Today, where Nikkei is about one-fifth of the whole population, Japanese is a major language, spoken and studied by many of the state’s residents across ethnicities. It is taught in private Japanese-language schools as early as the second grade. As a courtesy to a large number of Japanese tourists (from Japan), Japanese subtexts are provided on place signs, public transportation, and civic facilities. The Hawaii media market has a few locally produced Japanese-language newspapers and magazines; however, these are on the verge of dying out, due to a lack of interest on the part of the local (Hawaii-born) Japanese population.
Stores that cater to the tourist industry often have Japanese-speaking personnel. To show their allegiance to the US, many Nisei and Sansei intentionally avoided learning Japanese. The importance of Japanese immigration to Hawaii and the United States lies not in the fact that it did occur, but rather in how it occurred and in its consequences. Like many that came to America, the Japanese came for economic reasons. Unlike many Europeans, however, the bulk of the Japanese came to the United States not to escape the old country and settle in the new world, but rather with the intent to return home rich after a short period of contract labor, in what actually equated to indentured servitude. Many did not return and before long had established a solid and unique Japanese American culture, ‘one that often faced severe prejudice.
This immigrant culture and its challenges molded the subsequent Nisei culture and the values of the men of the 100th Battalion of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. As far back as the thirteenth century, Hawaiian legend tells of Japanese fishermen lost at sea and carried by the Black Current, or Kuroshio, across the Pacific to the Hawaiian archipelago. Likewise, these easterly trans-Pacific currents possibly also carried shipwrecked survivors, much like the flotsam and jetsam of today, to the shores of North America, but with no more impact than the very same driftwood and debris brought by these currents.
The earliest recorded Japanese landings in North America occurred in 1610 and 1613, predating the Pilgrims’ landing at Plymouth Rock by almost a decade. Some trekked from Acapulco to Mexico City, some ventured across Mexico and the Atlantic to Spain, while others settled in North America. Though Japs continued to arrive in Hawaii and America sporadically through the early nineteenth century, it was not until Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry’s Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854 and the restoration of the Japanese Emperor in 1868 that Japanese emigration began to have a noticeable impact on the United States.
What had been a trickle of Japanese traveling abroad turned into a flood of immigrants to Hawaii and the USA. The 153 persons of the Gannen Mono, the people of the first era of Emperor Meiji, arrived in Hawaii in June 1868 and another handful of Japanese arrived in San Francisco in May 1869, harbingers of the thousands to follow. Coming from varied backgrounds farmers were unable to pay taxes, peasants pursuing dreams, and now out-of-work samurai seeking new lives all sought quick fortunes on the plantations of Hawaii or in the businesses on the West Coast. In terms of business practices, Hawaiian and US businessmen were remarkably similar during the late 1800s and early 1900s, so much so that, fearing an overpopulation of Chinese immigrants, they turned to importing Japanese to work in the sugarcane and pineapple fields of Hawaii and assume odd jobs on the West Coast.
Ironically, the end result was that over the forty-plus years from 1882, when the Chinese Exclusion Act signaled a boom in the emigration of Japanese, to 1924, when the Japanese Exclusion Act ended Japanese immigration, over 180.000 Japanese arrived in Hawaii, and over another 80.000 in the United States, eventually outnumbering the Chinese. Concerns began to rise over the Issei, or the first generation of Japanese abroad, the first Japanese immigrants. Not only was there a dramatic growth in another Asian Population, but also the new menial laborers, willing to work longer and harder for less, were displacing white American workers. Too, the Jap’s situation was further aggravated by the uniqueness of the culture imported in whole by immigrants who expected to eventually return home. As contract terms expired, few Japanese had made their fortunes, and as more began to look upon Hawaii and the United States as their home, measures were taken against them. Alien land laws that prevented Japanese land ownership were passed in 1913 and 1920.
Note on Generations – Japanese-Americans and Japanese-Canadians have special names for each of their generations in North America. These are formed by combining one of the Japanese numbers corresponding to the generation with the Japanese word for the generation (sei 世). The Japanese-American and Japanese-Canadian communities have themselves distinguished their members with terms like Issei, Nisei, and Sansei which describe the first, second and third generation of immigrants. The fourth generation is called Yonsei (四世) and the fifth is called Gosei (五世). The Issei, Nisei and Sansei generations reflect distinctly different attitudes to authority, gender, involvement with non-Japanese, religious belief and practice, and other matters. The age when individuals faced wartime evacuation and internment during World War II has been found to be the most significant factor that explains such variations in attitudes and behavior patterns.
