Title: Japanese Americans At War - World War II Memorial (U.S. National Park Service)
Headings: Japanese Americans At War
Japanese Americans At War
Contact the Park
Mailing Address:
Phone:
Contact Us

Content: These refugees then were sent to large confinement sites in the western, southwestern, and southern United States; others went to smaller facilities across the nation. While living in overcrowded conditions behind barbed wires, these Americans attempted to bring normalcy to their lives, they created newspapers, schools, markets, police forces, and fire fighting squads. While their families were confined, more than 33,000 Japanese Americans played a major role in the war effort. Why did they serve the nation under these difficult circumstances? Many of them loved their country enough to risk their lives in combat. For others, it was the chance to prove their loyalty and the honor of their families; this they did as members of the famed 442 nd Regimental Combat Team fighting up the rugged Italian Peninsula and across Southern France. Others interrogated Japanese prisoners and translated Japanese documents in the Army’s Military Intelligence Section in the Pacific and China-Burma-India Theaters. Over eight hundred Japanese Americans were killed in action serving their country.