Author: Brett Fujioka
On Sunday, March 30, veterans of the 100th Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team celebrated the 65th anniversary of their formation during World War II. They ended the week long celebration of their anniversary with a luncheon at the Hilton Hawai’ian Village Coral Ballroom in Honolulu, Hawai’i.
The 100th Battalion and 442nd Regiment were army divisions consisting mostly of Japanese-Americans during the second World War. They formed after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942 in light of the war in the Pacific between Japan and America after Pearl Harbor. The order forced a majority of Japanese-Americans on the West coast to “relocate,” imprisoning them in a series of Internment Camps. However, after this decree, Roosevelt allowed the organization of the 442nd, and said “Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry” on behalf of the regiment.
The keynote speaker at the event was the Hawai’ian Senator Daniel K. Inouye, a veteran of the regiment’s Company E. Inouye lost his right arm to a German grenade during the war and, despite his injuries, refused to pull back until the rest of his subordinates were out of harm’s way. Before President Bill Clinton left office, he bestowed the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration, to Senator Inouye and 20 other veterans of the 442nd.
While speaking, Inouye recollected his memories of the war. “The first day I remembered was December 7,” he said. “I remember thinking that maybe my life was over . . . This is the beginning of the end.” Despite the racist climate surrounding most of the United States at the time, he said he was served “coffee and donuts” by white neighbors in Camp Shelby, MI. He further recounted how the Japanese Hawi’ians of the 100th Battalion initially didn’t get along with the Japanese-American mainlanders of the 442nd Regiment. It wasn’t until his visit to an internment camp, of which he said was composed of “men and women who looked like us,” that his outlook changed. The United States didn’t intern any Hawai’ian Japanese-Americans, aside from a few community leaders, because 40 percent of the state’s population was of Japanese origin. Doing so would have greatly affected the state’s agricultural economy.
During World War II, Occidental College had its own Japanese-American students transfer to schools in the East coast to avoid detainment. Many of the Japanese American students at Oxy from both Hawai’i and the mainland have relatives who were either interned or served in the military.Inouye remembered saying to himself, “Would I have volunteered [for the army] if I was in this camp . . . I don’t know. That’s love of community and loyalty to the extreme.” It was at that point that their squabbles ceased and the regiment was truly formed.
As the veterans underwent the solemnities of the event, many of them had to sit down on makeshift chairs while waiting for the procession of the flags. A few of the veterans were either resting on walking canes or were confined to wheel chairs due to their old age. Most of them are at least 83 years old. The event’s attendance was also greatly diminished compared to five years ago.
Despite this, the event was rather optimistic. “Is this really going to be our last [reunion]?” Inouye said. “Hell no. This is just the beginning.” His sentiment matches the event’s slogan of “65 years and still Going for Broke.” This bears a striking contrast to their last reunion five years ago, where Inouye somberly made it seem like it would be their last.
Even though many of the veterans within the 442nd Regiment accomplished during their brief service in the military what a lot of soldiers couldn’t fulfill in a life time, Inouye said, “Our work is still not finished.” He said that he hoped to “convey [their] spirit to [their] sons and daughters in helping each other through compassion and excelling.”
The mistress of ceremonies at the event said that these veterans were “the Greatest generation of the American Japanese.”
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