In 2011’sCaptain America : The First Avenger , Captain Steve Rogers single - handedly free captivate confederative soldiers from a Nazi pedestal . " What , are we taking everybody ? " one soldier asks , refer to another soldier who seems to be Japanese . " I ’m from Fresno , " the soldier retorts .
The panorama was a hat tip to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team , an all - Japanese - American regiment that , during World War II , became the most decorated social unit in U.S. history — a differentiation it still carry . member of the 442nd realise 21 Medals of Honor , 52 Distinguished Service Crosses , five Presidential Unit Citations in just one calendar month , and 9486 Purple Hearts , along with 1000 of other honors , during the regiment ’s two alive old age in World War II . Yet when asked about their distinguished service , most of them say they were plainly doing their tariff .
ONE PUKA PUKA AND THE 442ND
In the month following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 , more than 110,000 Japanese - Americans from the West Coast and Arizona wereinternedunder Executive Order 9066 ; abouttwo - thirdswere U.S. citizens . Americans of Nipponese pedigree were also reclassified as “ enemy alien ” and were no longer allowed to bring together the military . Despite the fact that Japanese - Americans had serve up in the military for decades , many already - enlisted soldiery were discharged from service . The government even seize token like cameras or tuner from Japanese - Americans , in subject they might expend them to sight .
Although some protested these touchstone , otherssentletters and telegrams to President Franklin Roosevelt and Secretary of War Henry Stimson arguing that Japanese - Americans , even the 2d generation jazz as the Nisei , were not to be trusted because they were " fanatically devoted to [ their ] state of origin and emperor butterfly , " as one California womanhood wrote . Several cities , 16 California county , a variety of societal clubs , and even some members of Congress registered similar concerns . Some congressmen even anticipate to interchange Nipponese - American citizen for Americans held captive by Japan .
The Nisei troops , as they were often get laid , wanted the chance to raise that their allegiance was to the United States — not Japan . Many of these soldiers had witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor and the aftermath , and they wanted to support their country in any way they could .
Just weeks after Washington gave the military ban order , a group of ROTC students released from the Hawaiian Territorial Guard decided that even if they could n’t serve as soldier , they still wanted to help . They gain the approval of regional commandant General Delos Emmons to form the Varsity Victory Volunteers , a labour support multitude that admit more than 160 students and other person of Nipponese lineage . In early 1942 , the chemical group begin build roads , fences , and military bases under the oversight of the Army Corps of Engineers .
“ Hawaii is our home ; the United States is our country , ” the youthswrotein a varsity letter to Emmons volunteer their Robert William Service . “ We know but one loyalty and that is to the Stars and Stripes . ”
But the Varsity Victory Volunteers were just the beginning . At the metre of the Pearl Harbor attack , the Hawaii National Guard also included more than1400 Niseimembers — about half its total . The Nisei troops were regulate to turn in theirweapons and ammunitionand segregated from their fellow soldiers . Concerned about the Nisei ’s likely response if Hawaii was again attack by Japan , military leader sent them to the mainland , and eventually to Camp McCoy in Wisconsin . There they formed the 100th Infantry Battalion ( Separate ) , with theseparatereferring to the fact that they were initially an orphan unit without a larger regiment . They were also do it as the One Puka Puka ( Pukais Hawaiian for " hole , " as in zero ) .
One Puka Puka quickly distinguished themselves during their training , and after watch the “ threefold - Vs ” and the 100th in action , the War Department push President Roosevelt to change his position on Nipponese - American military service . He did so inearly 1943 , and the Army soon asked for 4500 Japanese - American volunteer . They gotan overwhelming 10,000 , mostly from Hawaii . intimately 1200 volunteered from impoundment camps .
“ I talk to my beginner , and he said , ‘ Well , you ’re an American citizen , so if they need you to connect the Army , it ’s your obligation , ’ ” old-timer Stanley Matsumura tell in Peter Wakamatsu ’s documentaryFour - Four - Two : F Company at War . He and his friend did just that .
“ I was 19 and subsist in Yoder , Wyoming when I first get a line the news of Pearl Harbor,”Hashime Saitowrote to Dear Abby in December 1980 . “ I strike down my program to move into the university and immediately enlist in the U.S. Army . ”
At his blood brother ’s wedding at Poston Relocation Center , Technical Sergeant Abe Ohamatoldfriends and family , “ All of us ca n’t detain in the summer camp until the end of the war . Some of us have to go to the front . ”
The volunteers became the 442nd Regimental Combat Team .
BANZAI!
At first , the 442nd was n’t particularly welcome in Europe . When Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall offered the regiment to General Dwight Eisenhower to fight in France , the latter turned him down with a civilized , “ No , thank you . ” Instead , they found a home with General Mark Clark in the Fifth Army , fight in Italy .
