"Nisei" is a Japanese language term used for children born of Japanese parents in other countries. This post is about the nisei who joined World War II as American soldiers. Hawai'i, of course, was not an American state until after World War II, but their men formed the 100th Infantry Battalion.
Some thought that, while the American military allowed nisei to join, they were given the worst, most dangerous jobs because of their heritage, some even said they were merely used as "cannon fodder." But this incident points to something much different - and there's a Texas connection.
It was October of 1944 in France.
The 1st Battalion of the 141st Texas Regiment (a battalion consists of a headquarters and two or more companies of men) were in the Vosges Mountains of France. It was a low range of mountains in eastern France near the German border. The Allies had pushed almost 400 miles from their August 1944 ANVIL-DRAGOON landings in southern France, scooping up some 89,000 German prisoners in their path. At the Vosges, they linked up with some of Patton's Third Army and completed the continuous line of assault Eisenhower wanted. Meanwhile, German high commanded ordered their army to dig in and stay in the Vosges. They were ordered to halt the Allied advance, ordered to not allow the Allies to take any German soil.
Major General John E. Dahlquist, commander of the "Texas" Division, was green as a gourd (as we say in Texas) and wouldn't listen to his more experienced, seasoned, veteran men. He was twice threatened with losing his command if he didn't hustle his troops to keep up with everyone else. Now he pushed them too far, too fast, taking heavy casualties on the way. Two hundred and seventy-five Texans from the 36th Division found themselves on a densely forested ridge headed toward the town of St. Die and out too far in front of the rest of their forces. They became cut off, surrounded by Germans who zeroed in on them from three sides. For two days, shells
blasted their positions, but the Texans continued to resist, to fight on, even with very little food and very little water - and running low on ammunition. Two attempts to break through to them failed. The Press dubbed them "The Lost Battalion."
Finally, on October 26, Dahlquist ordered the exhausted men of the
442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT), to return to the wooded slopes, rescue the Lost Battalion, as the
Texans would come to be called, and restore his reputation. The 442nd was organized on March 23,
1943, after more than a year during which Americans of Japanese descent
were declared enemy aliens and designated "4-C," by the U.S. War Department. It had
taken all that time plus several key events to convince the Roosevelt
Administration that these men should be allowed to enter combat for
their country.
Now Dahlquist ordered the 442nd RCT to
rescue those Texans. "For five days, fighting from tree to tree in heavy fog, they tried to
get to the trapped men. On the morning of October 30 they were just
1,000 yards from the survivors -- but pinned to the steep slope by
artillery and machine-gun fire. Finally, they had had enough. I
Company and K Company rose to their feet and charged up the hillside,
hurling grenades into German machine gun nests and firing from the waist
as they climbed. I Company had started into the forest with 185 men;
just eight walked out unhurt. K Company had begun with 186 men; only 17
emerged on foot. All the rest were dead or wounded or missing." --http://www.pbs.org/thewar/detail_5225.htm
All tolled, the 442nd nisei and Hawaiian draftee and volunteer soldiers suffered
800 casualties, including 54 killed in action, in those six day of nearly nonstop combat in the Vosqes Mountains of eastern France, to rescue 211 men from Texas.
On
November 12, General Dahlquist announced he wanted to review the 442nd,
to thank them for what they had done. When the battered unit appeared,
Dahlquist grew irritated at their sparse numbers, ignorant at how much
they had sacrificed.
My apologies to all of the men of the 442nd and their families who sacrificed so very much for those 211 Texans. Thank you, mahalo, for all you have done. I believe that your actions settled once and for all the question of whether the nisei soldiers were being used as "cannon fodder" or whether they were given
the most difficult assignments because of their outstanding performance.
Eventually, the 442nd, bolstered by the combat-hardened 100th Infantry Battalion,
comprised of Japanese American draftees from Hawai'i, became the most
decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of
service" --http://encyclopedia.densho.org/442nd_Regimental_Combat_Team/
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