From DiscoverNikkei.org

Military

"A native of Sacramento, Morimitsu received his BS from the University of California, Berkeley in 1936. He was a state civil service employee when he was interned at the Tule Lake Relocation Center with family members in 1942 in the wartime evacuation program. A year later; he volunteered from Tule Lake for the military intelligence service, and after Japanese language training at Camp Savage, he was assigned to the Mars Task Force, a commando organization operating in North Burma. After a stint with the Office of Strategic Services in India, he was assigned to the Tokyo War Crimes Trials. He won the Bronze Star for his military services. Honorably discharged in late 1945, Morimitsu settled in Chicago and founded the Aladdin Carpet Company, from which he retired after 34 years in1981."
"In The Nisei Soldier Professor Nakasone, a teacher of Asian-American and World War II history for over 25 years, brings to life a part of history that has been neglected -- the account of Japanese-American soldiers, the 'Nisei,' as they fought bravely for their newly adopted country despite the discrimination accorded them by the people and government of the USA....In addition to the Japanese-American perspective, Professor Nakasone's essays also explore and describe the Japanese perspectives on World War II. As a Japanese-American himself, and having served in the US Army's occupation forces in Japan at the end of the war, the author brings a special perspective to these historical essays."
Publisher's web page includes the full text of Nakasone's foreword to the 2nd Edition.
"Heroism, as Bruce Yamashita showed, isn't limited to the battlefield. Bruce just wanted to serve his country as a Marine Corps officer. Because of his race and ethnicity, he was denied the chance. Instead of giving up, he waged a lonely, five-year battle against discrimination in the Marine Corps, uncovering evidence of widespread discrimination that rocked the Corps. By standing for equal opportunity, fairness, and justice -- fundamental principles of democracy -- he served patriotism's highest calling, challenged the nation's powerful institutions, and emerged a most unlikely hero."
Ryan Masaaki Yokota, "The Righting of Racism in America". UCLA Nikkei Student Union Newspaper, March 15, 1994. (Republished at Buddhahead.org)
Editorial on Yamashita's successful case against the U.S. Marine Corps' Officer Commission School.
"This companion Web site accompanies Voices of War, the first book of stories drawn from the collections of the Veterans History Project. The book relates war through the eyes of 60 veterans and civilians caught up in the momentous conflicts of the 20th century. Richly illustrated with photographs, drawings, and paintings from the Project's own collections, Voices of War relives the totality of war in the words of the men and women who experienced it, through their oral history interviews, memoirs, diaries, and correspondence."
Includes the stories of World War II veterans Yukio Kawamoto, Yeiichi Kelly Kuwayama, and Warren Tsuneishi, and Vietnam War veteran Carolyn Hisako Tanaka.
Describes the Library of Congress's Veterans History Project, "mandated by Congress in 2000 to record the oral histories of the United States' veterans of wars from World War I to the present".
Obituary of U.S. Army Col. Young Oak Kim (Ret.), who fought with the 100th Infantry Battalion in World War II and, later, in the Korean War, where he became the first Asian-American to command a regular U.S. combat battalion in a war. After retiring, he devoted himself to numerous civic and humanitarian causes including the Go For Broke National Education Center and the Japanese American National Museum, of which he was a founder.
Excerpt: "In February 1943, Kim was assigned to the 100th Infantry Battalion, a segregated unit of Japanese Americans from Hawaii. Later, when asked by his commanding officer if he would like a transfer, knowing the historical conflicts between Koreans and Japanese, Kim stated that they were all Americans and would fight together."
"By the time the Korean War broke out in 1950, the U.S. government had desegregated the Armed Forces. Many of the Nisei WWII veterans, as well as Nisei who were too young to fight in the earlier war, volunteered to fight. Many of them still had something to prove."


World War II

Nikkei Veterans' Groups

"This is an umbrella website representing a number of Japanese American Veterans' organizations throughout the United States. The site has its origins in the telling of the patriotic Nisei experience during WWII when American citizens of Japanese ancestry were denied some of the most basic civil rights. On these pages you will find compelling stories of their WWII experience in the European, African, and Pacific theaters as well as on the Homefront. You can find links to the veterans groups and many sites related to their experience."

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