During the early years ofWorld War II,Japanese Americans were forciblyrelocated from their homes on theWest Coast because military leaders and public opinion combined to fan unproven fears of sabotage. As the war progressed, many of the youngNisei, Japanese immigrants' children who were born with American citizenship, volunteered or were drafted to serve in the United States military. Japanese Americans served in all the branches of theUnited States Armed Forces, including theUnited States Merchant Marine.[1] An estimated 33,000 Japanese Americans served in the U.S. military during World War II, of which 20,000 joined the Army. Approximately 800 were killed in action.
The 100th Battalion and the442nd Infantry Regiment became the most decorated unit inU.S. military history.[2] The related522nd Field Artillery Battalionliberated one or more subcamps[3] of the infamousDachau concentration camp. Other Japanese-American units also included the100th Infantry Battalion, the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion,[4] and theMilitary Intelligence Service.
The majority of Japanese Americans serving in the American Armed Forces during World War II enlisted in the army.
The100th Infantry Battalion was engaged in heavy action during the war taking part in multiple campaigns. The 100th was made up ofNisei who were originally members of the Hawaii National Guard. Sent to the mainland as the Hawaii Provisional Infantry Battalion on June 5, 1942, the 1,432 original members of the 100th were stationed first atCamp McCoy and later atCamp Shelby for combat training.[5] Their exemplary military record, and the patriotic activities of theVarsity Victory Volunteers, paved the way for the creation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in January 1943.[6] The Battalion shipped out in August 1943, landing in North Africa before fighting in Italy, eventually participating in theliberation of Rome.[7]
Meanwhile, an earlier decision to demoteNisei soldiers to4-C class (enemy aliens ineligible for military service because of nationality) was reversed, and the Army in January 1943 issued a call for Japanese-American volunteers. Most of the initial recruits came from Hawaii, as those on the mainland were reluctant to volunteer while they and their families remained in camp. The 2,686 accepted Hawaiians (out of 10,000 volunteers) and about 1,000 mainlanders were sent to Camp Shelby. The U.S. Army regiment served in Europe during World War II. Japanese Americans already in training at the start of the war had been removed from active duty shortly afterPearl Harbor, and the Army stopped accepting newNisei recruits in early 1942.[5] However, community leaders in Hawaii as well as Japanese-American leaders likeMike Masaoka along withWar Department officials likeJohn J. McCloy soon began to push the Roosevelt administration to allowNisei to serve in combat. A military board was convened in June 1942 to address the issue, but their final report opposed forming aNisei unit, citing "the universal distrust in which they [Japanese Americans] are held."[8] Despite resistance from military andWar Relocation Authority leaders, the President eventually sided with the War Department, and on February 1, 1943, Roosevelt announced the creation of a segregated unit composed ofNisei soldiers and commanded by white officers.[5] The 100th Infantry Battalion composed of men from Hawaii entered combat in Italy in September 1943 and suffered horrific casualties and became known as the Purple Heart Battalion. As a result, the 1st Battalion of the 442nd began sending replacement troops to join the 100th in early 1944. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions shipped out on May 1, 1944, joining the 100th in Italy in June 1944.[9] These men arrived in Europe after the 100th Infantry Battalion had already established its reputation as a fighting unit, and in time, the 100th/442nd became, for its size and length of service, the most decorated unit inU.S. military history.[6]
TheNisei522nd Field Artillery Battalion was organized as part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team; but towards the end of the war, the 522nd became a roving battalion, shifting to whatever command most needed the unit.[10] The 522nd had the distinction of liberating survivors of theDachau concentration camp system from theNazis on April 29, 1945.[6]Nisei scouts west of Munich near the small Bavarian town of Lager Lechfeld encountered some barracks encircled by barbed wire. Technician Fourth Grade Ichiro Imamura described it in his diary:
Holocaust historians have clarified theNisei 522nd liberated about 3,000 prisoners atKaufering IV inHurlach. Hurlach was one of 169 subordinate slave labor camps of Dachau. Dachau, likeAuschwitz,Buchenwald,Mauthausen andRavensbrück, was surrounded by hundreds of sub-camps.[10] Only three days later, the survivors ofa death march[11] southwards from Dachau towards the Austrian border were found by troops of the 522nd just west of the village ofWaakirchen,[12] and cared for them until dedicated medical personnel took over.[13]
Pierre Moulin in his recent book 'Dachau, Holocaust and US Samurais' writes that the firstNisei arrived at Dachau's gate not on April 29, the date of the liberation of the camp, but on April 28, 1945.[14] Two jeeps of forward observers with 522nd Field Artillery Battalion Captain Charles Feibleman, Kelly Nakamura (Driver), George Oide, Kenzo Okubo, Mike Hara, arrived first at the gates of Dachau but were told to wait for back up since the SS were still in the towers.
