How many lives did Desmond Doss save? Did Desmond Doss save a Japanese soldier?

Desmond Thomas Doss was a US Army corporal who fought in World War II as a combat medic with an infantry company. He received the Bronze Star Medal twice for his actions in Guam and the Philippines.

Doss worked as a joiner in a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia, prior to the outbreak of WWII.

He chose military service on April 1, 1942, at Camp Lee, Virginia, despite being offered a deferral due to his shipyard work.

Doss had expected to continue his carpentry trade after the war, but the significant injury to his left arm prevented him from doing so.

Doss died on March 23, 2006, at his home in Piedmont, Alabama, after being hospitalized for lung problems.

How many lives did Desmond Doss save?

Doss successfully rescued 75 men trapped at the top of the escarpment by lowering them with a special knot he knew.

He had miraculously not been wounded and stayed in the fight with B Company. On May 21, Doss was wounded several times by grenade fragments and a sniper’s bullet through his arm.

Did Desmond Doss save a Japanese soldier?

On May 4, 1945, Doss spent 12 hours single-handedly retrieving and lowering wounded soldiers from the battlefield to safety, down the edge of the cliff at Hacksaw Ridge.

He tried to rescue both American and Japanese soldiers, though no Japanese soldiers survived.