U.S. 100th Infantry Battalion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry is the only infantry unit in the U.S. Army Reserve and combines the identities of two Second World War Japanese-American units, the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Based at Fort Shafter, Honolulu, Hawaii, the 100th Battalion has reservists from Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam and Saipan, and has been activated and deployed to Iraq.
Historically, the unit is referred to as the "Purple Heart Battalion", with the motto "Go For Broke". U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye was part of the 442nd RCT who later lost his arm in battle.
[edit] History of the 100th Battalion
The 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) -- known as the "One-Puka-Puka" (Puka means "hole" in Hawaiian) -- was activated on 12 June 1942, a force of over 1,400 Nisei (Second Generation Americans of Japanese Ancestry), led by a handful of "haole" (Caucasian) officers. The troops were from the Territory of Hawaii, which led to many pidgin phrases becoming common in the Battalion and in the subsequently-formed 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Currently serving Nisei's had been removed from service in Hawaiian territorial and police units following the Pearl Harbor attack, but the Hawaiian Military Governor Lieutenant General Delos C. Emmons chose not to use his option of deporting those of Japanese descent for internment on the mainland. Soon, he had been petitioned by the Nisei eager to return to military service to defend their homeland. This eventually resulted in the formation of the 100th Battalion. The battalion commander and some of the company-grade officers were Caucasian; the rest of its officers and enlisted men were Nisei.
The unit number was an indication of the Army's confusion over what to do with them. Under normal Army procedures, a battalion is part of a regiment, and known as, for instance, "1st Battalion, 5th Regiment." The 100th was unusual, a unit born as an orphan.
After training at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, and Camp Shelby, Mississippi, the battalion was ready to deploy, but was refused by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. General Mark Clark, commanding the Fifth Army, accepted the offer, and the One-Puka-Puka deployed to the Mediterranean in August 1943.
Fifth Army attached the battalion to the 34th Infantry Division. The unit entered combat on 27 September 1943, near Salerno in Southern Italy. The battalion fought well and took heavy casualties, leading Clark to tell the Army "Send me all you got!"
Impressed with the valor of the Hawaiian Nisei (including six awards of the Distinguished Service Cross in the first eight weeks of combat), the War Department recommended that more Nisei volunteers be sought, from both Hawaii and the mainland relocation camps, to form the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT), activated on 1 February 1943, also to be sent to Italy. The 100th and 442nd were assigned to fight alongside each other.
The 100th Battalion fought at Cassino in January 1944, and later accompanied the 34th Infantry Division to Anzio. In May and June 1944 the battalion, joined by the 442d RCT, helped break out from Anzio and push the Germans north of Rome. The battalion was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) [later redesignated the Presidential Unit Citation (PUC)] for its actions on June 26-27.
On 10 August 1944, the 100th Battalion formally became part of the 442d RCT, for the final 9 months of the War in Europe. The 442d RCT was demobilized and inactivated in August 1946, leaving their honors, lineage and traditions to the 100th Battalion from which many had been inherited two years before. This lineage and these honors continue to be preserved by the 100th Battalion, 442d Infantry (US Army Reserve).
[edit] See also
- 442nd Regimental Combat Team
- Go For Broke! This film dramatizes the lives and wartime heroics of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion's Hawaiian troops. The film stars Van Johnson as a young officer, reluctant about his assignment to the 442nd. He comes to respect the Nisei troops, eventually contesting a transfer back to his original Texas unit.
- Go For Broke Monument
- Young-Oak Kim
