"Go For Broke"

     The history of America's most highly decorated military unit is pretty well known, I think.  perhaps not as well known as it should be, but there was a movie made about this unit back in the 1950s and books and numerous articles have been written.  But I do think that time has a tendency to blur some of those long ago memories, and much of today's generation probably has no idea of just what those amazing brave men accomplished.  I am, of course, talking about the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of Hawaii that was composed of primarily Japanese-Americans, mostly second generation Nisei.  Known by its popular Hawaiian slang name "Go for Broke" (the official unit motto), for all practical purposes, it was an entirely Japanese-American unit, however, as I will explain, there were none ethnic Japanese in the unit as well.
     At the outbreak of WWII, members of University of Hawaii ROTC program volunteered in its entirety, to serve in the army.  They were already a part of the Hawaii National Guard, but after Pearl Harbor, those of Japanese descent were discharged from the National Guard.  Undeterred by this unfair discriminatory act, the group offered their services anyway, offered to enlist.  However, their offer was refused at first, and the Commanding General assigned to oversee the defenses of the Territory of Hawaii even wanted these young men, those of Japanese descent, to be classified as enemy aliens!  Fortunately, after some thought, the Department of the Army decided to accept their offer and absorbed them into a separate unit of Hawaii National Guard's 100th Battalion.  The 100th Battalion was the first unit out of Hawaii, made up primarily of Japanese-Americans that went into training for combat.  The 100th Battalion of the 442nd Infantry Regiment had some members that were Hawaiians of Korean descent as well as a few of Chinese descent.  These were young men who were in University of Hawaii's ROTC program. The smaller number of white students who were in that program were commissioned and assigned to various units in the army.
     The 442nd Infantry Regiment was initially made up of 1,432 men, mostly of the 100th Battalion.  They were put through some of the most intensive training that any army unit ever received!  They kept training and training, mainly because the army really didn't know when and how to use them!  All of the officers were Caucasian!  Starting with the Commanding Officer down to Company Commanders, all were Caucasian.  Some hated the job, felt that they were being punished by the army being assigned to a none white unit, and they took it out on their subordinates.  Even some of the senior NCOs were initially Caucasian.  But by the time the unit was finally deployed to Italy for combat in 1944, all of the NCOs were from within the ranks, mostly Japanese-Americans with a handful of Korean-Americans, and even some platoon leaders, lieutenants, were Nisei who were in the ROTC program before.  It was the exigency of war that forced the army to allow some of the Nisei soldiers to become officers.  There just weren't enough officers to go around by 1944!  By the end of the war, 30 enlisted men in the 100th Battalion received battlefield commissions, the most battlefield commissions given to any single unit that size in the history of the U.S. Army!
     The battle history of the 442nd reads like a Hollywood movie.  They were constantly thrown into the thick of things, the worst places!  Many of the Commanding Generals of the area where the 442nd was assigned treated them like cannon fodder, still had distrust and dislike for those "Jap" soldiers, as one General referred to them.  The most infamous incident took place in a place just east of Biffontaine, France, when a Texas National Guard unit was surrounded by German forces, cut off from all U.S. units.  It was the element of the Texas National Guard's 141st Regiment that was referred to as the "Lost Battalion."  General Dahlquist, the Army Commanding General of that region ordered the 442nd to go and "rescue" the boys from Texas, as he put it.  He ordered the 442nd to go into the teeth of German resistance, to attack an overwhelmingly larger force with no adequate artillery or air support.  The 442nd went in against impossible odds and fought fiercely and rescued 211 Texans of the "Lost Battalion."  To rescue 211, the 442nd suffered 800 casualties, the heaviest casualties were suffered by the K and I Companies of the 100th Battalion!  But they weren't pulled out.  Dahlquist insisted that the 100th along with the rest of the 442nd continue to do battle until German forces were destroyed.  The battle went on for 3 weeks and the 442nd suffered 1,940 casualties!
     After that battle and horrific casualties suffered by the 442nd, Dahlquist ordered that a parade ceremony be held.  He was surprised at the small number of Nisei soldiers that appeared before him.  Of the 400 men in 100th Battalion's K and I Companies, only 26 soldiers were present for the parade, 18 for K Company and 8 for I Company!  Dahlquist demanded to know why there were so few, and Colonel Gordon Singles, the Commanding Officer of the 442nd responded,
     "Sir, those are all the men in those two companies that survived!" 
     Needless to say, Colonel Singles did not like General Dahlquist.  After the war, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina during a huge victory parade, the two officers met again.  Singles was now a Brigadier General but Dahlquist still outranked him.  Singles saluted Dahlquist, and Dahlquist responded by saying, "Let bygones be bygones!" and extended his hand.  Singles held his salute and refused to shake Dahlquist's hand before thousands of witnesses!  Yes, Singles did not like or respect Dahlquist, his commanding officer during the war!
     The 442nd had the highest casualty rate of any U.S. Army unit of comparable size in WWII.  The initial 4,000 men that comprised the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (A Regimental Combat Team is a beefed-up regiment, much bigger than the regular unit), that number had to be replaced 3 1/2 times.  A total of 14,000 men served in the 442nd with a casualty rate of 314%!    
     A total of 9,486 Purple Hearts were awarded to the soldiers of 442nd.  Some say that there should have been more!  There were 18,903 individual awards for bravery.  It started even before the unit saw any combat.  15 Soldiers Medals (a medal awarded for heroism, but not in combat) were awarded to 442nd soldiers who rescued civilians from drowning and other mishaps while they were still in training!  In all, 22 Medal of Honors, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, 1 Distinguished Service Medal, 588 Silver Stars (28 of them were second awards!), 22 Legion of Merits, 5,200 Bronze Stars (1,200 of them were second awards!) were awarded.  These are the U.S. awards.  The soldiers of the 442nd also received foreign awards, 14 French Croix de Guerre (2 were second awards!), 2 Italian Crosses, 2 Italian Medal of Valor.   As I said earlier, no unit of comparable size in the United States military history ever received so many awards for valor!
     It is easy to forget what these men did, what they accomplished.  But think about it!  They did all those things during the time when they were treated like less than full fledged citizens.  Many had spent time in "Internment Camps" and some still had relatives in those facilities when they joined the army.  Initially, they were not even trusted to be NCOs, let alone officers.  They had to suffer through racial discrimination and mistrust, indignities that in today's world would justify a class action law suit, but they overcame it all.  They were truly giants.