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Scott Margolis
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President Harry S. Truman (center) decorating the colors of the Nisei (Japanese
American) 442nd Regimental Combat Team: White House 7/15/1946.
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Off any entrée
Understanding Nisei
Loyalty
by Wesley May
PROLOGUE
After the Pearl Harbor attack, Presidential
Executive Order 9066 established Exclusion
Zones in several western states and barred
personnel of Japanese, Italian or German
ethnicity from living in those zones. If they lived
there, then they were evicted and sent to one
of 10 Relocation Centers. Subsequently, and
significantly, the Army formed two segregated
Nisei (Japanese word for “second generation”)
Japanese-American units: the first was the100th
Infantry Battalion, which was later incorporated
as a Battalion in the second Nisei Unit, the
442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT). Both
displayed total allegiance to their adopted
country during extensive, decisive combat in
Italy and France. These combined Nisei units
compiled unprecedented combat records, and
its members displayed fully their warrior culture
and heritage as they fought according to their
mottoes: “REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR” for
100th Infantry Battalion and “GO FOR BROKE!”
for the 442nd RCT. The 100th/442nd RCT
became the most highly decorated Army unit in
our military history.
This article is about those Japanese-American
soldiers who fought on our national side against
Hitler’s forces. As such, it is a precursor to an
article in the next Pinehurst
Gazette about how our proud
Navajo Indians were a decisive
factor in combat against
the Japanese Imperial Army
defenders on Iwo Jima, with a
similar military heritage as the
Nisei 100th Battalion/442nd
RCT unit fighting the Germans
in the European WWII … so
we can anticipate, in advance,
how difficult that battle would
be.
In December 1941, the
Nisei Japanese were the
largest ethnic group in Hawaii
who actively opposed the
Japanese attack on December
7. Unfortunately, distrust of
their allegiance persisted.
Even Nisei members of the
Hawaii Territorial Guard were
summarily purged from that
organization. Ultimately, all
Japanese-American men of
draft age were designated
“IV-C” or “enemy aliens” who
could not enlist in the armed
forces.
Hawaii’s Nisei cadets in
college protested this overt
racism, assuring the military
governor that: “Hawaii is our
home; the United States is our country. We
know but one loyalty and that is to the Stars
and Stripes. We wish to do our part as loyal
Americans in every way possible …”
Not acceptable for military service, the
Nisei’s available option was to morph into the
“Varsity Victory Volunteers,” or “Triple V” ( an
Army manual labor support group under the
supervision of the US Army Corps of Engineers.)
They built barracks, dug ditches, quarried rock
and surfaced roads from January to December
1942.
Nevertheless, the Nisei’s fervent desire to
serve their country in any way possible was
finally supported by military officials who gave
the Triple V their chance to fight. On January 28,
1943, the War Department announced forming
an all-Nisei combat team of 1,500 volunteers
from Hawaii. An overwhelming 10,000 men
volunteered, including many from the Triple V.
Earlier, on Feb. 19, 1942, President Roosevelt
had signed Executive Order 9066, which
remained in effect from 1942 to 1945, to counter
espionage by establishing government Exclusion
Zones in several western states and barring
personnel of Japanese, Italian or German
ethnicity from living in those zones. If they lived
there, then they were evicted and sent to one
of 10 Relocation Centers so that all persons of
Japanese ancestry (or allied Axis powers), both
citizens and aliens, would be relocated to one
of 10 Relocation Centers, outside of the recently
designated Pacific military exclusion zone.
The order affected 117,000 people of Japanese
descent, two-thirds of whom were native-born
US citizens. However, moving more than 150,000
Japanese Americans in the Hawaiian Islands
to “relocation centers” was quickly abandoned
given the logistics and the economics of a
territory so heavily reliant on the Japanese
community, which made up nearly 40% of the
population. But on the mainland, transferring
Nisei to Relocation Centers continued.
“Within weeks, all mainland persons of
Japanese ancestry—whether citizens or enemy
aliens, young or old, rich or poor—were ordered
to assembly centers near their homes. Then,
they were sent to permanent relocation centers
outside the “restricted military zones.” Anyone
who was at least 1/16th Japanese was evicted,
including 17,000 children under 10, as well as
several thousand elderly and handicapped.
These centers were located in remote areas,
often reconfigured fairgrounds and racetracks
featuring buildings not meant for human
habitation, e.g., horse stalls or cow sheds that
had been converted for that purpose.
The Nisei’s fervent desire to serve their
country in any way possible was finally
supported by military officials who gave the
Varsity Victory Volunteers their chance to fight.
On January 28, 1943, the War Department
announced that it was forming an all-Nisei
combat team and called for 1,500 volunteers
from Hawaii. An overwhelming 10,000 men
volunteered, including many from the VVV.
On Feb 1, 1943, President Roosevelt wrote to
Secretary of War Stimson that, “Americanism is
not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry…
Every loyal American citizen should be given the
opportunity to serve this country… including
American of Japanese ancestry.” The President
followed up by announcing the creation of the
100th Battalion, the first segregated unit of Nisei
soldiers and commanded by white officers that
fought courageously in Italy and France.
Soon afterwards, the 442nd Regimental
Combat Team (RCT) was organized on March
23, 1943, in response to the War Department’s
call for volunteers to form this second Nisei
segregated army combat unit. More than 12,000
Nisei volunteers answered the call. Ultimately
selected were 2,686 from Hawaii and 1,500
from U.S. mainland Relocation Centers who
assembled at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, in April
1943, for a year of infantry training.
The 100th Battalion entered
the war zone in North Africa,
and landed on the beaches
of Salerno, Italy in Sept. 1943,
The men of the 100th selected
as their motto, “Remember
Pearl Harbor” highlighting
their loyalty. The 100th was
legendary while fighting in
Europe, from September 1943
to May 1945, when Germany
surrendered. Initially assigned
to guard supply trains, which
its commander successfully
protested. So the 100th was
reassigned to combat duty with
the 34th Division, the unit with
most battle experience. The
100th finally got opportunity
to demonstrate its loyalty,
which it promptly did!
Because of the high rate
of casualties sustained in the
100th Battalion’s Baptism of
Fire during its initial assaults
at Monte Cassino in early
1944, the unit was christened
the “Purple Heart Battalion”!
That dogged bravery and selfsacrifice
graced six campaigns
in Italy and France, so the
addition of the 100th Battalion
to the 442nd RCT in May 1944
would solidify its claim that for its size and
length of service, it was truly the most decorated
unit in U.S. military history!
On May 1, 1944, the 442nd (the second Nisei
unit) joined with the 100th Infantry Battalion
just north of Rome; its organization was the
100th, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions. “The 442nd also
set an unbeatable mark for soldierly behavior;
no man in the outfit had ever deserted.”
The 100th Battalion/442nd RCT almost
entirely comprised of Japanese-Americans,
suffered an equally remarkable number of
about 800 killed or missing in action. President
Harry Truman who said, on July 15, 1946, as
he presented his Presidential Unit Citation to
the Regiment, “You fought the enemy abroad
and prejudice at home, and you won.” In
that historic process of winning, the unit’s
soldiers won a plethora of personal awards for
bravery, including 21 Medals of Honor, and
an unprecedented seven Presidential Unit
No. 134 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. p.27