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442nd Regimental Combat Team
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The 442nd Infantry, formerly the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army, was an Asian American unit composed of mostly Japanese Americans who fought in Europe during the Second World War. The families of many of its soldiers were subject to internment.
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The 442nd Infantry, formerly the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army, was an Asian American unit composed of mostly Japanese Americans who fought in Europe during the Second World War. The families of many of its soldiers were subject to internment. The 442nd was a self-sufficient fighting force, and fought with uncommon distinction in Italy, southern France, and Germany. The unit became the most highly decorated military unit in the history of the United States Armed Forces, including 21 Medal of Honor recipients, earning the nickname “The Purple Heart Battalion.”
Background
Most Japanese Americans who fought in WWII were Nisei, second-generation Japanese Americans born in the U.S. Nevertheless, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941, Japanese American men were categorized as 4C (enemy alien) and therefore non-draftable. On February 19 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing military authorities “to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion.” Although the order did not refer specifically to people of Japanese ancestry, it set the stage for the internment of people of Japanese descent. In March 1942, Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command, issued the first of 108 military proclamations that resulted in the forced removal of more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast from their homes and placed in guarded concentration camps behind barbed wire, or (as the government euphemisticly referred to them) relocation camps.
In Hawai'i, martial law, complete with curfews and blackouts, was imposed. A large portion of the population was of Japanese descent (150,000 out of 400,000 people in 1937) and internment was deemed not practicable, mostly for economic reasons. When the War Department called for the removal of all soldiers of Japanese ancestry from active service in early 1942, General Delos C. Emmons, commander of the U.S. Army in Hawai’i, decided to discharge those in the Hawai’i Territorial Guard, which was composed mainly of ROTC students from the University of Hawai’i. However, he kept the more than 1,300 Japanese American soldiers of the 298th and 299th Infantry regiments of the Hawai’i National Guard. The discharged members of the Hawai’i Territorial Guard petitioned General Emmons to allow them to assist in the war effort. The petition was granted and they formed a group called the Varsity Victory Volunteers (VVV), which performed various construction jobs for the military. General Emmons, worried about the loyalty of Japanese American soldiers in the event of a Japanese invasion, recommended to the War Department that those in the 298th and 299th regiments be organized into a “Hawai’ian Provisional Battalion” and sent to the mainland. The move was authorized, and on June 5 1942, the Hawai’ian Provisional Battalion set sail for training. They landed at Oakland, California on June 10 1942 and two days later were sent to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. On June 15 1942, the battalion was designated the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) — the “One Puka Puka”.
The 100th performed so well in training that, on February 1 1943, the U.S. government reversed its decision on Japanese Americans serving in the armed forces, and approved the formation of a Japanese American combat unit. A few days later, the government required that all internees answer a loyalty questionnaire, which was used to register the Nisei for the draft. Question 27 of the questionnaire asked males eligible to register for the draft, “Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?” while question 28 asked all internees, “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power or organization?”
Nearly a quarter of the Nisei males answered with a no or a qualified answer to both questions; some even left them blank. However, more than 75% indicated that they were willing to enlist in the U.S. armed forces (although not all of them really did) and swear allegiance to the U.S. The U.S. Army called for 1,500 volunteers from Hawai’i and 3,000 from the mainland. An overwhelming 10,000 men from Hawai’i came forth. However the announcement was met with less enthusiasm on the mainland, where the vast majority of draft age men of Japanese ancestry and their families were held in internment camps. The Army revised the quota, calling for 2,900 men from Hawai’i, and 1,500 from the mainland. Only 1,256 volunteered from the mainland. In the end, around 3,000 men from Hawaii and 800 men from the mainland were inducted. President Roosevelt announced the formation of the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team (the Go For Broke regiment), famously saying, “Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.”
Training and organization
The 100th Infantry Battalion relocated to Camp Shelby in Mississippi. Eventually, the 100th was joined by 3,000 volunteers from Hawai’i and 800 from the mainland camps. As a regimental combat team, the 442nd RCT was a self-sufficient fighting formation of three infantry battalions (originally 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions, 442nd Infantry, and later the 100th Infantry Battalion in place of the 1st), the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, the 232nd Engineering Company, an anti-tank company, cannon company, service company, medical detachment, headquarters companies, and the 206th Army Band.
