442nd Regimental Combat Team

Formation of the 442nd

According to nationality law, any person born on U.S. soil is an American citizen. However, Japanese Americans became enemy aliens in the United States regardless of their American citizenship. They were not eligible to serve in the U.S. armed forces.

Japanese Americans in Hawai'i were not interned as were Japanese Americans on the mainland because they were dominant in numbers in Hawai'i and were an indispensable part of the islands’ economy. They had worked for the war effort even before the Pearl Harbor attack, but they were also regarded with suspicion and ordered to leave war duty in 1942. The dismissed Nisei Japanese Americans petitioned Lieutenant General Delos Emmons to accept them again for the war effort. Emmons allowed them to work for the armed forces in 1943. These Nisei Japanese Americans in Hawai'i comprised the 100th Battalion, were trained at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin and Camp Shelby in Mississippi, and were sent to battlefields in Africa and Italy. They later joined the 442nd RCT, which was comprised of enlisted Nisei Japanese Americans from Hawai'i and Nisei Japanese Americans from the mainland, who had been interned.

When the U.S. government changed its policy from excluding Japanese Americans from the armed forces to having them serve in these special military units, they required the Japanese American internees to answer a loyalty questionnaire. The questions asked Japanese Americans if they had an unconditional loyalty to the United States and abandoned their ties to Japan. Those who answered “yes” to the question were allowed to serve the U.S. armed forces, but there were people who could not answer “yes” after experiencing their unjust treatment by the U.S. government. The questionnaire caused a rift in the Japanese American community.

Battles in the European Theater

The 442nd RCT was sent to fierce battlegrounds in Europe. One of the fiercest battles was the rescue of the Texas battalion, in which 211 Texan [Page 905]soldiers were surrounded by German soldiers; the 442nd RCT succeeded in rescuing the Texans at the cost of 800 casualties. The team's success and valor was highly praised and circulated in the media, and the team's motto “Go for Broke” enhanced the image of Japanese Americans. However, discriminatory treatment of the 442nd RCT continued. For example, when the team liberated the French town of Bruyères from German troops, they were not permitted to join the victory parade. The 442nd RCT released Jewish inmates from the Dachau concentration camp in Germany but this fact was not disclosed until 1992.

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