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.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visits Hawaii during her 5-week tour of the South Pacific.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 100th Battalion departs Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, moving by train to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, for further combat training.
First family groups leave Hawaii to join fathers/husbands in Mainland internment camps; more follow in 1943 (about 900 total).
Decisive US victory in the Battle of Midway Island assures that Japan will not be invading Hawaii.
1,432 Nisei soldiers, recruited before Pearl Harbor, depart Hawaii on S.S. Maui for training at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. Before departure from Hawaii they had been formed as the Hawaiian Provisional Infantry Battalion. On arrival at Oakland, California, they are renamed as the 100th Infantry Battalion, a name destined to make military history. It is designated “Separate” to indicate it is not part of a larger Army unit.
Battle of Corregidor ends with the surrender of all US Forces in the Philippines.
Varsity Victory Volunteers are organized with 169 University of Hawaii ROTC students, most of whom had been in the Hawaii Territorial Guard. They are assigned as a labor battalion for the U. S. Army Engineers on Oahu.
First Hawaii AJAs are sent from the Sand Island detention camp on Oahu to Mainland prison facilities in the continental US; more follow in 1942 and 1943. Over 600 are sent from Hawaii to Mainland imprisonment. Eventually, many of their families are allowed to join them.
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.
Emergency Service Committee assigned by Morale Section of Military Governor’s Office to work with Japanese community.
The troop ship USAT Royal T. Frank torpedoed while transporting trainees from Oahu to Hilo; 17 die in the attack.
Japanese Americans serving in Hawaii Territorial Guard dismissed without explanation.
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.
The US military draft system declares AJAs as 4-C aliens (category 4C), and therefore not eligible to be drafted into military service.
Japanese military forces capture Manila, Philippines.
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.
Morale Section of the Military Governor’s Office established, headed by Shigeo Yoshida, Hung Wai Ching, and Charles Loomis. Very important subcommittees were created in this wartime element of the Territorial government, in particular the Emergency Service Committee, which worked with the Americans of Japanese ancestry community.
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.
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.
Sand Island Camp opened in Honolulu for about 300 arrested Issei & Nisei, followed days later by camps on Hawaii island, Maui, Kauai & more arrests.
11:30 am – Martial law declared in the Territory of Hawaii: habeas corpus suspended; mandatory curfew; gas rationing; civil courts closed; mail/press censored. The civilian governor becomes subordinate to the Military Governor.
Territorial governors wartime:
Joseph B. Poindexter (1934-1942)
Ingram M. Stainback (1942-1951)
Military governors:
Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short – December 7-17 1941
Lt. Gen. Delos C. Emmons – December 17, 1941-June 1, 1943
Lt. Gen. Robert C. Richardson – June 1, 1943-October 24, 1944
10:00 am – Hawaii Territorial Governor Joseph B. Poindexter calls University of Hawaii ROTC cadets to form the Hawaii Territorial Guard. Its primary mission is to protect critical infrastructure from sabotage.
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.
Japan attacks Philippines, Singapore, Malaya, Hong Kong.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt freezes Japanese assets, and follows with an oil embargo on Japan in Aug 1941.
Honolulu Police Department forms Espionage Bureau headed by Police Captain John A. Burns. This unit has connections in all the Japanese American community groups on Oahu, and it will work closely with the FBI unit in Hawaii.
Hawaii Council for Interracial Unity established to prepare Japanese American community for impending war. Hung Wai Ching, Director of the YMCA in Honolulu, plays a major role in organizing this foundational interracial effort in Hawaii.
298th & 299th Infantry Regiments of the Hawaii Territorial Guard are federalized. Over the coming year, their ranks swell with 3,000 Hawaii draftees, half of them Nisei.
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.
On Sep 1, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders mobilization of National Guard nationwide.
