ROME — The U.S. army is celebrating a little-known a part of World Battle II historical past, honoring the Japanese American U.S. Military unit that was key to liberating elements of Italy and France even whereas the troops’ family members had been interned at dwelling as enemies of the state following Japan’s assault on Pearl Harbor.
Descendants of the second-generation Nisei troopers traveled to Italy from round america — California, Hawaii and Colorado — to tour the websites the place their family members fought and attend a commemoration on the U.S. army base in Camp Darby forward of the eightieth anniversary Friday of the liberation of close by Livorno in Tuscany.
Amongst these collaborating had been cousins Yoko and Leslie Sakato, whose fathers every served within the 442nd Regimental Fight Workforce, which went on to turn into essentially the most embellished unit within the historical past of the U.S. army for its dimension and size of service.
“We needed to type of comply with his footsteps, discover out the place he fought, the place he was, possibly see the territories that he by no means ever talked about,” stated Yoko Sakato, whose father Employees Sgt. Henry Sakato was within the one hundredth Infantry Battalion, Firm B, that helped liberate Tuscany from Nazi-Fascist rule.
The 442nd, together with the one hundredth Infantry Battalion, was composed nearly completely of second-generation American troopers of Japanese ancestry, who fought in Italy and southern France. Identified for its motto “Go for Broke,” 21 of its members had been awarded the Medal of Honor.
The regiment was organized in 1943, in response to the Battle Division’s name for volunteers to type a segregated Japanese American military fight unit. 1000’s of Nisei — second-generation Japanese People — answered the decision.
A few of them fought as their family members had been interned at dwelling in camps that had been established in 1942, after Pearl Harbor, to accommodate Japanese People who had been thought of to pose a “public hazard” to america. In all, some 112,000 folks, 70,000 of them Americans, had been held in these “relocation facilities” by way of the top of the conflict.
The Nisei commemoration at Camp Darby was held one week earlier than the eightieth anniversary of the liberation of Livorno, or Leghorn, on July 19, 1944. Native residents had been additionally commemorating the anniversary this week.
In entrance of relations, army officers and civilians, Yoko Sakato positioned flowers on the monument in reminiscence of Pvt. Masato Nakae, one of many 21 Nisei members awarded the Medal of Honor.
“I used to be feeling near my father, I used to be feeling near the opposite males that I knew rising up, the opposite veterans, as a result of that they had served, and I felt actually like a kinship with the army who’re right here,” she stated.
Sakato recalled her father naming a few of the areas and cities in Tuscany the place he had fought as a soldier, however at all times in a really “naive” means, as he was speaking to youngsters.
“They had been younger, it should have been scary, however they by no means talked about it, neither him nor his mates,” Sakato stated of her father, who died in 1999.
Her cousin Leslie Sakato’s father fought in France and received a Medal of Honor for his service.
“It was like coming dwelling,” she stated of the commemoration.