World War II

Ted T. Tsukiyama.
HNN Staff (2019, February 16). Source.

"I was awakened that morning by the constant rumbling of thunder.
The sky toward Pearl Harbor was black with smoke, punctuated by puffs of white aerial bursts. "They're sure making this maneuver look real," I thought. Turning on the radio, I heard the announcer screaming, "Take cover, get off the streets! We are being attacked by Japanese enemy planes. This is the real McCoy! Take cover!" Those words pierced me like a piece of shrapnel. I was numb and uncomprehending. Then I heard the radio announcer say, "All members of the University ROTC, report to the campus immediately." I jumped into my ROTC uniform and rushed up to the ROTC barracks at the university campus. This was the first of three times that I was to volunteer my services during the first thirteen months of World War ll."

Ted T. Tsukiyama in "Nisei Military Experience during World War II"
(1991) In Remembering the Pacific War, edited by Geoffrey M. White, 163-171. Occasional Paper series 36. Honolulu, Hawai‘i: Center for Pacific Islands Studies, School of Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/15563

On December 7, 1941, immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, UH Army ROTC cadets were sent with rifles and ammunition to guard vital installations and locations around O'ahu.

That same day, all ROTC activities were suspended and within the following week cadets from UH, as well as cadets from McKinley, Roosevelt, Punahou, and Kamehameha High Schools over the age of 17-1/2, joined the Hawaii Territorial Guard. However, due to anti-Japanese sentiment, Japanese cadets were expelled one month later. Over 160 Nisei students convened at the UH campus where they drafted a letter to military governor Delos C. Emmons expressing their desire and duty to contribute to the war effort. They were granted their request and the group formed the labor battalion, the Varsity Victory Volunteers.

In mid 1942, the military created the 100th Battalion under the U.S. Army Reserve in order to group all servicemen of Japanese ancestry from Hawai'i. Nicknamed the Purple Heart Battalion for the multiple deaths during battle abroad, they were, and today remain, the only infantry unit of the Reserves.

In 1943, the heroic efforts of the Varsity Victory Volunteers and the 100th Battalion prompted the Army into combining them into the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

The U.S. Army 442nd Regimental Combat Team, whose motto is "Go For Broke," remains the most decorated combat unit in U.S. military history.

Click here to read about the 7 UH Army ROTC cadets who died serving their country during WWII.