This banner was in Uncle’s house. I believe it recognizes the 442nd regimental combat team. What I do know about them would fit in a thimble. My uncles all joined the military effort and returned safely. Some or all of of them were in this regiment. I know Uncle Yoshio was down, this first pic was taken off his living room wall. My Aunt Mabel, his wife, painted the helmet. I admire the slogan “Go for Broke”. Very Samurai. Sometimes you got to go all in. Here is something about the regimental combat team. This is all Wikipedia: The 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army was a regimental size fighting unit composed almost entirely of American soldiers of Japanese ancestry who fought in World War II, despite the fact many of their families were subject to internment. The 442nd is the most decorated unit in U.S. military history. The 442nd was awarded eight Presidential Unit Citations and twenty-one of its members were awarded the Medal of Honor for World War II. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team motto was Go for Broke. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of American warfare.[3] The 4,000 men who initially came in April 1943 had to be replaced nearly 2.5 times. In total, about 14,000 men served, earning 9,486 Purple Hearts. The unit was awarded eight Presidential Unit Citations (5 earned in one month).[27]:201 Twenty-one of its members were awarded Medals of Honor.[2] Members of the 442nd received 18,143 awards Most Japanese Americans who fought in World War II were Nisei, Japanese Americans born in the United States. Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Japanese American men were initially categorized as 4C (enemy alien) and therefore not subject to the draft. On 19 February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 instituting interment camps. Although the order did not refer specifically to people of Japanese ancestry, it set the stage for the internment of people of Japanese ancestry. In Hawaii, martial law, complete with curfews and blackouts, was imposed. A large portion of the population was of Japanese ancestry (150,000 out of 400,000 people in 1937) and internment was deemed not practical, mostly for economic reasons. If the government had interned the Japanese Americans and immigrants in Hawaii, the economy would not have survived. More than 1,300 Japanese American soldiers of the 298th and 299th Infantry Regiment regiments of the Hawaii National Guard were kept on duty after the Pearl Harbor attack. The discharged members of the Hawaii Territorial Guard petitioned General Emmons to allow them to assist in the war effort. The petition was granted and they formed a group called the Varsity Victory Volunteers, which performed various military construction jobs. General Emmons, worried about the loyalty of Japanese American soldiers in the event of a Japanese invasion, recommended to the War Department that those in the 298th and 299th regiments be organized into a Hawaiian Provisional Battalion and sent to the mainland. The move was authorized, and on 5 June 1942, the Hawaiian Provisional Battalion set sail for training. They landed at Oakland, California on 10 June 1942 and two days later were sent to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. On 15 June 1942, the battalion was designated the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate)—the One Puka Puka. While the Varsity Victory Volunteers proved their dedication to the United States, the 100th performed so well in training that, on 1 February 1943, the U.S. government reversed its decision on Japanese Americans serving in the armed forces. It approved the formation of a Japanese-American combat unit. The U.S. Army called for 1,500 volunteers from Hawaii and 3,000 from the mainland. An overwhelming 10,000 men from Hawaii came forth. Around 3,000 men from Hawaii and 800 men from the mainland were inducted. President Roosevelt announced the formation of the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team, saying, Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.[5] Ultimately, the draft was instated to obtain more Japanese Americans from the mainland and these made up a large part of the 14,000 men who eventually served in the 442nd Regiment.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 06:12:59 +0000
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