The term Nikkei (日系) was coined by a multinational group of sociologists. It encompasses all of the world’s Japanese immigrants across generations. The collective memory of the Issei and older Nisei was an image of Meiji Japan from 1870 through 1911. Newer immigrants carry many different memories of more recent Japan. These differing attitudes, social values, and associations with Japan were often incompatible with each other. The significant differences in post-war experiences and opportunities did nothing to mitigate the gaps which separated generational perspectives. Issei were the generation of people born in Japan who later immigrated to another country; Nisei were the generation of people born in North America, Latin America, Australia, Hawaii, or any country outside Japan either to at least one Issei or one non-immigrant Japanese parent; Sansei were the generation of people born to at least one Nisei parent; Yonsei was the generation of people born to at least one Sansei parent; Gosei was the generation of people born to at least one Yonsei parent.
A 1922 Supreme Court Ruling prohibited Issei from becoming naturalized citizens and the 1924 Exclusion Act ended Japanese immigration. Even as late as 1940, efforts were undertaken in Senate hearings to prevent the enlistment of minorities in the armed forces, including blacks and Japanese Americans. Thus, the Issei, who had imported their culture in whole expecting to eventually return home, instead ended up creating a unique culture melding the American concepts of freedom and opportunity with such Japanese cultural mores as familial piety, loyalty, obligation and on a deep sense of gratitude and indebtedness, garbage a never quit attitude, and haji an almost fatalistic drive to avoid shame and disgrace. While their heritage set them apart from other Americans, it also united them as people by providing common ideals and values amidst growing anti-Japanese sentiment. Further tempered by the early events of World War II, these traits formed the bedrock of the character of the entire combat team. As the Nisei came of age and struggled to prove the loyalty of their people, the regiment’s shared values formed a solid base for the cohesion among the Nisei in uniform. This cohesion, along with the nearly unanimous goal of having to prove themselves and their people, gave great motivation to the men of the 100/442d RCT. As America readied for war in 1940, Nisei in uniform faced a precarious situation. In Hawaii, the Selective Service Act brought much-needed manpower to the defense of the islands, but over one-half of the 3000 inductees in the now-federalized Hawaii National Guard’s, the 298th Regiment and the 299th Regiment were AJAs and a size able number also served in various Reserve Officer Training Corps: ROTC detachments.
By the time of the attack against Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941, Nisei in uniformed service and registered with the selective service numbered in the thousands. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the US into WW-2, all persons of Japanese ancestry throughout the services were at once branded disloyal and given restricted duty, removed from active service, or reclassified by the selective service as IV-C, ineligible for military service due to ancestry. The University of Hawaii’s ROTC detachment, after initially being activated and called to supplement the active and reserve forces in defense of the Hawaiian Islands was soon disbanded, its Japanese American members discharged from service.
The 298th Regiment and the 299th Regiment were forced to release or, in many instances, even incarcerate its Nisei soldiers. As severe as was the treatment of the Nisei in uniform, the plight of the AJAs not in uniform was worse. Almost 400 Issei – Nisei – and Kibei AJAs educated in Japan were interned in Hawaii, and many more were targeted for surveillance and, or investigation.
Those in military-related, sensitive, or otherwise vital labor positions were placed under armed escort and were issued special black restricted identification badges – loosely reminiscent of the Star of David worn by Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. Eventually, 1444 Japanese, 979 aliens, and 525 other AJAs were interned in Hawaii, and another 981 were sent to mainland internment camps. Beyond the regulations targeting the Nisei, the most visible example of an anti-Japanese frenzy following the attack on Pearl Harbor was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order (EO) 9066.
Signed on February 19, 1942, EO 9066 suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus, essentially stripped the Nisei of their Fifth Amendment right that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, and incarcerated over 120.000 Americans of Japanese Ancestry in ten mainland relocation centers. Justified as a military necessity by Gen John L. DeWitt, commander of the Western Defense Command and head of security for the West Coast, this action ran contrary to the reports from an adviser, the FBI, and even the US Army Counterespionage section in Hawaii. Yet, Gen DeWitt concluded that the AJA population posed a significant threat to the West Coast. Likewise, his claims that A Jap’s a Jap and an exact separation of the sheep from the goats was impossible personified Nisei‘s persecution in the Mainland and exemplified the prejudicial challenges faced by the mainland AJAs.
Against this backdrop of discrimination, the concept of an all-Japanese American unit was born. The first unit began as AJAs in the 298th and the 299th Regiments were dispersed and reassigned to non-combat units. It was soon apparent that another option was needed as combat support and combat service support units soon filled to authorized strength. Gen Delos C. Emmons, CO of the Army Hawaiian Department, then decided to group all AJA soldiers into a single unit. Army Chief of Staff Gen George C. Marshall, acting on these recommendations, authorized the formation of a strength all-Nisei battalion to be transferred to the mainland at the earliest opportunity and trained as an infantry combat unit. Thus was created the Nisei Hawaii Provisional Battalion, a unit born not of lofty ideals but of the simple necessity to determine what to do with the Japanese Americans already in uniform. The initial composition of the Hawaii Provisional Battalion when it left Hawaii for the mainland in June of 1942 was about 29 officers and 1300 enlisted men. Over 95% were sons of immigrants Nisei, 35% were dual citizens, and 2% were Kibei. At twenty-four years, the average age of the battalion was higher than the army average, but then so was the average of their Army intelligence scores, which at 103 was only seven points below the minimum required for entrance into the Officer Candidate School.
