The 442nd And 100th Army

Japanese-Americans had been treated unfairly in the United States for years, but on December 7th, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked, things suddenly became much worse. Japanese immigrants and people of Japanese descent, even those born in the United States, suddenly became classified as "enemy aliens." President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones", from which any or all persons may be excluded.
People of Japanese ancestry were not specifically mentioned, but the executive order was used nonetheless to enact curfews and relocate and imprison in internment camps approximately 120,000 people of Japanese descent, most of which were American citizens. This internment lasted for three years - from 1942 to 1945.
In Hawaii, where people of Japanese descent made up nearly half the population, imprisonment would have been almost impossible, but the people were let go from their positions in the military, and made ineligible for the draft.
Disappointed to be let go from the military, many Japanese-American soldiers volunteered to do whatever work necessary for free to help the war effort. Their dedication paid off and special all Japanese-American units, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion were formed. They were experimental, much as the all-black Tuskegee Airmen were. The 100th and 442nd did so well in training that President Roosevelt ordered more Japanese-American volunteers to be recruited, stating ironically,
"No loyal citizen of the United States should be denied the democratic right to exercise the responsibilities of his citizenship, regardless of his ancestry. The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry." While the soldiers' relatives remained locked up in internment camps, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, joined by the 100th Battalion and several other small teams, fought valiantly in France and Italy, becoming the most highly decorated group of soldiers for their size and length of service. They received an average of approximately three Purple Heart medals per soldier, and were sometimes known to sneak out of hospitals to return to the front lines.
Despite their courage and dedication, when the soldiers returned home they were greeted with racism and not allowed in some stores and restaurants. The 442nd later served in Vietnam, and the 100th served in Iraq in 2004-2005.
GoForBroke.org
Katonk.com
U.S. Army Museum Of Hawaii
Wikipedia Article