Initially, there was tension between volunteers from the islands (known as “buddhaheads,” from the Japanese/English term buta-head, meaning “pig-headed”) and those from the mainland (“kotonks” or “katonks”, alleged to be the sound of a coconut hitting an empty head). The rivalry dissipated after visits were organized to the internment camps where the mainlanders’ families were being held.
Although they were permitted to volunteer to fight, Americans of Japanese ancestry were generally forbidden to fight in combat in the Pacific Theater. No such limitations were placed on Americans of German or Italian ancestry who fought against the Axis Powers in the European Theater, mostly due to practicality, as there were many more German and Italian Americans compared to Japanese Americans. However, many men deemed proficient enough in the Japanese language were approached, or sometimes ordered, to join the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) to serve as translators/interpreters and spies in the Pacific, as well as in the China Burma India Theater. These men were sent to the MIS Language School at Camp Savage, Minnesota to improve their language skills and receive training in military intelligence. While the 442nd trained in Mississippi, the 100th departed for Oran in North Africa to join the forces destined to invade Italy.
Combat
The 100th landed at Oran, Algeria on September 2, 1943, and was originally scheduled to guard supply trains in North Africa. However, the battalion C.O., Colonel Farrant L. Turner insisted that the 100th be given a combat assignment. The battalion was subsequently attached to the U.S. 34th Infantry Division on September 8, 1943 in order to replace the 2nd Battalion of the 133rd Infantry Regiment which had been assigned the task of guarding Allied Force Headquarters in Algiers.
The 100th sailed from North Africa with 1,300 men on September 19, 1943 and landed on the beachhead at Salerno on September 22, 1943. On September 29, Sergeant Shigeo Takata of B Company became the first member of the unit to be killed in action. Later that day, Private Keichi Tanaka, also of B Company, was killed in a separate action, making him the unit's second KIA.
After obtaining its initial objective of Monte Milleto, the 100th joined the assault on Monte Cassino. The 100th fought valiantly, suffering many casualties; by February 1944, it could muster only 521 men. The depleted battalion joined the defense of the beachhead at Anzio until May 1944, and then added momentum to the push for Rome, but was halted only ten miles from the city. Some believe that the 100th was deliberately halted to allow non-Nisei soldiers to liberate Rome.
The 442nd Combat Team, less its 1st Battalion, which had remained in the U.S. to train Nisei replacements after many of its members were levied as replacements for the 100th, sailed from Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 1 May 1944, and landed 28 May at Anzio and joined the 100th Battalion in Civitavecchia north of Rome on June 10 1944, attached to the 34th Infantry Division. On 10 August 1944, the 100th Battalion was officially assigned to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team as its 1st battalion, but was allowed to keep its unit designation in recognition of its distinguished fighting record. The 1st Battalion 442nd Infantry at Camp Shelby was then redesignated the 171st Infantry Battalion (Separate) on 5 September 1944.
The combined unit continued in the push up Italy, now attached to the 88th Infantry Division, before joining the invasion of southern France, where the 442nd participated in the fight to liberate Bruyères, and was next attached to the 36th Infantry Division, originally a Texas National Guard outfit. The 442nd famously rescued the "Lost Battalion" at Biffontaine. Pursuant to army tradition of never leaving soldiers behind, over a five-day period, from October 26 to October 30 1944, the 442nd suffered the loss of nearly half of its roster—over 800 casualties, including 121 dead — while rescuing 211 members of the 36th Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry, which had been surrounded by German forces in the Vosges mountains since October 24.
Following the Vosges, the 442nd was sent to the Franco-Italian border on November 28 to relieve the soon-to-be-disbanded 1st Special Service Force. The 442nd remained there, refitting and training, until March 25, 1945, when it returned to the Fifth Army in Italy and was attached to the U.S. 92nd Infantry Division.
