442ND REGIMENTAL COMBAT TEAM
"Go for Broke!”
The 442nd Regimental Combat Team (“442nd RCT”) was organized on March 23, 1943 in response to the War Department’s call for volunteers to form an all Japanese-American army combat unit. Over 12,000 Japanese-American volunteers responded. Ultimately, 2,686 volunteers from Hawaii and 1,500 volunteers from American concentration camps assembled at Camp Shelby, Mississippi to undergo military training in April 1943.
The 442nd RCT was comprised of the 442nd Infantry Regiment, the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, the 232 Combat Engineers Company, the Anti-Tank Company, the Cannon Company, the Medical Detachment, and the 206th Army Ground Forces Band. After about a year of training, the 442nd was shipped out on May 1, 1944 to Italy, where it was joined by the 100th Infantry Battalion which became and fought as the “first battalion” of the 442nd RCT.
The 442nd was assigned to General Mark Clark’s U.S. Fifth Army and received its baptism of fire at Suvereto on June 26, 1944. For the next ten weeks the 442nd engaged the German army in the mountainous Italian terrain and drove the enemy forces north to the Arno River. On August 15, 1944, the Anti-Tank Company was detached from the 442nd to make an assault glider landing in the U.S. Army invasion of Southern France.
In October-November 1944, the 442nd was transferred to southeastern France and assigned to the 36th Infantry Division to fight the entrenched German enemy in the bitter cold and dark forests of the Vosges Mountains. The French towns of Bruyeres, Belmont and Biffontaine were liberated and the entrapped Texas “Lost Battalion” was rescued at the cost to the 442nd of over 800 casualties. In late March 1945, the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion was assigned to the U.S. Seventh Army to add its fire support in the Allied assault against Germany. There, it encountered and liberated Jewish survivors of the Dachau Death March and other concentration camps. In April 1945, the 442nd was returned to Italy at the specific request of General Clark to help the Fifth Army breach the German Gothic Line which had blocked the Allied advance for six months. The 442nd took less than a day to break through the German defenses at Mount Folgorito, and within the next three weeks routed the German army in retreat north to the Po Valley, where Germany finally surrendered on May 2, 1945.
In just ten months of combat against the German army, the 442nd RCT compiled a remarkable fighting record, although at a cost of over 717 killed and missing-in-action and 9,486 Purple Heart Medals. The unit won 7 Presidential Unit Citations and 18,143 individual decorations for bravery, including 1 Congressional Medal of Honor, 52 Distinguished Service Cross, 588 Silver Star, and over 4,000 Bronze Star medals. Moreover, led by its battle cry “Go For Broke,” the 442nd RCT earned the honored distinction of being recognized as “the most decorated unit of its size and time of battle in United States military history.”
The "Brothers in Valor" memorial commemorates the heroic lives of thousands of Japanese-Americans who served in the U.S. Military in World War II. Judy Weightman conceived this memorial after interviewing Japanese-American soldiers who had liberated the Dachau concentration camp. The sculpture was created by Bumpei Akaji, a veteran of the 442nd, and dedicated on July 4, 1998. It is situated on a 5,100 square foot site on Ft. DeRussy along Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki.
The bronze sculpture consists of four metal prongs reaching skyward, intertwined at the base, each about ten feet tall. The base is polished black marble about six-feet tall, and on each of four faces is a bronze plaque with the history of each group honored - the :442nd Regimental Combat Team, 100th Infantry Battalion, Military Intelligence Service, and the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion
The monument is centered in a circle of paving stones and at the outer edge of each quadrant are individual bronze plaques mounted on granite stones identifying each of these groups. Within the base of the monument is a time capsule with scrolls containing the names of those killed in action, all members of the groups honored here, and of contributors to the creation of the memorial.
THE "BROTHERS IN VALOR" MEMORIAL WAS CONCEIVED BY
JUDY M. WEIGHTMAN
MAY 22, 1941 - MARCH 4, 1998
HER EFFORTS AND PASSION WILL ALWAYS BE
REMEMBERED
OAHU AJA VETERANS COUNCIL
UNIVERSAL CONSTRUCTION, INC.