What was 442nd regiment

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Murphy, Thomas D. Shirey, Orville C. Americans: The Story of the d Combat Team. Washington, Takaki, Ronald. Boston, Tanaka, Chester. On the mainland, the reception was much less enthusiastic.

The War Department set a goal of 3, recruits, and came away with just 1, Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, officials began plans to "evacuate" the Japanese American community. But on the mainland, the "relocation" of the Japanese American community was quickly becoming a reality. On February 19, , President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order , which laid the groundwork for the mass relocation of more than , persons of Japanese ancestry to remote "camps.

Whole families were incarcerated in crowded, tar paper barracks, in the desolate wind-swept desert. Yet even from behind the barbed wire, and despite the fact that many of their own rights had been taken away, some 1, American-born Japanese men volunteered to fight for their homeland, America. Hawaii-born Nisei made up about two-thirds of the regiment. The remaining one-third were Nisei from the mainland. The islanders were nicknamed "Buddhaheads. The mainlanders were "Katonks" or "Kotonks" , which for some represented the hollow sound their heads made when they hit the floor in a fistfight.

Immediately, the two groups clashed with each other. The Buddhaheads thought the mainlanders were sullen and unfriendly. The Katonks found the islanders to be impulsive and crude. Money was another source of division between the groups. The Buddhaheads gambled heavily and spent freely using the cash sent by their parents who still worked in Hawaii. They thought the Katonks were cheap, because they were less liberal with their money. They didn't realize that many of them sent most of their meager Army pay to their families imprisoned in the incarceration centers.

The Katonks hardly discussed their families' situation. Misunderstandings, often fueled by alcohol, turned into fistfights. The friction between the two groups was so extreme that the military high command considered disbanding the nd.

They doubted whether the men could ever fight as a unit. To solve the problem, the Army decided to send a group of Buddhaheads to visit the incarceration centers in nearby Arkansas. The men thought Jerome and Rowher were little towns with Japanese families. But when the trucks rolled past the barbed wire fence, past the guard towers armed with machine guns pointed at the center residents, past the tar paper barracks where whole families crowded in small compartments with no privacy, the Buddhaheads finally understood.

Word of the "camps" spread quickly, and the Buddhaheads gained a whole new respect for the Katonks. Immediately, the men in the nd became united, like a tightly clenched fist.

From May through February the men trained for combat. During training, many would be sent as replacements for the th Infantry Battalion Separate fighting in Europe.

The men excelled at maneuvers and learned to operate as a team. In April the regiment packed up, and on April 22, , the men left Camp Shelby for their first overseas assignment in Europe.

The 1st Infantry Battalion remained in the States to train new recruits. Stimson himself, in a personally handwritten memorandum to the Chief of Staff General Marshall dated October 14, , wrote:. But McCloy further urged Stimson to adopt a military policy utilizing Japanese Americans in the armed forces. In a memorandum dated October 28, , he argued:. The assembly of Japanese, either by recruitment or induction, into one unit would enable the unit to manifest en masse its loyalty to the United States, and this manifestation would provide the propaganda effect desired.

As a beginning, it is suggested that a regiment of infantry might be recruited and organized. This regiment would have all American officers and would be organized as a separate infantry unit.

It could be assigned a station initially not in or contiguous to a theater of operations or defense zone. Such an organization would, in a measure, be a challenge to the Japanese protestations of loyalty and the personnel of such an organization would, it is believed, go to great lengths to demonstrate that loyalty.

When asked to estimate the number of Nisei from Hawaii who would volunteer, General Emmons cabled his reaction back to the War Department on November 5, , stating:. Am confident that these men will give an excellent account of themselves in an European theater.

We are the descendants and friends of the nd Regimental Combat Team and are dedicated to perpetuating their legacy. At the outbreak of the war, Japanese Americans faced suspicion and distrust. Executive Order by President Roosevelt sealed the fate of Japanese Americans and their parents and relatives living on the West Coast.