Approximately 6,000 Japanese Americans served in theMilitary Intelligence Service (MIS).[15] The first class received their training at the Presidio in San Francisco, but in June 1942 the MIS Language School was moved toCamp Savage, Minnesota, which offered larger facilities, removed the complications of training Japanese-American students in an area they were technically prohibited from entering, and had less anti-Japanese prejudice. In August 1944, the language school was moved again toFort Snelling.
[16] Most of the MIS Language School graduates were attached to theAllied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) as linguists and in other non-combatant roles, interpreting captured enemy documents and interrogatingprisoners of war. Graduates from the MISLS includedJapanese-American women translators as well. (At the end of the war, MIS linguists had translated 18,000 enemy documents, created 16,000 propaganda leaflets and interrogated over 10,000 Japanese POWs.) However, MIS servicemen were present at every major battle against Japanese forces, and those who served in combat faced extremely dangerous and difficult conditions, sometimes coming underfriendly fire from U.S. soldiers unable to distinguish them from the Japanese and often encountering former friends on the battlefield.[15]
Japanese-American MIS linguists translated Japanese documents known as the "Z Plan", which contained Japan's counterattack strategy in theCentral Pacific. This information led toAllied victories at theBattle of the Philippine Sea, in which the Japanese lost most of theiraircraft carrier planes, and theBattle of Leyte Gulf. An MISradio operator intercepted a message describing AdmiralIsoroku Yamamoto's flight plans, which led toP-38 Lightning fighter planesshooting downhis plane over theSolomon Islands.
WhenMerrill's Marauders were organized to conductlong range penetrationspecial operationsjungle warfare deep behind Japanese lines in theChina-Burma-India Theater in January 1944, fourteen MIS linguists were assigned to the unit, includingArmy Rangers andMilitary Intelligence Hall of Fame inducteeRoy Matsumoto.[17]
The Nisei under Merrill's command proved themselves particularly intrepid and helpful, venturing into the enemy lines and translating audible commands to counterattacks, and shouting conflicting commands to the Japanese, throwing them into confusion. They soon became the best known Nisei in the war against Japan. TheWar Relocation Authority used their story to impress other Americans with Nisei valor and loyalty, even placing stories in local newspapers as the war waned in 1945 and the WRA prepared to release the Japanese-Americans back into their communities.[18]
Over 5,000 Japanese Americans served in the occupation of Japan.[19] Dozens of MIS graduates served as translators, interpreters, and investigators in theInternational Military Tribunal for the Far East. Thomas Sakamoto served as press escort during the occupation of Japan. He escorted American correspondents to Hiroshima, and the USSMissouri inTokyo Bay. Sakamoto was one of three Japanese Americans to be on board the USSMissouri when the Japanese formallysurrendered. Arthur S. Komori served as personal interpreter for Brig. Gen. Elliot R. Thorpe. Kay Kitagawa served as personal interpreter of Fleet AdmiralWilliam Halsey Jr.[18][20] Kan Tagami served as personal interpreter-aide for GeneralDouglas MacArthur.[21] Journalist Don Caswell was accompanied by a Nisei interpreter toFuchū Prison, where the Japanese government imprisoned communistsTokuda Kyuichi,Yoshio Shiga, and Shiro Mitamura.[22]
Japanese Americans were generally forbidden to fight a combat role in thePacific theatre[why?]; although no such limitations were placed on Americans ofGerman orItalian ancestry who fought against theAxis powers. Up to this point, the United States government has only been able to find records of five Japanese Americans who were members of theArmy Air Forces during World War II, one of them being Kenje Ogata. There was at least oneNisei, U.S. Army Air Forces Technical SergeantBen Kuroki, who participated initially in 35 missions as a dorsal turret gunner over Europe, followed by 28 bombing missions over mainland Japan and other locations in the Pacific Theater.[23]
Nisei Herbert Seijin Ginoza flew combat missions over Europe as a waist-tail gunner in the 483rd Bomb Group. He spent 3 months as a German prisoner-of-war after his B17 was shot down on a bombing mission near Vienna, Austria.[24]