En route to its new training site at Camp McCoy (Wisconsin), the battalion was officially re-designated the 100-IB (S). This was a distinctive unit designation in that the Army’s regimental designation system during the period designated battalions assigned to parent regiments consecutively as first, second, and third. Since the Nisei unit was separate, without a parent unit, it was given the unique battalion designation of 100, or as the Hawaiians called it in their Pidgin English vernacular: One Puka Puka.
As the separate battalion adjusted to life in the mainland and the Midwest through late 1942, Army and political officials were still wrestling with the issue of what to do with the Nisei in the internment camps. The successful performance of the 100-ID-(S) could pave the way for the formation of a larger Japanese-American unit. Reactions to the employment of AJAs in combat were mixed. The AJAs themselves were enthusiastic about any opportunity to prove their patriotism and loyalty. However, upon hearing of the possible formation of a larger Nisei unit, the public outcry by individuals, as well as groups, was still high. Citizen groups, such as the Native Sons of the Golden West, or high-ranking officials like Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and Senator John L. Rankin, opposed the enlistment of AJAs.
Ironically, what turned the tide for the formation of a larger Nisei regiment was propaganda. Imperial Japanese propaganda in Southeast Asia maintained that the war against Japan was a war based on racial discrimination and used Executive Order 9066 and the relocation camps as evidence. Elmer Davis, director of the Office of Wartime Information, brought this matter to President Roosevelt, arguing that the formation of an AJA unit would discredit the enemy and have great propaganda value in itself. The propaganda value of the segregated regiment was dual purpose. In addition to discrediting enemy propaganda, the formation of an all-AJA unit would serve as a sort of friendly propaganda to also prove the loyalty of the AJAs to the American people. When questioned by prospective volunteers about the logic behind the segregated unit, recruiters explained: If your strength were diffused through the Army of the United States as has already been done with many other Americans of your blood relatively little account would be taken of your action. You would be important only as manpower nothing more. But united and working together, you would become a symbol of something greater than your individual selves, and the effect would be felt both in the United States and abroad. All other Americans would long remember you for what you had done for the country, and you would be living reproach to those who have been prejudiced against you because of your Japanese blood.
With the argument out in the open, others weighed in to argue that the formation of an all-Nisei unit was good for the AJAs and for America. Proponents included Gen Delos C. Emmons, Gen George C. Marshall, and Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy, who were astounded at the contributions of the Nisei Varsity Victory Volunteers to Hawaii’s defenses during a mid-1942 visit to the islands. Unencumbered by the racism of the West Coast or of the South as we shall see, and since most members of the separate battalion were former National Guardsmen with previous military training, the 100th Battalion’s training at Camp McCoy progressed rapidly, well beyond expectations.
Comments were highly positive from all corners. The 6th Service Command noted that the 100th Battalion was one of the best-trained outfits encamped in the Mid-West and visiting generals as well as observers were routinely impressed with the battalion’s proficiency with weapons and tactics. The proficiency of the 100th Battalion added immensely to the argument for the formation of the AJA regiment. The matter was finally settled on January 22, 1943, when the War Department directed the formation of the AJA 442nd Regimental Combat Team, composed of the 442nd Infantry Regiment, the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, the 232nd Engineer Combat Battalion, an Anti-Tank Company, a Cannon Company, and additional service and support units.
President Roosevelt endorsed the move saying: The proposal of the War Department to organize a combat team consisting of loyal American citizens of Japanese descent has my full approval. No loyal citizen of the United States should be denied the democratic right to exercise the responsibilities of his citizenship, regardless of his ancestry. The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry. A good American is one who is loyal to this country and to our creed of liberty and democracy. Every loyal American citizen should be given an opportunity to serve this country.
In January 1943, the 100th Battalion moved to Camp Shelby (Mississippi), for the battalion and higher-level collective training. Shortly after, in February, recruiting began to fill the initial requirement for 4500 volunteers for the Nisei Regiment. Reactions to the call were mixed. Hawaiian Nisei, or Buddha‘s heads, were elated with the decision. They would finally have an opportunity to prove themselves. The Mainland Nisei, previously subjected to blatant racism and having suffered through the internment centers, had different views. Many were bitter and angry.
