Go For Broke Monument - Los Angeles, CA
Posted by: 
saopaulo1
N 34° 03.066 W 118° 14.347
11S E 385635 N 3768514
The Go For Broke Monument in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California commemorates Japanese Americans who served in the United States Army during World War II.
Waymark Code: WM47ZE
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 07/19/2008
Views: 49
Design and construction of the monument commenced in 1991 with the dedication occurring on June 5, 1999. It is located at the end of North Central Street, adjacent to the Japanese American National Museum, and is surrounded on three sides by a pay-parking lot serving East Temple Street. The monument is accessible by the public at no cost.
The monument has a large semicircular face of polished black stone, set at an angle facing the sun as it travels across the southern sky, and embracing a pole upon which the American flag flies. At the foot of the flag is the shoulder flash of the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Across the top of the face is the motto: "GO FOR BROKE" and below that are the insignia of the segregated, all-Nisei Army units: the famed 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, as well as lesser-known Nisei units, the Military Intelligence Service, 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, 232nd Combat Engineer Company, and the [[1399th Engineering Construction Battalion]].
"Go For Broke!" was the unit motto for the 100th Battalion, and was adopted by the 442nd RCT.[1] It has since been adopted as a motto for all of the Japanese American units formed during WWII.
The monument's main feature, a large inscription on the face, describes how they served even as they were being deprived of their constitutional rights during the period of Japanese American internment. This inscription uses the term concentration camps to describe the facilities officially called relocation centers. The inscription is attributed to 100th Infantry Battalion veteran Ben Tamashiro, who is best known for his more than 60 appearances in television advertisements for the Bank of Hawaii. According to his 2004 obituary in the Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Bulletin:
After a nationwide search failed to elicit an appropriate inscription, his former commanding officer — Col. Young Oak Kim, who was in charge of the project — wrote to Tamashiro, according to his daughter. The words Tamashiro sent back were the ones chosen — with a single change. Instead of "internment camps" as he had written, the inscription was changed to "concentration camps."
The monument's website does not explain or acknowledge the change.
The monument's curved back wall lists the names of 16,126 Nisei soldiers.
Interpretive information is available from the Japanese American National Museum and a kiosk beside the monument. Also, the monument is often attended by veterans of the Nisei units, who explain the monument, the events of World War II, and answer questions. -Wikipedia
Date of Dedication: 06/05/1999
Property Permission: Public
Commemoration: Japanese Americans who served in the United States Army during World War II
Access instructions: Not listed
Access times: Not listed
Website for Waymark: Not listed
Location of waymark: Not listed
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