When Maj. Gen. Richard Nash was a child growing up in Savage, Minn., he would ask his parents about the military facility nearby, Camp Savage.
Today, Nash said the buildings at Camp Savage are crumbling, and all that really remains is the memorial. However, during World War II, Soldiers of the 442nd Regimental Combat team trained at Camp Savage before shipping out to fight their way up the boot of Italy with the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division.
Nash said he did not really understand then, but many of the Soldiers of the 442nd, an almost entirely Japanese-American unit, had families imprisoned behind barbed wire in “relocation camps.” However, the Soldiers of the 442nd volunteered to train as translators and interpreters at Camp Savage to serve their country overseas, where the fighting was.
Over 60 years later and hundreds of miles away, Nash, now the commanding general of the 34th Inf. Div., is also training and deploying overseas, although this time to Iraq and not to Italy. Just days before their flight to Iraq, Nash and the leadership of the 34th Inf. Div. traveled from Fort Lewis, Wa., to the Nisei Veterans Committee Memorial Hall in Seattle, Wa., April 10 to recognize the 442nd’s sacrifice and conviction and to learn about an important part of the Division’s history.
“It’s an opportunity to meet you and learn the history,” Command Sgt. Maj. Doug Julin told the assembled veterans. “It’s amazing how much history there is, the lineage between our units.”
The meeting could not have happened if not for chance encounter, said Frank Shinoda of the NVC. Members of the NVC were in Fort Lewis, Wa., for a flag ceremony when they recognized the steer skull and olla patch of the Red Bulls, who had been training in Fort Lewis in preparation for their upcoming deployment to the southern sector of Iraq. As the Soldiers of the past and the Soldiers of the present began to talk, they realized that they shared a common heritage. From this encounter, a meeting was arranged between the NVC and the leadership of the 34th Inf. Div.
The Red Bulls traveled to NVC Memorial Hall and learned about the beginnings of the 442nd. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, sending some 120,000 Japanese-Americans to “relocation camps” throughout the western United States, even though many of them were Nisei, or second-generation and born in America. However, when given a chance to fight for their country, thousands of Nisei volunteered.
“All we wanted was to prove our allegiance,” said Sam Mitsui, the keynote speaker for the NVC.
After training in Camp McCoy, Wisc., Camp Shelby, Miss., and Camp Savage, Minn., the 442nd fought in Italy, France and the Pacific, Mitsui said.
“They fought with the 34th, often spearheading their drives, from Salerno to Monte Cassino, and even to the gates of Rome,” said Mitsui.
The Red Bulls learned that during the course of the war, the 442nd became the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size, with its soldiers earning 21 Medals of Honor and 9,486 Purple Hearts.
“It was a pleasure when you served with us in Italy,” said Paul Hosoda, a retired chief warrant officer with the 442nd. “And when you came back, you vouched for us. We really appreciate all you’ve done for us.”
After the war, many Japanese-American veterans did not receive the hero’s welcome they deserved, Hosoda said, as he fished out a newspaper clipping from the Des Moines Register, dated March 24, 1944. “This guy stood up for us.”
“Maj. James J. Gillespie, who fought with the famous 34th Division from the beach landing at Algiers to the mountains before Cassino,” according to the newspaper, came home proud of the Nisei troops he commanded in Italy and upset with the welcome his troops were getting.
“Anybody who calls these doughboys Japs is the most narrow-minded person I know of,” Gillespie said. “These kids, so far as I’m concerned, are just as much Americans as I am. I’d like to hear anybody foolish enough to disparage them, do it when the two Iowa battalions that fought with them and got shot at with them could hear it.”
Hosoda said he credits people like Gillespie in the passing of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which ended the exclusion for Asians from becoming citizens of the United States.
“It was because of you guys that my father became a citizen,” Hosada told the Red Bulls.
The NVC received the Commanding General’s commemorative coin, the Command Sergeant Major’s commemorative coin, the Red Bull patch off Nash’s own uniform and a message from Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota, who declared April 10 Nisei Veterans Committee Day, in recognition of “the members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team for their monumental efforts and patriotism during World War II and their significant contribution to the history of the Minnesota National Guard’s 34th Red Bull Infantry Division.”
In return, the NVC gave the Red Bulls a tour, a meal and a tri-fold poster board card, about 4 feet by 3 feet and filled with dozens of messages to the deploying Red Bulls.
In the upper right corner: “Thank you for serving our country! Good luck. – Danielle Higa”
The lower left: “Our prayers and best wishes are with you and your family – Doug Luna.”
Finally, in the very middle, scrawled in big block letters: “GOOD LUCK – Robert S. Sato CoC 100th Bn. 442 RCT.”
The ‘l’ curved right to left down the page, and one of the zeros cut inward abruptly, but Sato, a veteran of 442nd, had ample excuse. Sato recently suffered a stroke, and despite his motor impairment, he painstakingly and with obvious care scrawled his regards.
There are fewer and fewer veterans like Sato as time goes on and as these men, living memorials to America’s strength and courage, are replaced by memorials like the one at Camp Savage.
“What happened to us is now history,” said Mitsui. “Justice has been served. The best thing we can do is to learn from history and to act on the lessons learned.”
Maj. Gen. Richard Nash and the leadership of the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division traveled from Fort Lewis, Wa., to the Nisei Veterans Committee Memorial Hall in Seattle, Wa., April 10 to recognize the sacrifice and conviction of the 442nd Regimental Combat team, a predominately Japanese-American unit that fought under the Red Bulls in Italy during World War II.