detached duty as a special service officer with the 100th Battalion, where he managed rations, distributed the Stars and Stripes (a newspaper for servicemen), and even helped run a nightclub, sometimes entertaining his comrades by boxing.[17]
Following the war, Dick Momii returned to Colorado and turned to a different kind of service. Between the war and medical school, he supported himself by tending bar, where he met his future wife, Chizuko.[18] Using GI Bill benefits and with sponsorship from his wife’s father, he completed medical school and began his career in family practice.[19] He earned his medical degree from the University of Colorado and subsequently established a private family practice in Denver.[20] There, he became known not only as a skilled physician but as a gentle and compassionate man who cared deeply for his patients—many of whom came from low-income and ethnically diverse backgrounds. His dedication to serving others continued in this new form, marked by quiet excellence and deep empathy.
Though he carried the invisible weight of war, Dick lived his postwar life with joy and vigor. He never forgot the sting of discrimination—once, still in uniform, he stopped for food while driving through Kansas and was met with hostility, and later, when attempting to rent an apartment in Denver when he was turned away for being Japanese American. Yet he also carried with him the pride of knowing that Governor Ralph Carr of Colorado had stood firmly against the internment of Japanese Americans.[21] Still, Dick chose to define his life not by bitterness but by service. He was an avid skier well into his late eighties and golfed until the age of ninety-three, often accompanied by his beloved wife, Chizuko, and their children and grandchildren.[22]
Dr. Momii passed away on November 12, 2019, at the age of 95. His legacy was honored with a private family memorial service on June 1, 2020, at Fort Logan National Cemetery, where he was laid to rest with full military honors and a Buddhist service, a reflection of both his faith and service.[23]
His portrait, captured by Shane Sato in Portraits of Courage, sits among the faces of his fellow Nisei veterans, a visual reminder of their valor and humanity.[24] In 2010, the collective contributions of the 442nd, the 100th Infantry Battalion, and the Nisei Military Intelligence Service were recognized with the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the nation's highest civilian honors.[25]
Dr. Dick Daisuke Momii lived a life defined not by bitterness or anger, but by service, grace, and quiet heroism. In war and peace, on the battlefield and in his medical practice, he exemplified what it meant to “go for broke,” to live fully, to embody what it means to be a patriot, serve humbly, and leave behind a legacy of courage and compassion.
Footnotes ↓
[1] Monarch Society, “Dick D. Momii, MD of Denver, Colorado – Obituary,” Monarch Society, published November 13, 2019, https://www.monarchsociety.com/obituary/dick-momii-md.
[2] Momii, Dick Daisuke, narrator, Interviewed by Joanne Leivici, “Dick Daisuke Momii Oral History Interview, Part 1 of 1, April 4, 2007,” Japanese American Military History Collective. Go For Broke National Education Center, accessed August 29, 2025, https://ndajams.omeka.net/items/show/1052411
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] The 442nd Regimental Combat Team Legacy Website, “442nd Facts,” accessed July 26, 2025, http://the442.org/442ndfacts.html.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Monarch Society, “Dick D. Momii, MD of Denver, Colorado – Obituary.”
[12] The 442nd Regimental Combat Team Legacy Website, “442nd Facts.”
[13] “How a Japanese American Regiment Rescued WWII’s ‘Lost Battalion,’” History.com, published November 10, 2021, accessed August 29, 2025, How a Japanese American Regiment Rescued WWII's 'Lost Battalion' | HISTORY
[14] Ibid.
[15] Momii, “Dick Daisuke Momii Oral History Interview.”
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Monarch Society, “Dick D. Momii, MD of Denver, Colorado – Obituary.”
[21] Momii, “Dick Daisuke Momii Oral History Interview.”
[22] Monarch Society, “Dick D. Momii, MD of Denver, Colorado – Obituary.”
[23] Ibid.
[24] Sato, Portraits of Courage, photograph of Dr. Dick D. Momii.
[25] The 442nd Regimental Combat Team Legacy Website, “442nd Facts.”
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