![]() With that, the empire would be able to invade other countries and colonies in the Pacific with little resistance. ![]() The Japanese mission for the attack was to destroy major parts of America’s Pacific Fleet. The ship would burn for almost two days, with over 1,000 crewmen buried inside. One of these bombs hit the forward magazine of the USS Arizona, exploding 1 million pounds of her artillery. Their pilots dropped bombs and torpedoes, modified so the explosives could move in Pearl Harbor’s shallow waters. That was before they heard the bombs hit.Īt 7:48 a.m., the Japanese attacked military bases on Oahu in Hawaii, including Pearl Harbor. Nobody thought much of the roar of the planes flying overhead. It was a clear day, and many of the soldiers and civilians around the base were at the morning colors ceremony on one of the ships, or otherwise starting their Sunday mornings. The morning of the attack started out like any other Sunday on Oahu. Our team is taking this day to recollect our experiences at Pearl Harbor National Memorial, and remembering Pearl Harbor in the process. into the war happened 78 years ago this year. With that, the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the U.S. Since the war ended in 1945, next year will only be the 75th anniversary of the end of a war that cost millions of lives. In the end, more than 14,000 served in the 442nd, the nickname of which was "Go for Broke." Between them, they were awarded 18,143 awards, including 9,485 Purple Hearts, 21 Medals of Honor, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, 560 Silver Stars, 4,000 Bronze Stars, 22 Legion of Merit Medals, 15 Soldier's Medals, one Distinguished Service Medal, and eight Presidential Unit Citations.World War II wasn’t that long ago. In April of that same year, the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, one unit of the 422nd that was sent further west, entered Germany and found the outskirts of the Dachau concentration camp, from which they rescued hundreds of prisoners and gave them food and clothing. On March 23, 1945, they captured a German submarine and presented it as a gift to the Navy.Īfter dispatching their "gift," the 442nd went on to break the vaunted Gothic Line, a huge network of German gun pits and concrete-reinforced trenches that featured more than 2,000 machine guns that could provide interlocking fire. The 442nd also accomplished a feat unique in the annals of the U.S. (A road in the city is named the Avenue of the 442nd Infantry Regiment.) The 442nd also succeeded in rescuing the " Lost Battalion," the 1st Battalion of the 141st Infantry that was surrounded by German forces that had repulsed two previous rescue attempts. One particularly hard-fought slog through the murderous Vosges Mountains resulted in the liberation of the city of Bruyeres. For the next several months, the members of the 442nd engaged in heavy fighting to liberate Italy from Axis control. Members of the 442nd, which eventually included the 100th Infantry, shipped out in 1944, to fight in Europe. (One was Daniel Inouye, right), who would later go on to serve four decades in the U.S. As a result, of the nearly 4,000 initial members of the 442nd, three-quarters were from Hawaii. By contrast, a call for 3,000 volunteers from the mainland got only 1,200 responses. An initial call for 1,500 volunteers from Hawaii got more than 10,000 responses. AT the same time, members of the 298th and the 299th regiments were formed into the Hawaiian Provisional Battalion, later called the 100th Infantry, and sent to Wisconsin for training.Īrmy officials were so impressed with the 100th Infantry and with the Varsity Victory Volunteers that they approved the formation of a Japanese-American combat unit, on Feb. Members of the Hawaii Territorial Guard, which was composed mainly of ROTC students from the University of Hawaii, petitioned to be included in the war effort, and they were given permission to form the Varsity Victory Volunteers, whose involvement was restricted to military construction jobs. Government authorized internment of Japanese and Japanese-Americans in the mainland U.S., that internment didn't extend to Hawaii because the economic risk of taking so many people out of the island economy was deemed too high. At that time, a very large number of Hawaii residents were Japanese or Japanese-American. Distrust of Japanese and Japanese-Americans was quite high in many areas of the U.S. Sighting of Japanese submarines had been reported along the West Coast, and fears of an invasion of Alaska and further south were very real. Government declared martial law in Hawaii after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. The volunteers who made up the 442nd fought in Europe in the last two years of World War II. ![]() The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up nearly entirely of Japanese-Americans, was the United States Army's most decorated infantry regiment ever. The Famous 442nd: Japanese-Americans Fought Fiercely for America
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