On the Italian front, the 442nd had contact with another segregated American unit, the 92nd Infantry Division, as well as segregated troops of the British and French colonial empires (Black Africans, Moroccans, Algerians, Indians, Gurkhas, Jews and Palestinians) and the non-segregated Brazilian Expeditionary Force which had in its ranks ethnic Japanese.
The 442nd returned to heavy combat, seizing Monte Belvedere on April 7 and Carrara on April 10. The 522nd Field Artillery Battalion remained in northern France and joined the push into Germany in 1945. Scouts from the 522nd were among the first Allied troops to release prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp.
The 442nd is commonly reported to have suffered a casualty rate of 314 percent, informally derived from 9,486 Purple Hearts divided by some 3,000 original in-theater personnel. U.S. Army battle reports show the official casualty rate, combining KIA (killed) with MIA (missing) and WIA (wounded and removed from action) totals, is 93%, still uncommonly high. Many of the Purple Hearts were awarded during the campaign in the Vosges Mountains and some of the wounded were soldiers who were victims of trenchfoot. But many victims of trenchfoot were forced by superiors—or willingly chose—to return to the front even though they were classified as "wounded in action". Wounded soldiers would often escape from hospitals to return to the front line battles.
Decorations
The 442nd RCT became the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service, with its component 100th Infantry Battalion earning the nickname “The Purple Heart Battalion.” The 442nd RCT received 7 Presidential Unit Citations (5 earned in one month), and its members received 18,143 awards, including:
- 21 Medals of Honor (the first awarded posthumously to PFC Sadao Munemori, Company A, 100th Battalion, for action near Seravezza, Italy, on April 5, 1945; the others upgraded from other awards in June 2000). Recipients include:
Unit fight song
Four-Forty-Second Infantry --
We're the boys of Hawai'i nei --
We'll fight for you
And the Red, White and Blue,
And go to the front . . .
And back to Honolulu-lulu.
Fighting for dear old Uncle Sam
Go for broke! HOOH! We don't give a damn!
We'll round up the Huns
At the point of our guns,
And vict'ry will be ours!
GO FOR BROKE! FOUR-FOUR-TWO!
GO FOR BROKE! FOUR-FOUR-TWO!
And vict'ry will be ours!
The song may have originally been written for the 100th Battalion and would have originally had One-Puka-Puka in place of Four-Forty-Second, thus explaining the reference to Hawai'i nei (Beautiful Hawai'i) and the vow to go back to Honolulu.
After the war
The stellar record of the Japanese Americans serving in the 442nd and in the Military Intelligence Service (US Pacific Theater forces in WWII) helped change the minds of anti-Japanese American critics in the US and resulted in easing of restrictions and the eventual release of the 120,000 strong community well before the end of WWII.
However, the unit’s exemplary service and many decorations did not change the attitudes of the general U.S. population to people of Japanese descent after World War II. Veterans were welcomed home by signs that read “No Japs Allowed” and “No Japs Wanted,” and many veterans were denied service in shops and restaurants, and had their homes and property vandalized.
One notable national effect of the service of the 442nd was to help convince Congress to end its opposition towards Hawaii's statehood petition. Twice before 1959, residents of Hawaii asked to be admitted to the US as the 49th state, but each time Congress was fearful of having a co-equal state that had a majority non-white population. The exemplary record of the Japanese Americans serving in the 442nd and the loyalty showed by the rest of Hawaii's population during World War II overcame those fears and allowed Hawaii to be admitted as the 50th state (Alaska was granted statehood just prior).
In post-war American popular slang, the phrase "going for broke" was adopted from the 442nd's unit motto "Go for Broke," which was derived from the Hawaiian pidgin phrase used by craps shooters risking all their money in one roll of the dice.
Anti-Japanese sentiment remained strong into the 1960s, but faded along with other once-common prejudices, even while remaining strong in certain circles. Conversely, the story of the 442nd provided a leading example of what was to become the controversial model minority stereotype.
