The Story of the American Japanese Who Fought Against the Japanese in WWII

00:00:10
Speaker 1: And we continue with our American Stories. Major General James Mukayama rose from his blue-collar Chicago neighborhood to become the first Asian American to command a U.S. Army division. General Mook, as he’s known, as the author of Faith, Family, and Flag: Memoirs of an Unlikely American Samurai Crusader. Here he is to tell the story of the Japanese who fought for the United States in World War II.

00:00:40
Speaker 2: I have a daily standard mantra, which is every day is a great day. I have my faith, my family, and live in the finest country in the world. I say that every day, every chance I get. But although I am extremely positive and grateful, having been born in the United States, I tell people, “When I was born here, I hit the lotto.” So, when I say that mantra, sometimes I get pushback about the “finest country in the world” part, and I say, “Listen, I’ve been around the block a few times.” It does help to be around about eight decades, and so I tell them, you know, when I joined the military, there had never been an Asian American admiral or general in our armed forces. Now, I was not the first. That was about the third or fourth. The club isn’t real large, now. Has our country made mistakes? Obviously. But I’ll tell you what. Number one, we’re the only country that I know of that had a Civil War to abolish slavery, costing over half a million lives to settle that situation. And our president, who ran on that platform, was assassinated. He gave up his life—Abraham Lincoln—knowing full well the risk he was taking. The military is a perfect example. President Truman in 1948 integrated our military services. Prior to that, we had segregated units—the Black units. And World War II, we had the Japanese American unit, which, I might add, was the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which fought in Europe. To this day, it’s the most highly decorated infantry unit of its size in late of service. It was a unit that everybody wanted them as sign to them because of their bravery. By the way, the combat unit—the theater of operation—like the European Theater of Operation. We had nine million guys who served in that area during the war, and the reputation of good units spreads like wildfire in combat zones, as well as the bad units. And the 442nd, their reputation was crazy. In fact, there was, back in the late nineties, the Army selected the ten most important battles in the history of the United States Army, and one of them was the one in which the 442nd saved a Texas Army National Guard Battalion in the mountains of France. The Germans had surrounded them. It was called the Lost Battalion. Hitler had ordered the annihilation of that unit, and they were in a very wooded area, surrounded. And so they tried to send units in to rescue that battalion, but nobody could break through. The one hundred four to forty second had just come off of that operation, and normally when you have a major operation, you’re given a little rest time to reconstitute and get replacements and things like that. But the one hundred four to forty second was ordered to go save the Lost Battalion and rescue the Lost Battalion. They succeeded, but in doing so, they saved, I think, 200 soldiers from that battalion who were remaining, who were still alive. In so doing, the battalion took 800 casualties in order to get through. So when that happened, you know, the words spread like crazy. It was here in this, back in the States, too. But, you know, so the veterans after World War II, when they came back and they heard people bad-mouthing Americans of Japanese ancestry—i.e., Japanese Americans—the veterans would say, “Stop saying that. These people are loyal Americans, you know.” And President Truman, uh, honored them at the White House with the, with the parade. He awarded their seventh Presidential Unit Citation to them, and he said, you know, “You guys fought to two fights against fascism but also against racism.” And, uh, so that I’m very proud to tell you that I had an uncle who was in that. I had relatives who served. And we had Japanese American soldiers who fought in the Passacific, which was very—nobody knows a lot about them. Was called the Military Intelligence Service, and they were translators and interpreters, and they actually went forward with the Marines and the Army soldiers into battle. They were at Iwo Jima, they’re at Guam, you know, they fought in the jungles or the Pacific, and they helped break the Japanese code, the Imperial Code, which led to our victory at Midway and turned the tide in the Pacific. In fact, General MacArthur’s chief of intelligence basically said after the war that the breaking that code shortened the war by two years.

00:06:58
Speaker 1: And you’ve been listening to Major General James Mukayama and General Mook, and he’s the author of Faith, Family, and Flag: Memoirs of an Unlikely American Samurai Crusader. And what a story he tells about Japanese service during World War II—the story of the American Japanese who fought against the Japanese World War II. Here on Our American Stories. Lee H. Habib here, and I’m inviting you to help Our American Stories celebrate this country’s 250th birthday coming soon. If you want to help inspire countless others to love America like we do, and want to help us bring the inspiring and important stories told here about a good and beautiful country, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Our American Stories. Go to OurAmericanStories.com and click the donate button. Any amount helps. Go to OurAmericanStories.com and give.