Japanese-American volunteers in WWII (warning: big pictures)

[Phaethon]

If there is anyone out there who thinks all Japanese-Americans were safely locked away after Pearl Harbor - think again.

During a trip to Hawaii I came across this memorial park in Honolulu next to Fort DeRussy (the US armed forces recreation center). It turned out to be the "Brothers in Valor" memorial, commemorating four groups of Japanese-American volunteers who fought in WWII:




The four panels give details of:

The Military Intelligence Service - "Nisei"


The 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion - "The Chowhounds"


442nd Regimental Combat Team - "Go for Broke"

[This is a little difficult to read even at this size - the original full size pic. can be found at http://129.31.15.160/trf/nisei/8big.jpg (850kB)]

100th Infantry Battalion (separate) - "The Purple Heart Battalion"


Nineteen of the members of the latter two were awarded the US medal of honor in 2000 - "The review of the veterans' records was authorized by the 1996 Defense Authorization Act to ensure appropriate recognition for wartime bravery was not tainted by the prevailing national sentiments during the war years." The combined 100th/442nd saw combat not in the Pacific, but in IItaly and France.

Regimental Color Guard, 442nd RCT
Bruyeres, France, 12 Nov. 1944
U.S. Army photo[http://www.hawaiischoolreports.com/history/nisei.htm]

Cheers,

K.
--
Ken Cocker, London

[timman19]

Nice post and a nice dedication to some units that are probably long forgotten for the most part. I know that they saw combat in the European Theatre and that most Germans captured by them were shocked by their appearance!

There is a movie about them called "Go For Broke" named after the one ot the unit's mottos. It's not bad and worth checking out if the opportunity is there.

[timman19]

Nice post and a nice dedication to some units that are probably long forgotten for the most part. I know that they saw combat in the European Theatre and that most Germans captured by them were shocked by their appearance!

There is a movie about them called "Go For Broke" named after the one ot the unit's mottos. It's not bad and worth checking out if the opportunity is there.

[Musashi]

I heard about Japanese unit which fought in battle of Monte Cassino and it inflicted very serious losses (above 95 %).






Regards

[Phaethon]

Inflicted or suffered? I think you mean suffered - that would be why they were called the Purple Heart Battalion.

K.

[Musashi]

Nice post and a nice dedication to some units that are probably long forgotten for the most part. I know that they saw combat in the European Theatre and that most Germans captured by them were shocked by their appearance!

There is a movie about them called "Go For Broke" named after the one ot the unit's mottos. It's not bad and worth checking out if the opportunity is there.

Of course suffered (my mistake,sorry)


Best regards

[alsaco]

The Nisei in Europe are not forgotten.

They were present in the mountain between Venafro and Cassino in the winter 1943, They suffered heavily from german mortar fire and got trenchfoot from cold and rainy weather. They were relieved by the first group of french troops arrived in Italy, which departed from their position to gain the Belvédére mountain, north of Cassino in January 1944

French did find again the Nisei near Bruyéres, on the west side of the Vosges. Part of the 7th Army, Patch, they had disembarked in Provence. They had a very bad time when germans tried to counter-attack, and encircled in the woods maintained positions at least two days, until french forces from the Division Leclerc made the breaktrough toward Strasbourg, in november 1944. In some sense, their good performance in defence permitted the start of the french armored force toward Cirey, and then Dabo and Saverne, ending at the Rhine bridge between Strasbourg and Kehl.