Demobilization and rebirth
The 442nd RCT was demobilized in Honolulu in 1946, but reactivated in 1947 in the U.S. Army Reserve. It was mobilized in 1968 to refill the Strategic Reserve during the Vietnam War, and carries on the honors and traditions of the unit. Today, the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry, is the only infantry unit of the Army Reserve. The battalion headquarters is at Fort Shafter, Hawai’i, with subordinate units based in Hilo, American Samoa, Saipan, and Guam. The only military presence in American Samoa consists of the Battalion's B and C companies
In August 2004, the battalion was mobilized for duty in Iraq, stationed at Logistics Support Area Anaconda in the city of Balad, which is located about 50 miles northwest of Baghdad. Lt. Colonel Colbert Low assumed command of the battalion only a few weeks after the battalion arrived at Logistical Support Area Anaconda. As of January 2006, the 100th had returned home with the exception of some 100 artillery personnel. One soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device attack. A total of 4 members of the battalion were killed in action before they returned home in January 2006.
California has given three state highway segments honorary designations for Japanese American soldiers:
Military Intelligence Memorial Freeway;State Route 99 between Fresno and Madera is named the 100th Infantry Battalion Memorial Highway;State Route 99 between Salida and Manteca is named the 442nd Regimental Combat Team Memorial Highway.
A nationwide campaign to urge the U.S. Postal Service to issue a commemorative postage stamp to honor the contributions of the Japanese American soldiers of World War II was begun in 2006 in California.
Prominent members
- Daniel Inouye, U.S. Representative from Hawaii (1959–1962); U.S. Senator from Hawaii (1962–); Awarded Medal of Honor
- Spark Matsunaga, U.S. Representative from Hawaii (1962–1976); U.S. Senator from Hawaii (1977–1990)
- Susumu Ito, Emeritus Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Harvard Medical School (1960–1990)
- Colonel Young-Oak Kim; the only Korean American officer during his service in 442nd Infantry. First officer from an ethnic minority in U.S. history to command an Army combat battalion.
- Dale Ishimoto, actor in many films, TV shows, and commercials
Bibliography
Works about the 442nd
American Pastime While the film is fiction, it depicts life inside the internment camps, where baseball was one of the major diversions from the reality of the internees' lives. Location scenes were filmed in bleak, desolate land, not far from the site of the actual internment camp. Lane Nomura, the oldest son enlists in the Army, as a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the famed "Purple Heart Battalion." The unit motto, "Go for broke!" provides inspiration at a climactic moment, and reference is made to the losses taken by the 442nd during the rescue of the Lost Battalion.Go For Broke! This 1951 film dramatizes the lives and wartime heroics of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The film stars Van Johnson as a young officer, reluctant about his assignment to the 442nd. He comes to respect the Nisei troops, eventually refusing a transfer back to his original Texas unit. The movie also starred a number of veterans of the 442nd.The One Puka Puka episode of The Gallant Men television series featured the unit with guest stars Poncie Ponce and George Takei.The James Michener novel Hawaii features a chapter detailing the 442nd's experiences, although its designation is changed to the 222nd and many of the members appear under fictionalized names.Ed Sakamoto wrote a play about the 100th/442nd entitled Our Hearts Were Touched by Fire, which was performed in Honolulu and Los Angeles. In the series of four Karate Kid movies, Keisuke Miyagi is a main character portrayed as a World War II veteran who had fought in the 442nd and received the Medal of Honor. The fourth film, The Next Karate Kid, begins with a reunion of the 442nd, in which Sen. Daniel Inouye gives a speech and Mr Miyagi wears his Medal of Honor for the only time in any of the four films.In 2005, Lane Nishikawa directed and starred in the independent film, Only the Brave, which is a fictional account of the rescue of the Lost Battalion.The December 9, 2007 episode of the CBS TV show Cold Case centers around the Japanese internment camps and discusses the 442nd Regional Combat Team.Ken Burns' 2007 PBS WWII documentary "The War" explores the stories of four American towns' experiences with the war. Burns' 15 hour documentary goes in depth in describing the many battles of WWII, including those of the 442nd Infantry Regiment.
See also
External links
- (pentagon.mil)
- (defenselink.mil)
- compiled by members of the 442nd Combat Team, Mitsuye Yamada papers, Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, via Calisphere.
- .
The New York Times. 2008-08-16. produced by the
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