THE EUROPEAN FRONT
To view an interactive map of the European Front, click
here.
READING:
Following the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese
Americans were viewed with great suspicion. Like other Americans,
many young Nisei
(second generation Japanese American) wanted to join the military
to prove their loyalty. By then the government had classified
them as 4-C
or “enemy non-aliens” and therefore they could not
enlist.
There were some Japanese Americans, however, already in the military.
More than half of the Hawaii National Guard consisted of Nisei
soldiers. Questioning their loyalty, the government separated
these Nisei and sent them to the mainland
(the continental U.S.). They were activated into a new unit, the
100th
Infantry Battalion (Separate) and sent to Camp McCoy Wisconsin
for training.
Almost immediately, the Nisei were met with suspicion and distrust
and conflict soon arose with a group of Texas recruits. Despite
their small size, the Nisei soldiers were not intimidated by the
Texas recruits. The Texans did not realize that the 100th soldiers
were experienced in judo and when a fight did occur the Nisei
soldiers would win. Eventually, the men of the 100th formed a
baseball team and played friendship games with the locals and
shattered the stereotypes held of Japanese Americans. The 100th
then relocated to Camp Shelby in Mississippi for additional training.
Lt. Young Oak Kim, a Korean American, was assigned to the 100th.
The commanding officer, knowing that “Japanese and Koreans
don’t get along” was ready to transfer Kim out. Kim
replied, “…I am an American, and the Japanese are
Americans too. We are all going to fight for America. I’d
like to stay in the battalion,
sir.” Kim stayed with the 100th and became a part of military
history.
In August 1943, the 100th was ordered overseas where they joined
the 34th Division in North Africa, which had fallen to the Germans.
Once North Africa was secured, the 34th Division attacked Italy,
the weakest of the three Axis
partners. The plan was to keep hundreds of thousands of German
soldiers in the south so they couldn’t be used against the
main Allied
invasion of Western Europe later in spring 1944.
BATTLE
OF CASSINO – BRAVERY AND SACRIFICE
Monte Cassino, an ancient monastery, blocked the Allied advance
to Rome. Some military experts called Monte Cassino one of the
world’s greatest natural defenses with walls 10- to 15-inches
thick. The German army added deadly defenses: long-range heavy
artillery, mortars, machine guns and pillboxes carved in the solid
rocks that could produce deadly gunfire. Land mines were an additional
peril. The 100th faced all the dangers but paid the price in lives.
From a full battalion of 1,300, five months later the 100th’s
numbers stood at 521. War correspondents wrote glowing reports
about “the little iron men.” In the United States,
it became known as the “Purple
Heart Battalion” due to it's extreme casualty rate.
The 100th's courage and patriotism could no longer be questioned.
THE 442ND REGIMENTAL COMBAT TEAM
In 1943, President Roosevelt announced the formation of a new
unit – the 442nd
Regimental Combat Team, the second segregated all Japanese
American unit. The Nisei from Hawaii responded with enthusiasm.
Young Nisei men imprisoned in U.S. concentration camps struggled
with the decision to join. Despite the injustices they had experienced,
young men made the decision to serve.
New recruits came together at Camp Shelby, Mississippi to train.
Differences in lifestyles, language and life experiences caused
conflict. Soon the Nisei began to label each other: the Nisei
from Hawaii called the Nisei from the mainland “kotonks,”
while the Nisei from the mainland called the Nisei from Hawaii
“Buddhaheads.”
Fights between them threatened the future of the entire unit.
The Nisei from Hawaii did not have families imprisoned in camps.
Upon visiting the camps in Arkansas, they finally understood the
cruel injustices faced by the Nisei from the mainland. For the
first time, the Nisei from Hawaii faced the harsh living conditions
in the camps. They saw the guard towers and barbed wire fences.
