1943

Military Intelligence Service Nisei accompany both Australian and American troops at Buna and then at every battle that occurs along New Guinea’s coast. Military Intelligence Service Language School graduates are at the forward area as well as at the rear.

100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) leaves Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, for Camp Shelby, Mississippi, for additional training.

War Department letter directs that a Japanese American combat team should be activated on February 1 and should be composed of the 442nd Infantry Regiment, the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, and the 232nd Combat Engineer Company.

War Department calls for volunteers, drawing nearly 10,000 Nisei from Hawai’i, which far surpasses the quota of 1,500. Another 1,200 volunteer from the mainland, although the quota is 3,000. Most are volunteers from incarceration centers.¹ Some 2,680 are accepted for induction.

At the request of the men of the Triple V, the unit is deactivated so that its members can enlist in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT).

The War Department and the War Relocation Authority issue an “Application for Leave Clearance” to every resident over seventeen held in the incarceration centers. Known as the “loyalty questionnaire,” the document “tests” whether individuals of Japanese descent are “loyal” or “disloyal” to the United States.2 Thousands who answered “no-no” to Questions #27 and #28 are later sent to Tule Lake.³

The 442nd is activated by President Roosevelt: “Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.” They adopt as their slogan, “Go for broke,” a Hawaiian slang phrase used in craps games to “shoot the works,” or to hold nothing back. Also activated are the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, comprised of nine Caucasian officers and 96 enlisted men, all of Japanese descent;⁴ and the 232nd Combat Engineer Company, uniquely comprised of all Japanese American officers and enlisted men.⁵

Sand Island detainment center on Oahu, Hawai’i, closes. Remaining detainees are transferred to a new center at Honouliuli, a gulch in central Oahu.

The Honolulu Chamber of Commerce sponsors a farewell ceremony at the Iolani Palace for 1,686 Nisei volunteers for the 442nd RCT.d to a new center at Honouliuli, a gulch in central Oahu.

The 442nd RCT arrives at Camp Shelby, Mississippi.

Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt protests the return of Japanese American soldiers and their families to their homes in his testimony before the House Naval Affairs Committee: “A Jap’s a Jap-it makes no difference if he is a citizen or not.” His testimony, released to the media, causes uproar in the Japanese American community.6

Nisei MIS linguist Harold Fudenna, with the 138th Signal Intercept Company, translates an intercepted radio message that reveals the air route that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto will take in his inspection of Japanese facilities on Bougainville. Two days later, Yamamoto’s bomber is shot down, and he perishes with it.

Western Defense Command allows Nisei soldiers to travel throughout the exclusion zones. MISLS sends five Nisei to interrogation camp Byron Hot Springs, California, to process prisoners of war (POW).⁷

About sixteen MIS Nisei serve as translators and interrogators on Attu Island in the Aleutians. The War Department sends an additional twenty Nisei to support the assault on Kiska Island.⁸

442nd RCT begins basic training at Camp Shelby in Mississippi.

Dillon S. Myer, Director of the War Relocation Authority, makes a statement that incarceration centers “are undesirable institutions and should be removed from the American scene as soon as possible.” He continues: “Life in a relocation center is an unnatural and un-American sort of life. Keep in mind that the evacuees were charged with nothing except having Japanese ancestors; yet the very fact of their confinement in relocation centers fosters suspicion of their loyalties and adds to their discouragement. It has added weight to the contentions of the enemy [the Empire of Japan] that we are fighting a race war – that this nation preaches democracy and practices racial discrimination.”⁹

The 100th returns to Camp Shelby from maneuvers in Louisiana and meets up with the 442nd RCT for the first time. About 20 MIS Nisei are assigned to Sixth Army headquarters, which lands combat teams on Woodlark and Kiriwina Islands, New Guinea. MIS linguists also accompany the 41st Infantry Division at Nassau Bay.

The US Supreme Court rules in separate court cases against Gordon Hirabayashi and Minoru Yasui, who both challenged their military evacuation orders and were subsequently arrested and imprisoned.

The Court upholds the constitutionality of the curfew and detention of Japanese Americans.¹⁰

The Americans invade New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. Accompanying the 43rd Division is a team of ten MIS Nisei. They are joined two weeks later by another team.

A team of ten Nisei led by Harry Katsuto Andow is assigned to the Joint Army-Navy Intelligence Collection Agency in New Delhi, India. Another team joins them three months later.

Company S, comprising Japanese Americans from the MISLS at Camp Savage, joins the 442nd RCT.

100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) leaves Camp Shelby for their first overseas assignment.

100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) sails from Staten Island on the SS James Parker, a peacetime tourist boat.

Basic training for most of the 442nd RCT. ends, although late arrivals continue to come in from incarceration camps.

MISLS sends Kiyoshi Hirano and Yutaka Namba to New York to work on confidential translation work. They diligently but unknowingly work through 1944 in support of the Manhattan Project.

A team of MIS Nisei led by John A. Burden assist American and New Zealand forces on Vella Lavella in the Solomon Islands.

MISLS selects 14 Nisei volunteers to join special forces unit Merrill’s Marauders. MIS Nisei assist American and Australian forces at landings near Lae on the northern coast of New Guinea.

The 100th lands in Oran, North Africa, and is assigned to guard supply trains from Casablanca to Tunisia. Wanting frontline duties, 100th Colonel Farrant Turner rejects this, and the 100th is subsequently assigned to the 34th Infantry “Red Bull” Division.

About six months after the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was activated, Cannon Company is activated.

The 100th lands on the beach at Salerno, Italy, as a part of the 133rd Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division. Associated Press correspondent Relman “Pat” Morin files a story about the 100th Battalion (Separate) at Salerno eagerly waiting to prove their national loyalty “with smiles of anticipation.” This is the first time Americans become aware that Japanese Americans are fighting abroad.¹¹

The 100th Battalion’s first casualty is suffered by Conrad Tsukayama at Montemarano. He is hit by a fragment from an anti-tank mine.

First day of combat for the 100th. Baseball star Shigeo “Joe” Takata is the first member of the 100th to be killed in action and the first to receive the Distinguished Service Cross.

Japanese American women are accepted into the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Through the end of WWII, 142 Japanese American women volunteered for the WAC.

Platoon and company training for the 442nd RCT begins in Mississippi and continues for a month.

MIS Nisei with the 37th Infantry Division join the 3rd Marine Division at Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.

133rd Infantry Regiment, 34th Division and the 100th begin offensive attacks against the Germans, crossing the Volturno River for the third time, south of Naples.

War Department reclassifies American citizens of Japanese ancestry for military service. It also permits the induction of Japanese aliens who volunteer and who meet certain requirements into the US Army.

Two MIS Nisei are sent to the G-2 section, Northern Combat Area Command, headquartered in New Delhi, India.