Our Legacy

 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

     On December 7, 1941, Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Six weeks later on January 19, 1942, Japanese Americans who were serving in the military were suddenly reclassified as “4F”, or “enemy aliens” who were ineligible to be drafted. On February 19, 1942, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066, which allowed the military to forcibly relocate and incarcerate of people of Japanese ancestry (citizens and non-citizens) from the western Pacific states—most from the western parts of Washington, Oregon, and Arizona, and all of California. They were detained for nearly three years without  legal charge or trial, and no civil liberties guaranteed to all Americans written in the U.S. Constitution.

     Over 30,000 Nisei (2nd-generation Americans of Japanese ancestry) served in the U.S. military while their families were held under military guard at barbed-wired concentration camps in isolated areas of the country. Later, the U.S. Department of War activated the 100th Infantry Battalion, a racially-segregated unit composed of Nisei volunteers from Hawaii who passed loyalty tests to fight in the European Theater. This unit was called the “Purple Heart Battalion” due to its high casualty rate and had earned a reputation which influenced the War Department to establish the “442nd Regimental Combat Team”, another racially-segregated unit composed of Nisei volunteers from the U.S. concentration camps.

      The 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT) and the 100th Infantry Battalion, lead many battles in the European Theater, fought valiantly and courageously. The 442nd RCT rescued the the 36th Texas Division, known as the "Lost Battalion" in the Vosges Mountains in France during the fall of 1944. The Nisei were also part of the advance Allied troops which liberated the Dachau concentration sub-camp in Germany.

     The 442^nd RCT is noted to be the most decorated unit in American history for its size and length of service, receiving 7 Presidential Unit Citations, 21 Medals of Honor, 29 Distinguished Service Crosses, 560 Silver Stars, 4,000 Bronze Stars and more than 4,500 Purple Hearts. At the end of World War II, after the United States declared victory, President Harry Truman, presented the 442nd Regimental Combat Team with its 7^th Presidential Unit Citation on the White House lawn and stated, “You have fought not only the enemy, but prejudice and you have won.''  

     In addition to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, about 6,000 Nisei served in the Military Intelligence Service (''MIS''), which was attached to the combat units in the Pacific Theater. These soldiers intercepted radio transmissions, translated enemy documents, interrogated enemy prisoners-of- war, volunteered for reconnaissance and covert intelligence missions, and persuaded the enemies to surrender. Later, some of these MIS soldiers continued to serve during the Occupation years in Japan, and helped the country to develop a democratic form of government, and establishing a relationship between Japan and the U.S.                            

     On October 5, 2010, the U.S. Congress unanimously passed Public Law #111 254, which awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor to the World War II Nisei veterans of the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the Military Intelligence Service. President Obama signed the law, and on November 2, 2011, members of Congress presented these medals to Nisei veterans at the Emancipation Hall in Washington, DC.