Like their male counterparts,Nisei women were at first prohibited from serving in the U.S. military; this changed in November 1943, and 142 young women volunteered to join the WAC. Because their number was relatively small, theNisei WACs were not restricted to a segregated corps, but instead were spread out and served alongside other ethnic groups. The idea of female auxiliary service was still new at this time (theWomen's Army Corps was only nine months old when it opened its ranks toNisei volunteers), and these women were most often assigned to clerical duties or other "women's work." Additionally, WACs were often portrayed in media and propaganda as highly sexualized and were encouraged by male supervisors to play into this role. TheNisei WACs faced another difficulty in that they were expected to translate Japanese military documents; even those who were fluent in Japanese struggled to understand the military language, and eventually some were sent to the Military Intelligence Language School for training.[25]
The 442nd marched down Constitution Avenue tothe Ellipse south of the White House on July 15, 1946, where PresidentTruman honored the regiment with aPresidential Unit Citation saying,"You fought not only the enemy, but you fought prejudice--and you have won." However, the unit's service and decorations still did not change the attitudes of the general population in much of the U.S. towards people of Japanese ancestry. Veterans came home to signs that read "NoJaps Allowed" and "No Japs Wanted", the denial of service in shops and restaurants, and the vandalism of their homes and property.[26][27][28]
Initially, manyveterans' organizations such as theVFW and theAmerican Legion refused to allow Nisei veterans into existing posts and some even removed Japanese-American soldiers from their honor rolls. White officers from the 442nd including ColVirgil R. Miller advocated on the behalf of the Nisei in Chicago to be allowed to form their own American Legion post 1183 in 1946, while Alva Fleming, a Navy veteran in Sacramento district leadership approved the charter forNisei VFW Post 8985 in 1947. Fleming would go on to become the VFW State Commander for California and was instrumental in founding a total of 14 segregated Nisei VFW posts in the state. Veterans in the Pacific Northwest were unable to find any post willing to accept them, and eventually formed their own independent"Nisei Veterans Committee". Although VFW National leadership condemned the actions of local posts, their bylaws promoted autonomy in individual posts and were powerless to prevent the discrimination. Smaller organizations such asAmerican Veterans Committee andMilitary Order of the Purple Heart invited Nisei into their ranks, however they did not offer the same facilities and benefits as the larger organizations.[29][30][31][32]
Some of the first memorials to the Nisei were created by 442nd and MIS veterans themselves, in the creation of the many Nisei American Legion, VFW, and independent memorial posts around the country, dedicated to their fallen brothers in arms.[33]
The nation's highest award for combat valor, theMedal of Honor, was conferred upon oneNisei during the war,Sadao Munemori, after he sacrificed his life to save his fellow soldiers. Nineteen members of the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team received Distinguished Service Crosses during or immediately after their World War II service, but in the 1990s, after a study revealed that racial discrimination had caused them to beoverlooked, their awards were upgraded to Medals of Honor. In addition, one soldier who had received the Silver Star had his award upgraded to the Medal of Honor.[34]
On October 5, 2010, Congress approved the granting of theCongressional Gold Medal to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion, as well as the 6,000 Japanese Americans who served in theMilitary Intelligence Service during the war.[35] TheNisei Soldiers of World War II Congressional Gold Medal was collectively presented on November 2, 2011.[36]
TheJapanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II inWashington, D.C. is aNational Park Service site to commemorate the experience of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and their parents who patriotically supported the United States despite unjust treatment duringWorld War II.[37]
TheGo for Broke Monument in Little Tokyo,Los Angeles, California, commemorates the Japanese Americans who served in the United States Army during World War II.
TheNational Japanese American Veterans Memorial Court in Los Angeles lists the names of all the Japanese Americans killed in service to the country in World War II as well as in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.[38][39]
California has given four state highway segments honorary designations forJapanese American soldiers:
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