The 100th fetch up training and went first , initially join the 34th Infantry Division , one of the divisions that made up the Fifth Army . They soon bring in their report in blood . Whether out of a desire to prove their loyalty or just a gung - ho spirit , the Nisei soldier go after military objectives with a individual - tending ferocity .
They entered armed combat in Italy on September 29 , 1943 , and presently get word fighting in the southern part of the state . The large number fought in Salerno and the Volturno river , where the soldier surprised their fellow American troop with their first banzai charge . ( In Japanese custom , a banzai accusation is a last - ditch , often suicidal attack , and the ecphonesis is a traditional engagement cry.)Accordingto the Go For Broke National Education Center , named for the regiment ’s catchword , the banzai flush come after a serjeant-at-law heard that one of the most well-thought-of officers in the battalion had been either wounded or captured : " Many of the soldier of the 100th had known each other since they were children . Their allegiance to one another was such that they never leave a man behind , even in death . " The serjeant turned out to have heard erroneously , but the feeling of loyalty on their fellow soldiers persist .
Yet the 100th truly earned their reputations at the Battle of Monte Cassino . General Clarkcalledthe battle “ the most grueling , the most agonising , and in one prospect perhaps the most tragic , of any form of the war in Italy . ” fight began in blizzard atmospheric condition in the middle of January 1944 , and the goal was to take the Gustav Line , a defensive line the Axis forces had created along the raw mountainous landscape of the area that block the Allies from Rome .
The battle to take the high land was long and bloody for everyone involved , and the 100th was no exception . In fact , it was at Monte Cassino that they gained the nickname “ The Purple Heart Battalion . ” The Monte Cassino Abbey , atop one of the mountains , overlooked an open airfield with little cover for soldiery and cater Nazi soldiers and ordnance a place to entrench themselves . From behind walls , they evoke at any Allied troops who dare to rush the mountain .
On the night of January 24 , the 100th ’s A and C Companies baffle the dangerous plain , checking for tripwires and maneuvering over freezing , flooded irrigation ditch before finding cover behind a wall . When B Company motivate to join them after sunrise , only 14 of the 187 men made it to the wall , accord to theGo For Brokecenter .
The company was rate into reserve — kept away from the action and allowed to rest — but join the scrap again on February 8 . They made good progress and held a central hill for four days but retreated again when the 34th Division was ineffective to keep up with their pace . in conclusion , after Allied line reinforcements bomb the ancient abbey into ruination on February 15 , the 100th sent wave after wave up the mountain , fall behind 200 more men before they were relieve .
Their commander , Major Casper Clough Jr. , secern a correspondent withThe New York Timesthat they were the best soldier he ’d ever seen . “ They are showing the rest of the multitude they are just as beneficial citizens as the next John Doughboy , ” he say .
Because of the pack ’s heavy casualty — the 100th had lost about 800 of its 1300 soldier since make it in Europe , more than 200 over just four days at Monte Cassino — other Allied forces fill over at Monte Cassino . The 100th regroup to receive reward , then campaign their way over 40 miles from Anzio , Italy , compass north to Rome , where they were soon joined by the rest of the 442nd and formally attached to the regiment .
By May 1944 , when the 442nd ’s Second and Third Battalions sailed for Europe , the 100th hadracked upa stunning three Distinguished Service Crosses , 21 Bronze Stars , 36 Silver Stars , and 900 Purple Hearts . The Second and Third Battalions cursorily show they were determined to not only uphold the reputation of Nisei soldiers in Europe , but to add to it .
COMBINING THEIR EFFORTS
When the three battalions meet alfresco of Rome to capture the little townsfolk of Belvedere , the 2d and Third Battalions offer to conduce the fighting , allowing the 100th to stay in reserve — but One Puka Puka would n’t be held back . The 442nd put down the German military personnel , claim the town , and captured a immense number of enemy weapons . They even decimated anentire SS battalionalone , losing only four of their own man .
By then , French commanders were asking the regiment to link up the combat in the Vosges Mountains in easterly France , near the boundary line with Germany . The 442nd agitate in Bruyeres and Belmont , but perhaps their most famous effort was the delivery of the 141st Infantry Regiment ’s First Battalion — known as the Lost Battalion .
During campaign in the Vosges Mountains , the 141st ’s First Battalion had been cut off from the rest of the Allied Forces and nearly 300 men from Texas were trapped by 6000 German troop .
On piddling rest and with a shortage of men , the 442nd answer the call to deliver their Texan Brother . The cragged terrain was made more hard by the icy weather of October 1944 , and the 442nd had to journey on sloppy dirt trails and fight through German roadblocks to arrive at the trapped man .
