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Regiments · 1944–1946

442nd Infantry Regiment

Infantry regiment of the United States Army.

History

The 442nd Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment including the 100th Infantry Battalion is best known as the most decorated unit in U.S. military history, and as a fighting unit composed almost entirely of second-generation American soldiers of Japanese ancestry (Nisei) who fought in World War II. Beginning in 1944, the regiment fought primarily in the European Theatre, in particular Italy, southern France, and Germany. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT) was organized on March 23, 1943, in response to the War Department's call for volunteers to form the segregated Japanese American army combat unit. More than 12,000 Nisei (second-generation Japanese American) volunteered. Ultimately 2,686 from Hawaii and 1,500 from mainland U.S. internment camps assembled at Camp Shelby, Mississippi in April 1943 for a year of infantry training. Many of the soldiers from the continental U.S. had families in internment camps while they fought abroad. Meaning to risk everything in order to achieve victory, the unit's motto was "Go For Broke". Before they left Mississippi, the 442nd was given permission to use the slogan it wanted, "Go For Broke," the shooters' cry to "shoot the works."

Created as the 442nd Regimental Combat Team when it was activated 1 February 1943, the unit quickly grew to its fighting complement of about 4,000 men by April 1943, and an eventual total of about 10,000 men served in the combined 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd RCT. The combined units earned, in less than two years, more than 4,000 Purple Hearts and 4,000 Bronze Star Medals. The unit was awarded seven Presidential Unit Citations (seven between 1944 and 1946, five earned in one month). Twenty-one of its members were awarded the Medal of Honor. In 2010, Congress approved the granting of the Congressional Gold Medal to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and associated units who served during World War II, and in 2012, all surviving members were made chevaliers of the French Légion d'Honneur for their actions contributing to the liberation of France and their heroic rescue of the Lost Battalion.

Text from Wikipedia: 442nd Infantry Regiment, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Wars and campaigns

World War II

From Wikidata (CC0).

Key dates

  1. 1941
    Shortly after the Imperial Japanese Navy's attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Japanese-American men were initially categorized as 4C (enemy alien) and therefore not subject to the draft.
  2. 1943
    The order dated 22 January 1943, directed, "All cadre men must be American citizens of Japanese ancestry who have resided in the United States since birth" and "Officers of field grade and captains furnished under the provisions of subparagraphs a, b and c above, will be white American citizens.
  3. 1944
    On October 15, 1944, the 232nd encountered a roadblock of logs and trees near Bruyères, France.
  4. 1944
    The newly formed Nisei unit went into battle together on 26 June 1944 at the hamlet of Belvedere in Suvereto, Tuscany.
  5. 1945
    On 23 March 1945, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team sailed back to Italy and returned to the Gothic Line.
  6. 1945
    On 23 March 1945 the 100/442 shipped out from Marseille and traveled to Leghorn, Italy, attached to the 92nd Division.
  7. 1962
    In 1962 Governor John Connally of Texas made the members of the 442nd RCT honorary Texans in appreciation of their rescue of the Lost Battalion of the Texas National Guard in the Vosges in 1944.
  8. 2012
    In 2012, the surviving members of the 442nd RCT were made chevaliers of the French Légion d'Honneur for their actions contributing to the liberation of France during World War II and their heroic rescue of the Lost Battalion outside of Biffontaine.
  9. 2020
    On November 17, 2020, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced they would release in 2021 a postage stamp honoring the contributions of Japanese American soldiers, 33,000 altogether, who served in the U.S. Army during World War II, following a multi-year nationwide campaign.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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