DESIGN

The design for the Go For Broke Monument was carefully selected by a jury panel from among 138 entries from artists, architects, designers, students, internees, and veterans. The competition was open to the public and publicized throughout the United States, as well as Japan, Europe, and Canada.

Roger M. Yanagita, a Los Angeles architect, was announced as the winner of the international Go For Broke Monument design competition on January 14, 1991.

Roger Yanagita’s initial inspiration for the Monument’s circular design came from reading about the battles of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in the book, Go For Broke. The book describes soldiers charging forward with sheer guts and heroism to take a hill – a banzai hill. The imagery of a hill also represents the struggles that Japanese Americans had to overcome when their loyalty was questioned after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

The pillars surrounding the Monument represent the forests of Europe, where many of the battles of the 100th/442nd were fought.