This was not the only source of disagreement between the two Nisei groups within the 442-RCT. The War Department had hoped to fill the 442-RCT’s initial call for Nisei volunteers with roughly 3500 from the mainland relocation centers and 1500 from Hawaii. The Mainland Nisei, feeling betrayed, were reluctant to volunteer; only about 1200 were recruited from the internment camps. In stark contrast, more than 10.000 volunteered from Hawaii, and 2600 were accepted during the initial call. This imbalance would also be a source of continued friction between the Mainland-born Kotonks and the Buddha heads from Hawaii.
Too the Hawaiian Nisei, who were part of the largest ethnic group in the islands and had not known prejudice or racism, were generally gregarious and outgoing. But the Kotonks, raised as minorities on the mainland, were frequently more reserved and less outgoing than their counterparts from Hawaii. The difference in attitudes between the jovial Buddhaheads and mainland-born Kotonks caused minor scuffles between the two groups early on. Fights broke out during training at first but subsided as the men bonded under combat. Still, the terms Buddha‘s head and Kotonk jokingly persisted throughout the war.
442nd Regimental Combat Team (Order of Battle)
Hqs & Headquarter Company
1st Battalion (Abel, Baker, Charlie, Dog)
2nd Battalion (Easy, Fox, George, How)
3rd Battalion (Item, King, Love, Mike)
100th Infantry Battalion
Field Artillery Battalion
Hqs Battery, Battery A, Battery B, Battery C
1 Engineer Company
1 Anti-Tank Company
1 Cannon Company
1 Service Company
1 Medical Detachment
Despite minor, mainly colloquial differences, the men bonded together and the Nisei’s proficiency continued to impress onlookers, including every unit to which the unit was attached. Still, the 100th Battalion and soon the 442nd Regiment were subject to prejudice, not only from GIs already stationed at Camp Shelby but from the surrounding southern populace who seemed confused and sometimes hostile towards the blur in the segregation between black and white caused by the brown-skinned Nisei. In addition to the prejudice of other GIs and the locals, Army investigations continued to the extent that an inspector at Camp Shelby at one point was checking fingerprints on tableware! Another blow to the AJAs’ fight against racism was the loyalty test administered in the internment camps in the direction of Dillon S. Myer, director of the War Relocation Authority. While well intentioned to simply determine the willingness of Mainland AJAs to serve in the military, the loyalty test instead provoked riots. The Nisei were US citizens by birth, but now, on top of being imprisoned by their own country, they were being asked to forswear allegiance to an enemy country to which they had never belonged. This slap in the face was enough to further hamper recruiting efforts in the relocation centers. No such test was administered to Hawaiian Nisei. While the 100-IB’s collective training continued, recruiting for the 442-RCT concluded an individual, or basic, training for the regiment began in May 1943 and lasted through October. Training for the 442nd progressed rapidly too, though not quite as rapidly as had the 100-IBs, due primarily to the fact that the Battalion’s men had more military experience to start with and were, generally, older and more mature than the 442nd’s complement.
442-RCT – Combat
While the regiment was still undergoing basic training, the call for deployment came for the 100-B. Departing Camp Shelby on August 11, it arrived in Oran (North Africa), on Sept 2 and moved on to Italy shortly thereafter. Following basic training, the 442-RCT completed advanced unit training or Series D exercises by March 1944, and after successful inspection and review by Gen Marshall, the commander of the 442-RCT, Col Charles W. Pence, was directed to prepare the unit for overseas movement. By the time the 442-RCT reached the battlefront, the 100th Battalion had been in the combat zone for almost nine months, attached to the 34th Infantry Division of Gen Mark W. Clark’s Fifth Army. It received its baptism of fire at Salerno and fought at Cassino and Anzio. Despite a warm reception and an in-theater integration, familiarization, and training program hosted by the seasoned 34th Infantry Division, initial losses were extremely heavy. Suffering over 900 casualties out of its complement of 1300, the 100th Battalion earned the moniker: ‘Purple Heart Battalion‘. Replacements were received from the 1/442-RCT still in training at Camp Shelby. Still, the AJAs of the 100th Battalion fought well.
Gen Mark W. Clark remarked: I should mention here that a bright spot in this period was the performance of the 100-B, which had recently been assigned to the 34-ID. This battalion was made up of Japanese-Americans and was to become one of the most valuable units in the US 5-A Except for several months in southern France, the 100-B fought magnificently throughout the Italian campaign. 
It won the Presidential Unit Citation for the destruction of a German SS-Battalion on Mount Belvedere. These Nisei troops seem to be very conscious of the fact that they had an opportunity to prove the loyalty of many thousands of Americans of Japanese Ancestry and they willingly paid a high price to achieve that goal. I was proud to have them in the 5-A.