100th Battalion

442nd Regimental Combat Team

Merging of 100th and 442nd

Military Intelligence Service

522nd Field Artillery Battalion

Camp Shelby

The Lost Battalion

Battle of Bruyere

Rescuing at Dachau

Italy

It was composed of mainland Japanese Americans and Japanese Americans from Hawaii. It is the 442nd that coined the motto "Go for Broke!" and upheld those words throughout their entire time of service in World War II.

Soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, all Japanese Americans were reclassified to 4-C (Enemy Alien) and were not allowed to enlist in the U.S. military. Even though not one case of spying or espionage was recorded. The Japanese Americans on the West Coast were relocated and incarcerated in internment camps which were located in various wasteland areas in the western United States. Many of the people who wre relocated were American citizens. The Japanese Americans in Hawaii weren't subjected to this treatment because they made up a significant portion of the local work force and incarcerating them would have a disastrous effect on the economy.

However, in January 1943, President Roosevelt and the War Department decided to allow these Japanese Americans to volunteer in an all American-Japanese regiment to fight for their country in World War II. Although they were viewed with fear and suspicion, these Japanese Americans stepped forward without hesitation to serve their country.

In May 1943, approximately 1,500 volunteers from the mainland and 3,000 from Hawaii assembled for training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. They trained in the surrounding hills and swamps and in May 1944, left for combat duty in Europe. One month later, they arrived in Naples, Italy and later joined up with the 100th Infantry Battalion. By this time, the 100th had been fighting for nine months and lost over 900 men out of the 1300 that they had started with.

The troops of the 442nd Regiment fought in eight major campaigns in Italy, France and Germany, including the battles at Belmont, Bruyeres and Biffontaine. At Biffontaine, the unit fought perhaps its most famous battle, the "Rescue of the Lost Battalion". In this bloody confrontation, the 442nd unit lost more than 800 troops to rescue 211 members of the Texan 1st Battalion of the 141st Regiment. There were also numerous accounts of individuals who displayed incredible valor while attempting to advance their positions and rescue wounded comrades.

In less than two years of combat, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team earned more than 18,000 individual decorations including one Medal of Honor, 53 Distinguished Service Crosses, 588 Silver Stars, 5,200 Bronze Star Medals, 9,486 Purple Hearts, and eight Presidential Unit Citations (the nation's top award for combat units). In June 2000, President Clinton awarded an additional 20 Medals of Honor to members of the 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team. This was the result of a re-examination of the files of dozens of Japanese-American soldiers to see if any of them might have been denied awards because of possible prejudice. One of these recipients was Hawaii's U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, whose right arm was shattered by a grenade while successfully destroying three German machine gun nests.

The 100th Battalion/442nd RCT:
http://www.kent.wednet.edu/KSD/SJ/Nikkei/442RCT.html The 100th Battalion/442nd RCT

Go for Broke: 442nd Regimental Combat Team:
http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/ww2/goforbroke.shtml Go for Broke: 442nd Regimental Combat Team

Research on the 442nd RCT/100th Battalion:
http://www.nikkeiheritage.org/research/442.html Research on the 100th/422nd Regimental Combat Team