ROME — The U.S. army is celebrating a little-known a part of World Battle II historical past, honoring the Japanese-American U.S. Military unit that was key to liberating elements of Italy and France even whereas the troops’ kin had been interned at dwelling as enemies of the state following Japan’s assault on Pearl Harbor.
Descendants of the second-generation “Nisei” troopers traveled to Italy from round america – California, Hawaii and Colorado – to tour the websites the place their kin fought and attend a commemoration on the U.S. army base in Camp Darby forward of the eightieth anniversary Friday of the liberation of close by Livorno, in Tuscany.
Amongst these participating had been cousins Yoko and Leslie Sakato, whose fathers every served within the 442nd Regimental Fight Workforce, which went onto turn into probably the most embellished unit within the historical past of the U.S. army for its measurement and size of service.
“We needed to sort of observe his footsteps, discover out the place he fought, the place he was, possibly see the territories that he by no means ever talked about,” mentioned Yoko Sakato, whose father Employees Sgt. Henry Sakato was within the a hundredth Battalion, Firm B that helped liberate Tuscany from Nazi-Fascist rule.
The 442nd Infantry Regiment, together with the a hundredth Infantry Battalion, was composed virtually totally of second-generation American troopers of Japanese ancestry, who fought in Italy and southern France. Identified for its motto “Go For Broke,” 21 of its members had been awarded the Medal of Honor.
The regiment was organized in 1943, in response to the Battle Division’s name for volunteers to kind a segregated Japanese American military fight unit. Hundreds of Nisei — second-generation Japanese Individuals — answered the decision.
A few of them fought as their kin had been interned at dwelling in camps that had been established in 1942, after Pearl Harbor, to deal with Japanese Individuals who had been thought of to pose a “public hazard” to america. In all, some 112,000 folks, 70,000 of them Americans, had been held in these “relocation facilities” by the tip of the conflict.
The Nisei commemoration at Camp Darby was held one week earlier than the eightieth anniversary of the liberation of Livorno, or Leghorn, on July 19, 1944. Native residents had been additionally commemorating the anniversary this week.
In entrance of members of the family, army officers and civilians, Yoko Sakato positioned flowers on the monument in reminiscence of Pvt. Masato Nakae, one of many 21 Nisei members awarded the Medal of Honor.
“I used to be feeling near my father, I used to be feeling near the opposite males that I knew rising up, the opposite veterans, as a result of they’d served, and I felt actually like a kinship with the army who’re right here,” she mentioned.
Sakato recalled her father naming a number of the areas and cities in Tuscany the place he had fought as a soldier, however all the time in a really “naïve” means, as he was speaking to youngsters.
“They had been younger, it should have been scary, however they by no means talked about it, neither him nor his buddies,” Sakato mentioned of her father, who died in 1999.
Her cousin Leslie Sakato’s father fought in France and gained a Medal of Honor for his service. “It was like coming dwelling,” she mentioned of the commemoration.
