In Honor of the 442nd

I’m taking this Memorial Day off, I but wanted to say a few words about some personal heroes of mine, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of World War II. These soldiers on the front lines were Japanese Americans who came in large measure from inside the ten barbed wire U.S. internment camps, where they and their families had been held for years without charge or trial. This group of brave soldiers had something to prove: that they were just as brave and patriotic as any other troops, even if they were forced to serve in a segregated unit. Many believed that their sacrifice could help change public opinion about the loyalty of Americans of Japanese descent, after the country had been whipped into a dangerous frenzy of fear and mistrust by opportunistic politicians and the media.

The army sent the 442nd into some of the most bloody and costly campaigns of the war, some would charge as a kind of “suicide battalion” that was assigned where no other troops would be sent. Because of their heroism, and the terrible cost in casualties they suffered, they became the most decorated unit in all of U.S. military history.

Their story is captured in Allegiance, a Broadway musical I worked on inspired by the true life stories of George Takei and other internees. We wanted to make sure the story was told, and retold, for the ages. I think of the 442nd often, and what it must have been like to be thought of as the enemy, even as you and your friends were being shot and dying for a country that had betrayed its own principles, one that still held your loved ones captive simply because of their race. When I think of what they suffered and how much they gave to the cause of freedom and equality, I am reenergized to continue their legacy today.