President Truman with Members of the Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team
7/15/1946
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Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States government feared that follow-up attacks would be conducted by persons of Japanese descent living within its borders. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, ordering the military to forcibly relocate Japanese descendants into internment camps. Barely a month later, Congress passed Public Law 503 supporting the order. Over 120,000 people were removed from their homes to remote relocation camps. Two-thirds of them were American citizens.
While the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was quick to make nisei—U.S. citizens of Japanese descent—ineligible for service, by 1944 more manpower was needed and nisei were made eligible again, despite the fact they were currently being held in internment camps against their will.
The Japanese American Citizens League actually petitioned the government in early 1943 to reopen the draft to nisei. The government responded by accepting volunteers for a segregated combat team led by white officers, the 100th Infantry Battalion. The battalion grew into the Nisei 442 Regimental Combat Team, which would become the most heavily decorated unit in U.S. military history, earning over 9,500 purple hearts.
While the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was quick to make nisei—U.S. citizens of Japanese descent—ineligible for service, by 1944 more manpower was needed and nisei were made eligible again, despite the fact they were currently being held in internment camps against their will.
The Japanese American Citizens League actually petitioned the government in early 1943 to reopen the draft to nisei. The government responded by accepting volunteers for a segregated combat team led by white officers, the 100th Infantry Battalion. The battalion grew into the Nisei 442 Regimental Combat Team, which would become the most heavily decorated unit in U.S. military history, earning over 9,500 purple hearts.
This primary source comes from the Collection HST-AVC: Audiovisual Collection.
National Archives Identifier: 199390
Full Citation: Photograph AVC-PHT-73(2235); President Truman Walking Past Members of the Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team as they Stand at Attention on the Ellipse; 7/15/1946; Photographs Relating to the Administration, Family, and Personal Life of Harry S. Truman, 1957 - 2004; Collection HST-AVC: Audiovisual Collection; Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, MO. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/truman-442nd-regimental-combat-team, October 14, 2024]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.
