280 ChaPter^5
War. The military authorities housed them in barracks, with no insulation and
a single light, and they ate meals in a communal mess hall, and shared all
toilet and bathing facilities as well. The government offered them no rights,
no important possessions, no privacy, no dignity.
Nonetheless, 18,000 managed to obtain early release, for, of all things, to
join the military to fight Nazis in Europe [they were not trusted to fight in
Asia]. The majority served in two segregated units, the 100th Infantry
Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The latter lost over
10,000 in fighting in Italy. Men in the unit received 3600 Purple Hearts, 810
Bronze Stars, 342 Silver Stars, 123 divisional citations, 47 Distinguished
Service Crosses, 17 Legions of Merit, 7 Presidential Citations, and 1
Congressional Medal of Honor. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was
the most decorated American unit in the war.
Not all Americans approved of the treatment of the Japanese Americans
and many held protests, all over America, against the internments. InFIGuRE 5-13 Japanese Americans arrive at a “relocation camp”