The 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) departs Camp Shelby, Mississippi, by train for Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. On August 21 they board the S.S. James Parker at Staten Island, New York, and begin their voyage to the combat zone in Italy.
The 100th Battalion departs Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, moving by train to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, for further combat training.
Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team authorized by War Department, composed of: 1 infantry regiment, 1 field artillery battalion, 1 engineer company, 1 medical detachment, and an army band. The cadre to organize, train, and lead the combat team is quickly formed and sent to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, to prepare for the arrival of the thousands of young Nisei men who are expected to respond to the call to volunteer. The officers selected are almost all experienced Caucasian soldiers and are given orders to report to Camp Shelby typically within 2 weeks. The enlisted cadre are AJA soldiers, many of whom had been drafted before Pearl Harbor and are now sidelined in menial tasks because of their ancestry.
The 2,686 volunteers from Hawaii for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team are sent to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, for training. Over 100 have fathers in internment camps. They sail on the S.S. Lurline for Oakland, California, where they board three trains that will take separate routes to Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
The US military draft system declares AJAs as 4-C aliens (category 4C), and therefore not eligible to be drafted into military service.
Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizing forced removal of AJAs from the West Coast; 110,000 mostly US-born are sent to internment camps, where they are imprisoned for most of the war period.
Battle of Bataan begins in Philippines – US/Filipino forces surrender on April 9, 1942, the largest surrender in US history; 60,000 Filipino and 15,000 US POWs forced into 60-mile Bataan Death March.
Secretary of Navy Franklin Knox visits Hawaii December 11 & 12 to assess the situation. In December 14 report, he calls for mass incarceration or removal of Japanese Americans in Hawaii.
The War Department plans for the 442nd RCT call for 4,000 men, 1,500 to come from Hawaii and 2,500 from the Mainland concentration camps where the west coast AJA families have been imprisoned. However, the expectation from the concentration camps is not met and the quota from Hawaii is increased. 10,000 volunteer in Hawaii and 2,686 are enlisted beginning Mar 23, 1943. They are sent to Schofield Barracks on Oahu island to organize and prepare for shipment to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, to be trained as a combat-ready regiment.
Company S added to the Combat Team, composed of Japanese Americans from Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Language School at Camp Savage, Minnesota. They are assigned to the 442nd for combat training prior to deployment to the Pacific Theater.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt freezes Japanese assets, and follows with an oil embargo on Japan in Aug 1941.
Lt. Gen. Delos C. Emmons, Hawaii’s military governor, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and prominent local leaders argue successfully against mass forced interment of Hawaii Japanese. This is foreshadowed by General Emmons’ immediate creation of the Morale Section and subsequent deflection of direction from the War Department in Washington DC to begin mass internment.
7:48 am – Japan begins attack on Pearl Harbor and 6 airfields on Oahu; 8 battleships sunken/ damaged, 64 of 223 Army aircraft destroyed; 2,335 military & 68 civilian deaths.
Ten days after the Pearl Harbor attack, Lt. Gen. Delos C. Emmons is appointed as the Military Governor of the Territory of Hawaii and commander of the Hawaii Department of the U.S. Army. A 1909 graduate of West Point, Emmons served most of his career in the development of the Army Air Force. He is familiar with Hawaii having previously served two years there as the commander of the 18th Composite Wing, and Air Officer of Hawaiian Department.
On Sep 1, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders mobilization of National Guard nationwide.
War Department reclassifies Nisei men, allowing them to be drafted and to serve in the U.S. Army. This also opens the door to allow the U.S. Army to call for AJA volunteers for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Tripartite Pact between Japan, Germany, Italy pledges mutual support if attacked by a nation not already at war; this is intended to keep US neutral.
US establishes peacetime draft in September 1940, but there are no significant inductions until January 1941.
US proclaims neutrality, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares “state of national emergency” on September 8, 1939.
