“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the opportunity to tell you what you have done for this country. You fought not only the enemy, but you fought prejudice. And you won. You have made the Constitution stand for what it really means: the welfare of all the people, all the time.”- President Harry S. Truman speaking to the 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, July 15, 1946
On March 30, 1942, the War Department issued an order discontinuing the induction of Japanese Americans into the U.S. armed services. The order classified them as unsuitable for military service. Some government officials and the Japanese American Citizens League argued that American citizens of Japanese ancestry should have the same opportunity to prove their patriotism and bear the same responsibility to fight for their country. +More...
In 1943, some branches of the military, including the Army, were opened to persons of Japanese ancestry. Counting draftees, volunteers, and pre-Pearl Harbor enlistees, more than 33,000 Japanese Americans served in World War II. Most served in segregated units with the 100th Battalion, a Hawaiian National Guard unit, and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a unit of mainland Nisei that combined with the 100th for service in Europe.
For its size and length of service, the 100th/442nd was the most decorated U.S. military unit in U.S. history. About 6,000 Nisei served in the Pacific theater with the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), using Japanese language skills to aid the American war effort. According to General MacArthur’s Intelligence Chief, the MIS was responsible for having “saved countless lives and shortened the war by two years.”
“An oft-repeated ritual in relocation camp schools . . . was the salute to the flag followed by the singing of “My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty”—a ceremony Caucasian teachers found embarrassingly awkward if not cruelly poignant in the austere prison-camp setting.” - Michi Weglyn, Years of Infamy
The men and women who joined the military were not the only Americans of Japanese ancestry who contributed to the war effort. Manzanar internees immediately went to work helping to build and maintain a community that included mess halls and agricultural operations, a hospital, a newspaper, and schools. Children participated in patriotic assemblies and pledged allegiance to the American flag. Nearly 500 citizen internees wove camouflage nets for U.S. Army use overseas. +More...
One effort, the quayule project, channeled the unique scientific and research talents of Manzanar residents in support of the war effort. When America’s rubber supply was cut off by Japanese incursions into Southeast Asia, government agencies sought alternative sources of rubber. During the spring of 1942, experiments in guayule rubber culture were undertaken at Manzanar. Dr. Robert Emerson, a Cal Tech professor and Quaker, assembled a group of internee scientists, horticulturists and laborers to develop rubber from guayule. Propagation beds, field plots, a chemical and a cytogenetics laboratory were built in camp. They successfully extracted natural rubber contained in the woody parts of this desert plant. Camp administrators and internees promoted the project both as a chance to allow internees to use their agricultural and scientific expertise and to contribute to the war effort.