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The soldier depicted here is a Nisei (second-generation Japanese American) of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. After Pearl Harbor, worried about sabotage and espionage, the U.S. government ordered more than 120,000 American citizens and residents of Japanese descent moved out of the West Coast to internment camps in the interior. Nonetheless, overruling the recommendation of a War Department board, President Roosevelt in 1943 authorized the formation of a Nisei unit commanded by white officers. The 442nd RCT fought in Italy, France, and Germany. Its soldiers earned almost ten thousand Purple Hearts and twenty-one Medals of Honor, and won General George C. Marshall’s praise for their “tremendous fighting spirit.”



WestpointHistoryofWarfare.com.