They saw families living in barracks divided into rooms with toilet
facilities and mess halls in separate barracks. Daniel Inouye
recalled, “We understood what the ‘kotonks’
(Nisei from the mainland) were suffering and that they are our
brothers.” After the sobering experience, the 442nd became
a real unit ready to take on the future. In June 1944, the 442nd
shipped out to Europe where the 100th joined the 442nd’s
2nd and 3rd battalions. Instead of being renamed the 1st Battalion,
the100th was allowed to keep its name as a title of distinction.
KEY BATTLES - TESTS OF COURAGE
The 100th/442nd demonstrated its courage, determination, and
skill in high-risk missions. The Battle
of Belvedere was the 442nd’s first combat experience.
The untested 2nd and 3rd Battalion of the 442nd faced a German
SS battalion and came under heavy artillery fire. In a unique
maneuver, the 100th moved in to assist the 442nd to take Belvedere,
killing more than 170 Germans, capturing 40 prisoners and their
equipment. The 100th received its first Presidential
Unit Citation, the highest recognition given to a military
unit, for the capture of Belvedere.
Months later, the battle-tested 442nd was sent to France. Its
first target was the town of Bruyeres,
a key supply center for German forces. The town was surrounded
by hills on three sides. The terrain was rugged and covered by
tall pines and thick underbrush. Mortar and artillery fire in
the tall trees showered the men with hundreds of fragments. The
442nd met fierce resistance; it's advance was measured in yards.
The unit captured Bruyeres but lost 1,200 men - roughly half it's
fighting force to do so.
While in France, the 100th/442nd was sent to rescue the 1st
Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, of the 36th "Texas"
Division after other rescue attempts had failed. It was late
in October 1944. Fighting conditions were difficult with dense
fog, rain and freezing temperatures. The men faced numbing cold
that swelled their feet inside their boots. Danger came from artillery
shells that exploded in the trees, raining down shrapnel and branches.
To reach the Lost Battalion the soldiers fought from tree to tree
to avoid deadly machine gunfire. Private
Barney Hajiro single-handedly destroyed three enemy machine
gun nests. Major Claude D. Roscoe of the Texas Battalion described
the meeting this way: “The first man I met of the 442nd
was T/Sgt. Takeo Senzaki of Los Angeles. We all had tears in our
eyes and were glad to see them…” At the end of the
mission, the 100th/442nd saved the lives of 211 Texans while suffering
over 216 men casualties with more than 856 wounded.
Ordered back to Italy, the 100th/442nd was given the challenging
mission to destroy the Gothic
Line, the last German stronghold south of the Alps. The German
army had spent nine months carving their positions out of solid
rock, reinforced with concrete. They were prepared or so they
thought. In the darkness of night on April 4, 1945, the 442nd
began its attack. The soldiers moved out in total silence and
began climbing Mount Folgorito - 2,800 feet of 60 percent incline,
carrying full packs. They clawed their way up the slippery slopes,
grabbing onto anything they could, including bushes and sharp
stones to keep from falling. A few fell to their death, never
uttering any sound that would betray their friends’ positions.
Reaching the top, they surprised the Germans and accomplished
in 32 minutes, what six months of previous attempts had failed.
But again the 442nd suffered heavy casualties.
The 522nd
Field Artillery Battalion was part of the 442nd that rescued
Holocaust survivors in Germany. The 522nd had been reassigned
to the 62nd Infantry Division, which was in hot pursuit of the
retreating German army. Advance scouts of the 522nd came across
a subcamp of the now infamous Dachau camp on April 29, 1945.
The men of the 522nd were among the first to encounter and provide
assistance to the starving survivors they found. George
Oiye of the 522nd recalled: “We were told not to give
them food because it wasn’t the best thing for them…We
did give them medicine…we provided them whatever aid we
could.”
Men of the 522nd witnessed first hand the horrors of the genocide
that claimed more than 11 million people including 6 million Jews.
The humanitarian effort of the 522nd has been officially recognized
in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. For these soldiers,
whose families were imprisoned back home in what were called “America’s
concentration
camps,” the irony of freeing Jews from Hitler’s
slave camps must have been overwhelming.
ACTIVITIES
Framework Standards Context
California Standards
Grade 11
11.7 Students analyze the American participation in World War
II.
