The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, hiking up a muddy French road in the Chambois Sector, France, in late 1944. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army, was a unit composed of Japanese-Americans that fought in Europe during the Second World War. The families of many of its soldiers were subject to internment. The 442nd was designed as a self-sufficient fighting formation, and fought with distinction in Italy, south France and Germany, becoming among the most highly decorated units in the history of the U.S. Army.
Background
Most Japanese-Americans who fought in WWII were Nisei, second-generation Japanese-Americans born in the U.S.. Nevertheless, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese-American men in the mainland U.S. were categorized as 4C (enemy alien), non-draftable, and they and their families were removed to internment or relocation camps.
In Hawaii, a large proportion of the population were of Japanese descent: internment was not practicable, so curfews were imposed instead. General Delos C. Emmons (commanding general of the U.S. Army in Hawaii) decided to discharge Japanese-Americans from units of the Hawaiian Territory Guard and National Guard. Many volunteered to continue in non-combat roles, until, on June 5 1942, a special unit of 1,300 Japanese Americans, the Hawaiian Provisional Battalion, sailed for training on the mainland. They landed at Oakland, California on June 10, 1942 and became 100th Infantry Battalion two days later (the "One Puka Puka") and were sent to Camp McCoy.
The 100th performed so well in training that, on February 1, 1943, the U.S. Government reversed its decision on Japanese Americans serving in the armed forces. President Roosevelt announced the formation of the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team (the "Go For Broke" regiment), famously saying "Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry."
Training
The nucleus of the new unit was the 100th Infantry Battalion, which relocated to Camp Shelby in Mississippi. Eventually, the 100th was joined by 2,600 volunteers from Hawaii and 800 from the camps on the mainland. The 442nd was designed as a self-sufficient fighting formation, and came to include four infantry battalions (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 100th), the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, the 232nd Engineering Company, an anti-tank company, cannon company, service company, medical detachment, headquarters companies, and the 206th Army Band.
Initially, there was tension between volunteers from the Hawaiian Islands (known as "buddhaheads", from the Japanese/English term buta-head, meaning "pig-headed") and those from the mainland ("katonks", stone head; also alleged to be the sound of an empty head hitting the ground). The rivalry between the Hawaiian Islanders and the mainlanders dissipated after visits were organised to the internment camps where the mainlanders' families were being held.
Although they were now permitted to volunteer to fight, Americans of Japanese ancestry were generally forbidden to fight in a combat role the Pacific theatre. No such limitations were placed on Americans of German or Italian ancestry who fought against the Axis Powers in Europe. While the 442nd trained in Mississippi, the 100th departed for Oran in North Africa to join the forces destined to invade Italy.
Combat
The 100th landed at Salerno on September 26 1943. After obtaining its initial objective of Monte Milleto, the 100th joined the assault on Monte Cassino. The 100th fought valiantly, suffering many casualties. It sailed from North Africa with 1,300 men on September 22, 1943, but by February 1944 could only muster 521. The depleted unit joined the defence of the beachhead at Anzio until May 1944, and then added momentum to the push for Rome, but was halted only 10 miles from the city. Some believe that the 100th was deliberately halted to allow non-Japanese soldiers to liberate Rome.
The remainder of the 442nd (other than the 1st battalion, which remained in the U.S. to train replacements) landed at Anzio and joined the 100th Battalion in Civitavecchia north of Rome on June 10 1944. The unit continued in the push up Italy, before joining the invasion of southern France, where the 442nd participated in the fight to liberate Bruyeres in south France, and famously rescued the "The Lost Battalion" at Biffontaine: the 442nd suffered over 800 casualties rescuing 211 members of the Texan 1st Battalion of the 141st Regiment which had been surrounded by German forces in the Vosges mountains.
The 522nd Field Artillery Battalion remained in France, and joined the push into Germany in late 1944 and 1945. Scouts from the 522nd were among the first Allied troops to release prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp. The remainder of the 442nd returned to Italy to continue the fight against the Gothic Line established by German Field Marshal Kesselring in the Apennines.
Decorations
Fighting in the European theatre, the 442nd became the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service, earning it the title, the "Purple Heart Battalion." The 442nd received 7 Presidential Unit Citations (5 earned in one month), and its members received around 18,000 awards, including:
After the war
The unit's exemplary service and many decorations did not change attitudes of the general U.S. population to people of Japanese descent after World War II. Veterans were welcomed home by signs that read "No Japs Allowed" and "No Japs Wanted", and many veterans were denied service in shops and restaurants, and had their homes and property vandalized.
This anti-Japanese sentiment, and anti-Asian sentiment in general, persisted through the 1950s. It faded in the 1960s as the model minority stereotype came into prominence in the United States.
| The factual accuracy of part of this article is disputed.
The dispute is about model minority stereotype.
Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.
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Prominent Members
- Daniel Inouye, U.S. Representative from Hawaii (1959-1962); U.S. Senator from Hawaii (1962-) as of 2005
- Spark Matsunaga, U.S. Representative from Hawaii (1962-1976); U.S. Senator from Hawaii (1977-1990)
External links
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