Kristen Hayashi
speaker
189 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Kristen Hayashi’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
And I think that sort of leads into just what it took, you know, for Japanese Americans to restart their lives after the war and how difficult it was.
The remarkable thing, Kristen, is that during the war, even during this period of incarceration, Nisei youth are recruited for war service, something that many did, right?
Right. So in 1943, the U.S. Army and government decides that they're going to create a segregated unit for Japanese-American, so Nisei soldiers, called the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, as like an opportunity for Japanese-Americans to prove their loyalty and patriotism through military service. And so they first called for volunteers out of the camps.
And, you know, maybe not surprisingly, there really weren't that many who volunteered outside of America's concentration camps. I did have a great uncle who volunteered, but he was, you know, sort of in the minority. And then, you know, later they impose a draft out of the camps. And, you know, this caused, I think, a lot of conflict for Japanese American, like for Nisei.
And, you know, while many did comply with the draft and served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, I think there's a lesser known story about a group at the Heart Mountain concentration camp called the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee. So this is a group of 63 young men who had a platform that said essentially, like, we're willing to serve in the U.S. Army if you let our families go.
And they were indicted for evading the draft. They were put on trial. It was the largest trial in all of Wyoming's history. And they didn't get a trial by jury. A judge presided over their trial. And they knew they weren't going to get a fair trial because the judge greeted them as JAP boys. But they were convicted of evading the draft. And the older boys were sent to Leavenworth Penitentiary.
And the younger ones were sent to McNeil Island Penitentiary in Washington State. And they served three-year terms for evading the draft. So they were incarcerated longer than their families were. And, you know, I think that story has been, is lesser known. And even within the Japanese American community, there is a stigma against the draft resistors.
They were seen as, you know, not being loyal or patriotic. But I think that's starting to change. And, you know, more attention is being paid to the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee members. And people see that they were standing up for their civil rights.
On the other hand, you want to see an incredible story of one regiment. The 442nd Regiment becomes the most decorated unit of its size in U.S. history. Tell me about this war story.
Right. So the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, there was the 100th Battalion, mostly from Hawaii. The 522, 522nd Artillery Battalion accompanied the 442. And then you had the Military Intelligence Service. And then you had the Women's Army Corps, too. But these are all comprised of Japanese American like Nisei. And the 442nd 100th Battalion, they were sent overseas to fight in the European theater.
They were given some of the toughest missions because their lives were seen as more expendable. They suffered major casualties, lost so many men, but they were really successful in the missions that they were given. And so, as you mentioned, they are the most decorated unit for their size and length of service in all of U.S. military history. Right.
18,000 individual decorations, 52 distinguished service crosses, one Congressional Medal of Honor. It's a remarkable record and really stands up to any group that has ever served in the military. It reminds me of the Hellfighters of Harlem, you know, that kind of story where people serve in the U.S. military to prove themselves to this country and then still meet great resistance even so.
Yeah. And the 522, they helped to liberate one of the satellite camps of Dachau. You know, just the irony in that here they were, you know, fighting for the United States and they liberate, you know, these... A concentration camp.
Yeah. Yeah.
They liberate a concentration camp while their families were incarcerated behind barbed wire as well.
Oh my God. The war has been won. Japan is occupied by American forces and governed by America for years afterwards. How do Japanese Americans return to any kind of normalcy now in this country that has been through this whole thing? And how do they feel about Japan?
You know, I think that this time period is so important and we don't talk about it enough. You know, I think there's so much scholarship on the incarceration itself. And then it skips over 20 years to like the civil rights movement and then to redress all important topics. But no one talks enough about what it took for Japanese Americans to restart their lives and just how difficult it was.
So they're returning to the same hostile social climate that existed before World War II. Just because the United States was victorious in the war didn't mean that that prejudice and racism just magically disappeared. Issei still aren't citizens until 1952. In some cases, their assets were frozen. But the idea or this concept of the camps during World War II, the U.S.
government never meant for them to be permanent camps. The idea was that they were trying to move the concentration of the population away from the West Coast and then disperse it widely across the United States. So as soon as someone could prove their loyalty, they had proof of employment and housing, they were able to leave. But they couldn't return to the West Coast until January 2nd, 1945.
So they had to go either to the Midwest or East Coast. So those who, you know, especially were younger, maybe had acceptance to a university or were able to find employment much easier, were able to leave relatively early.
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