100th Battalion, 442 RCT

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col. klink
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100th Battalion, 442 RCT

#1

Post by col. klink » 18 Oct 2005, 08:01

I watched the Sox clinch the pennant on TV at this bar near the used book store I'm in once a week and decided to take a long walk home aftrerwards. I walked down Clark Street so I could check out Wrigley Field and walked around it. It was a little cold and quiet here on the North side after the game. I grew up a South side Cub fan and I'll root for the White Sox (well, Chicago) but I'll feel sad that it ain't the Cubs.

So I continued my walk past a couple of cemetaries and got to the intersection of Clark and Montrose.

Here in Chicago they have these brown honorary street signs that hang beneath the real green street name signs. I was surprised and pleased to find one put up in named in the honor of the 100th Battalion/442nd RCT. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was the most decorated US Army unit in WWII. There's a corny movie made about it with Van Johnson called Go For Broke. The RCT was made of Nisei volunteers, these were American born mostly first generation soldiers of Japanese ancestry. The 2nd and 3rd battalions of the RCT were mostly composed of guys from California but I know the re was a small Japanese community here in Chicago at the time not far away from Wrigley Field. What surprised me that the sign specifically mentions the 100th Battalion which was the first battalion of the RCT; they were mostly from the Hawaiian Islands. There was supposed to be a great rivalry between the guys from the mainland and the islanders. Actually, this is the first honorary street sign I've ever seen in Chicago honoring a military unit. I think there was talk at one time honoring the old 8th Regiment which was an all black unit (or as the Army officially designated such units Colored) that was based in one of the armories on the south side in Chicago.

So it was a pleasant evening; the team I was cheering for won and I had a nice little historucal encounter all in the same evening.

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John W
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#2

Post by John W » 18 Oct 2005, 08:13

"Go For Broke" is an excellent book by (now Senator) Daniel Ken Inoyue - D-HI.
The title comes from the rallying cry of the RCT.


He lost an arm in Italy.


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#3

Post by LEVE » 18 Oct 2005, 09:25

In '65 one of my lab partners was a veteran from the 442nd. He was an AWSOME man... I only wished at the time I could have grown up to be half the man he was....

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col. klink
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#4

Post by col. klink » 18 Oct 2005, 20:41

I remember Sen. Inoyue from the Senate Watergate hearings in the 1970s. He was a man of great dignity and his questions and comments were always well prepared and thought out. There was the one incident when one of the witnesses and the winess's lawyer were caught talking to each other while a microphone was on and one was overheard refering to the Senator as something like that little Jap. When this was brought up in the hearings and the two had to apoligze it was stirring to hear the other senators relate their knowledge of Sen. Inoyue's life, particularly his military service in a unique military unit where the families of many of these brave men were kept interned by the government in several large camps after having had to relinquish a great deal of their property and holdings.

As I said, it was nice to see a little recognition by Chicago to these men.

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col. klink
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#5

Post by col. klink » 01 Nov 2005, 22:35

I don't know if anyone else is signed up at My Space but a day or two ago i was checking out their history groups and came across this site. This the My Space site for the 100th Batallion 442 Infantry of the 29 Brigade Combat Team. They are the unit that carries on the heritage and legacy of the 100th Btn and the 442nd RCT. Their home is in Hawaii but they have deployed to Balad, Iraq about 50 miles north of Baghdad.

Hate the war but respect and love the warrior.


http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fus ... 5524782203

If you should visit the site and check the members, the idiot with the clapping hands cap and PBR in hand named abstemiously facetious is col. klink.

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