Despite facing extreme race-based scrutiny and suspicion, Japanese Americans served in the U.S. military during WWII in disproportionate numbers—even as many of their families were stuck in government-run concentration camps. Most served in the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team and its predecessor, the 100th Infantry Battalion, but many others served as translators and interpreters in the Military Intelligence Service, and nearly 500 Nisei women served as nurses, Women’s Auxiliary Corps members, and MIS translators and teachers. This Veteran’s Day, we honor those who served by sharing some gems from collections recently added to the Densho archives.
William “Bill” Miyagi and Taka Uyechi during a visit to Poston concentration camp in 1944. The Miyagi Family Collection contains photos and letters from William’s time with the 442nd. Courtesy of the Miyagi Family Collection, Densho.
A postcard sent from Alvin Uchiyama to his wife, Kathleen Koga Uchiyama, at the end of his deployment in Italy, dated November 14, 1945. The Uchiyama Collection contains 200 letters from Alvin to Kathleen, in which he writes about his training and his service in the European Theater as part of the 442nd RCT. Courtesy of the Uchiyama Family, Densho.
Takashi Matsui was stationed in Japan with the U.S. military during the Allied occupation after the end of World War II. Here, a group of soldiers climb Mt. Hakodate, c. 1947. Courtesy of the Matsui Family Collection.
Doris (Okada) Abe kept a scrapbook of news articles and clippings on Japanese American soldiers during WWII. This clipping shows a photo and short profile of a Nisei couple, Army Sergeant Yosh “Nickie” Nakagawara and Women’s Auxiliary Corps Private Cherry Nakagawara—though the article’s unfortunate description of the “U.S. Jap and Wife” doesn’t exactly do the Nakagawara’s justice. Courtesy of the Masao and Doris Abe Collection, Densho.
Yuriko Domoto Tsukada saved many of the letters sent to her during WWII—including this annotated copy of Life Magazine, in which her friend Yoshito Shibata wrote notes about daily life in the U.S. Army. Here, Shibata comments on the food. Courtesy of the Yuriko Domoto Tsukada Collection, Densho.
Do you have objects from a veteran you’d like to add to the Densho Digital Repository? Please fill out this form to get in touch with our collections team. Know someone whose story should be captured in an oral history? Fill out the narrator nomination form here!
This is fascinating. I worked closely for six months in Sapporo, Hokkaido with Professor Russell Horiuchi, PhD, who had served as an intelligence translator and interrogator in the Pacific and later at US Forces Japan HQ during the first years of the Occupation. Like many US service members, including my father, he met his wife during his military service in the Occupation. Those marriages created a successful demand that American immigration laws banning immigration from Japan be reversed. That postwar phase of the Nikkei story needs to be better known, because it brought an infusion of thousands of first generation immigrants into the Japanese American community.
Another postwar phase of the Nisei veteran story was the use by veterans of their GI Bill educational benefits to advance into fields of work that had previously been denied to Nisei, including law, medicine, engineering and science, and academia.
A third continuing story is the Nisei veterans who pursued military careers, and the sons and daughters of veterans who used military service as a way to advance in American society, such as General Shinseki, US Army Chief of Staff. All of these narratives are part of the heritage of the 442 RCT and other WW II JA veterans. Are there statistics about the numbers of JAs involved in these developments? I was oersonally involved in some of these, including my 20 years service in the Air Force including two law degrees earned on JAG Corps scholarships and service in Japan.
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