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Occupation
The end of the War in Europe did not bring the service of the Nisei to a swift end—no bunk on the Queen Mary and a pleasant sail back home. Now it was time to manage and control the hordes of German prisoners of war and their vanquished country. For the 442nd Infantry this turned out to be another year in Italy before the Combat Team came home. In Germany, the 522nd soldiers were on occupation duty until October 1945. Their history of the occupation is recounted in the following stories.
To War
The journey from Mississippi to the war zone in Europe was yet another new experience for the men of the 442nd, from which unfailingly they found ways to extract some fun.
Training
The decision to form a regimental Combat Team composed of Japanese Americans launched a flurry of actions at a time of an unending storm of actions that had engulfed our Nation that was now at war on two fronts, east and west. Young men needed to be recruited to join up — they could not be drafted. A training cadre of existing officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) had to be selected and sent to Camp Shelby to organize and train the men when they arrived, and make ready to clothe, feed, and house them. The training would be in phases, starting with the basics that would prepare 4,500 new soldiers, most of whom were fresh out of high school, to operate as a war-fighting team...
Continue ReadingUnit Structure
Below is the basic structure of the 442nd RCT. Additional information to clarify the structure of battalions is included below. 100TH INFANTRY BATTALION (SEPARATE) ADDITIONAL COMPANIES During training and initial combat in the Naples-Foggia Campaign in Italy, the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) had two additional companies: E Company and F Company. Prior to merging with the 442nd RCT, the men from these two companies were transferred to Companies A, B, C, and D to replace casualty losses. By the time the 100th was assigned to the 442nd as its first battalion, its Companies E and F had been reduced to a skeleton and were disestablished. For a soldier who was initially in the 100th’s E Company or F Company, this will be noted in his...
Continue ReadingGoing Home
This part of the history of the 442nd RCT tells the story of the return home from Europe following the end of the war on May 8, 1945. The general term for this process is “demobilization.” All the soldiers in Europe could not simply leave and go home. There were continuing requirements for soldiers to guard and feed the hundreds of thousands of German soldiers now our prisoners, and soldiers to provide for administering the now-conquered lands and populations of Germany and Austria, to include safeguarding the people and assisting in the recovery from the devastation of the war. This was called the “Occupation.” And the war in the Pacific was not over, so significant additional Army combat manpower was needed for the anticipated invasion...
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