The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was composed almost entirely of second-generation Japanese Americans, or Nisei. Many of these men came from families that had been incarcerated in American internment camps behind barbed wire while the men volunteered to fight for the country that had imprisoned their parents.
Activated in 1943, the 442nd served in Italy, southern France, and Germany. In 18 months of combat, the unit suffered approximately 9,486 casualties — including 600 killed in action — but gained distinctions that made it the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of the United States armed forces. The 442nd earned 21 Medals of Honor, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, 560 Silver Stars, 4,000 Bronze Stars, and 9,486 Purple Hearts. The unit's motto: Go for Broke.
Their most famous action was the rescue of the Lost Battalion in October 1944, when the 1st Battalion of the 141st Infantry Regiment (Texas) was surrounded by German forces in the Vosges Mountains of France. Over five days of brutal fighting in the freezing rain and fog, the 442nd attacked and broke through German lines to rescue 211 men. The 442nd lost 800 men in the rescue — a casualty rate of nearly 100 percent for the battalion.
When the 442nd returned after the rescue, General John E. Dahlquist, the commander who had sent them in, tried to commend them. A Nisei soldier reportedly replied: Sir, we're all here. The general looked and realized he was wrong. Of the 800 men who had gone up the mountain, only 100 remained standing.
The 442nd also liberated the Dachau satellite camp at Kaufering. When Nisei soldiers, many of whom had families in American internment camps, walked into the camp and saw the emaciated survivors, the horror was compounded by the knowledge that their own parents were still behind barbed wire in camps like Manzanar and Tule Lake.