Nisei Soldiers of World War II

In this week in military history, we explore the service of the Nisei Soldiers of World War II, Japanese-American army soldiers who were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on October 8, 2010.

In February, 1942, two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, ordering the imprisonment of countless Japanese-American Citizens in internment camps across the United States. One year later, with a call for volunteers from the War Department - FDR authorized the activation of the US Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an all Japanese-American Infantry unit primarily recruited out of the internment camps. The recruits were known as “Nisei” or second-generation Japanese-Americans.

In 1944, after a year of training, the 442nd RCT deployed to the Mediterranean then to Italy where they joined the famous 100th Infantry Battalion - a unit that was primarily made up of Japanese-Americans from what was then still the Territory of Hawaii. The combined groups saw fierce combat in Italy – and moved to Southern France, where they liberated the French villages of Bruyères and Biffontaine. They returned to Italy in 1945 and by the end of the war, the 100th Infantry Battalion would earn the nickname: the “Purple Heart Battalion” – earning approximately 4,000 Purple Hearts, 4,000 Bronze Stars, 560 Silver Stars, and 21 Medals of Honor, and 7 Presidential Unit Citations, and the 442nd as a whole would become the single most decorated unit of its size in the history of the US Army.

In addition to the 442nd and 100th infantry battalions, other Nisei recruits found themselves fighting in the Pacific Theater as part of the Army’s Military Intelligence Service (MIS) - using their knowledge of the Japanese language and culture to interrogate Japanese prisoners, translate intelligence documents, and listen in on Japanese military radio chatter. In the words of US Army Major General Charles Willoughby, “The Nisei shortened the Pacific War by two years and saved possibly a million American lives”.

Despite helping win the war, these Japanese-American soldiers were treated poorly upon their return to the United States. Years later, The Nisei soldiers of WWII were properly recognized for their efforts when they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on October 8, 2010

Join us next time for another segment of this week in military history, with the Pritzker Military Museum and Library.