The Lost battalion
The 442nd, 1944,Discover Nikkei
The Texas Battalion...had come to believe that only a miracle could save them. The 'miracle', in the form of the 442nd, was on its way
-Martin W Sandler, author of Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans During World War II.
"Saying we were thrilled is an understatement."
-Marty Higgins, former soldier of the Lost Battalion
"This is where they built their stand so the enemy could not break it and invade German homeland. It was well fortified, the German military commander, after he was captured, he said under interrogation, ‘Hitler said to kill them all, to let no prisoners.’ The conditions were trapped were doomed to be annihilated. After five days of very britter combat, under conditions in hail, slate, and snow, the place well mined and armed with machine guns, the Nisei were able to dislodge the Germans. This was the very bitter part of the combat, the 442nd felt that they were treated unfairly, but the commander of the US unit said, ‘When you’re in trouble, you send your best person in, the best unit in.’ The victory at the Vosges Mountain gave the unit that the 442nd was attached with, the 7th Army, a clear shot of invading German homeland. From here, they could go directly and invade the German homeland, which they did." |
"The four others went overseas with the original 442nd. I joined them later as a replacement. I remember November 1944, when the replacements joined the 442nd, after they had pulled back from the Battle of Bruyeres, the Lost Battalion. I went looking for my buddies. I found one, Ted. Harry had been in a hospital, had been sent back to a hospital with a wound. The two others had been killed in action, saving the Lost Battalion." |
"I did not witness the first contact that was made by our riflemen but I did see several of the 36th Division fellows crawling out of their deep foxholes and with their bearded, bewildered look greet us with delight and relief."
-Susumu Ito when describing the Lost Battalion
In April of 1945, a subunit of the 442nd, the 522nd Field Artillery, took a stand as they marched into the German town of Dachau and liberated over 5,000 imprisoned Jews from German concentration camps.
"I saw him and I though, Oh, now the Japanese are going to kill us. And I didn't care anymore....He tried to convince me that he was an American and wouldn't kill me...and finally he landed on his knees, crying, with his hands over this face, and said, 'You are free now. We are American Japanese. You are free." |
Whereas the American camps were for the duration of the war, the German camps were for the extermination of the Jewish race. Yet, the reasons behind these acts are the same and that is the singling out a race through acts of racial prejudice
-Joseph Ichiuji, 522nd veteran