Asian-Pacific Americans fought prejudice at home, tyranny in Europe during WWII

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EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  In the anger, fear and uncertainty following the Japanese "surprise" attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, and amidst longstanding prejudice, dating back to the late 1800s, toward Orientals on the Pacific West Coast, President Franklin Roosevelt, in February 1942, signed the infamous Executive Order 9066.

"The order authorized the War Department to move individuals from declared 'military areas' to other locations," Dr. Kane said. "In March 1942, the military declared much of the West Coast as 'military areas' and began the deportation of over 120,000 Japanese resident aliens, or Issei, and Nisei from California, Oregon and Washington to 'relocation centers'."

With little notice and without due process of law and adequate compensation for personal property left behind, the U.S. Government tore thousands of families of Japanese ancestry from comfortable homes and good businesses on the West Coast and sent them to one of ten isolated detention camps. These camps, located in some of the most desolate areas in the western United States, consisted of temporary, tar-paper-covered barracks, guard towers and barbed wire, differing little, in some respects, from the concentration camps of occupied Europe.

Additionally, when the United States entered the war, most of the 5,000 Japanese Americans serving in the U.S. Armed Forces were summarily dismissed, and those of draft age were classified as "enemy aliens" although they were American citizens.

"Ironically, Americans of Italian and German descent were not so classified or mistreated, only those of Japanese descent," said Dr. Bob Kane, assistant historian for the Air Armament Center.

Despite the overt prejudice and the mistreatment by their own government, the majority of the military-age Nisei, like Black Americans, wanted to demonstrate their loyalty to this country and their willingness to fight in the global war against the tyranny and militarism of their time.

"This month we celebrate the great achievements and contributions of Asian-Pacific Americans to the historical and cultural richness of this country," Dr. Kane said. "In doing so, we must remember the valor and gallantry of the Nisei, Americans of Japanese descent, of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, who, like the Tuskegee Airmen, fought prejudice and hatred at home, as well as tyranny overseas, during World War II."

In May 1942, Nisei volunteers in Hawaii formed the 100th Infantry Battalion and were sent first to North Africa and later to Italy in September 1943.

"By the end of the Italian campaign, the 100th had become known as the 'Purple Heart Battalion' because of their high casualty rate," Dr. Kane said.

The combat record of the 100th Infantry Battalion led the War Department in January 1943 to announce the formation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team composed of Nisei volunteers from Hawaii and the continental United States, including those in the "relocation" camps.

In June 1944, the 442nd RCT, with the motto "Go for Broke," joined the 100th Infantry Battalion, which was soon incorporated into the 442nd, in Italy. The combined unit helped American forces break out from the Anzio beachhead and liberate Rome from the Germans.

Because of the stunning combat success of the 442nd RCT, the government in January 1944 began drafting Nisei in the detention camps to provide replacements for the 442nd's combat losses.

"Imagine the irony," exclaimed Dr. Kane. "Fighting and dying for the country that still kept their families in camps because of imagined fears and irrational prejudices. To me, that takes a special kind of courage."

In September 1944, the 442nd RCT was reassigned to the Seventh Army for the invasion of southern France. In four weeks of heavy fighting, considered one of the most significant battles in U.S. Army history, in the Vosges Mountains, the unit rescued a "lost battalion" of the 36th Division from certain annihilation. In March 1945, the 442nd RCT, reassigned to the segregated all-Black 92nd Infantry Division, returned to Italy for the final battles of the war that drove the Germans from northern Italy.

Perhaps, the most well known member of the 442nd RCT is Daniel K. Inouye, U.S. Senator from Hawaii since 1963 and the first U.S. Congressman of Japanese ancestry. He enlisted in the army in 1943. After almost one and a half years of intense combat, Senator Inouye received a battlefield promotion to second lieutenant, the Distinguished Service Cross (which former President Bill Clinton upgraded to the Medal of Honor in 2000), and other decorations. During the battle for which he would ultimately receive the Medal of Honor, he suffered several grievous wounds, including one that shattered his right arm.

By May 1945, the 442nd RCT had become the most highly decorated U.S. military unit of its size.

"Along with the 100th Infantry Battalion," Dr. Kane said, "they accumulated over 18,000 individual decorations for bravery, including 20 Medals of Honor; 52 Distinguished Service Crosses; 9,500 Purple Hearts with many soldiers earning multiple awards; and seven Presidential Unit Citations."

In a condensed version of his autobiography Journey to Washington, Senator Inouye captured what must have gone through the minds of many of the young Japanese men who volunteered for combat duty and fought so gallantly while their families experienced such ill treatment at home during World War II.

On the way to the induction center after he had been accepted for military service, the future Senator reports that his father, after a long period of silence between them, said unexpectedly, "You know what on means?" "Yes," Daniel replied. It meant when someone is aided by another, he incurs a debt that is never canceled, one that must be repaid at every opportunity.

"The Inouyes have great on for America," Senator Inouye's father said to him. "It has been good to us. And now it is you who must try to return the goodness. You are my first son, and you are very precious to your mother and to me, but you must do what must be done. If it is necessary, you must be ready to. . . to. . ." Daniel Inouye knew what his father could not speak. His father left him with these words, "Do not bring dishonor on our name," he whispered urgently.

"Despite the treatment that these Japanese Americans had received in the opening years of World War II, they still wanted to bring honor to themselves, their families, and, most of all, their country," Dr. Kane said. "The combat record of the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team tells me that they succeeded."