The 442nd ’s Second Battalion won a Benny Hill from the Germans and take away prisoners , but while it helped bring out the German line , it was n’t enough to disengage the trap men . The Lost Battalion — which had gone without food for several days — crush off five waves of German attackers . The Third Battalion tried to struggle from the exterior , but got no closer to reach out the Texan troops .
ascertain no other choice , the 442nd decided to “ go for broke ” straight up the centre in another banzai charge . One of the leader of the charge , Private Barney Hajiro , single - handedlytook downtwo German machine gun for hire nests . After six Clarence Shepard Day Jr. of fight , the Nisei make do to break through to the lost Texans .
Whether they were still seek to prove themselves or not , the 442nd did just that in the delivery . TheMilwaukee Journalsummed up the lurch opinion about “ Our Heroic Nisei ” on November 8 , 1944 , just days after the effort :
For their valor , Governor John Connally made all the live on members of the 442nd “ honorary Texans ” in 1963 .
The 442nd continued to fight in major battles in France and Italy through the end of the war , often on the front lines . They hold 12 mi of the French mete in what became known as the Champagne crusade , and joined other American force inliberatingthe Dachau concentration camps in April 1945 .
chiliad of the regiment ’s men were killed or wounded in the warfare , include next Hawaii SenatorDaniel Inouye , who was near killed in two separate incident — once , when a bullet to his chest of drawers was halt only by two silver grey dollars , and again when he nearly shed blood out in conflict refusing to leave his humans behind .
CAPTURING HEARTS AND MINDS
Back on the home front , the 442nd ’s report help to make bridge between Americans of Japanese ancestry and their fellow citizens . Army officialsauthorizedmore far-flung publicity for the 442nd — render it would n’t give away central military intelligence . By then , warfare correspondents on the front were already eager to portion out stories about the Nisei troops .
Lieutenant Edward Chasse relayed the bewilderment of German troops capture by the 100th to the Associated Press . In a narrative issue by theOakland Tribuneon February 17 , 1944 , Chasse tell , “ We got some captive and they did n’t have it off what was pass . They enquire if the Axis had turn against them . ”
Writing forThe New York TimesandSan Francisco Chronicle , C.L. Sulzbergerdescribed an fundamental interaction between a captured German officer and an American interpreter after the prisoner saw members of the Nisei regiment . “ Said the German to an interpreter , ‘ But they look Japanese ; it ca n’t be . ’ aver the interpreter , ‘ Sure , did n’t you have a go at it they were on our side ? Or do you believe this hooey Goebbels put out ? ’ ”
member of the 442nd who sacrifice their sprightliness on the front became some of the human faces of the warfare — such as Pfc . Sadao Munemori , who was posthumously award the Congressional Medal of Honor .
The Glendale , California , native waskilledon April 5 , 1945 when he and his fellow soldiers were immobilise down by enemy flak . He round foe gun nest alone so his comrades could break away ; he well-nigh made it out himself , but flip himself onto a grenade just feet from refuge to deliver his fellow soldier .
But while the Nisei soldier of the 442nd came home to praise and gratitude from some Americans , others were unwilling to look beyond their inheritance .
As interned Japanese - Americans and Nisei veterans were return to their West Coast homes in the spring of 1945 , the War Department began receiving report of what it deemed terrorist attacks against them .
“ In the most late instances describe to Washington , car have driven by Nisei nursing home at a eminent rate of speed and the occupants have discharge into the home , ” one newspaperreported . “ In one suit , the homeowner was a returned veteran . With him was a Nisei admirer in uniform on furlough . ” as luck would have it , they were not injured .
Some flack were more subtle . A Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Spokane , Washington , draw and quarter aid after it deny membership to Private Richard Naito . His former commanding officer , Virgil Miller , sentan angry complaint to the mail , contend that " When purportedly reputable organizations such as yours violate the rule and ideals for which we fight , these youthful Japanese Americans are not the only ones to wonder about our war draw a bead on . " Corporal George Gelberg , representing a group of veterans stationed at nearby Geiger Field , wrote a letterto the editor in chief of theSpokesman - Review , say , “ The gentleman’s gentleman wish it to be understood that an attack on any minority mathematical group in our country strengthens the hands of the fascistic foe who have been beaten on the military theater . ” Other Nisei veteransorganizeda campaign to lend oneself to the spot , and when news of the rejection get through the internal VFW organization , they make out an apology and stated that Japanese - American veterans were welcome to join .
In 2011 , nearly 70 long time after Japanese - American citizen were interned and in brief banish from military service , the 442nd was honor for its members ’ sacrifices . Congress awarded the vet of the 442nd , the 100th Infantry Battalion , and the Military Intelligence Service , which perform intelligence work against the Nipponese military , with Congressional Gold Medals — the in high spirits civilian award Congress can bestow .
