The 100th Infantry Battalion (, Dai Hyaku Hohei Daitai) is the only infantry unit in the United States Army Reserve. In World War II, the then-primarily Nisei battalion was composed largely of former members of the Hawaii Army National Guard and trained at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin from June 1942 to January 1943. The 100th Infantry Battalion went to Camp Shelby, Mississippi in January 1943 for advanced training and left for overseas in August 1943. The 100th saw heavy combat during World War II, starting in September 1943 and continuing after being attached as a battalion of the Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT) in June 1944. The unit was unofficially nicknamed the Purple Heart Battalion, with the motto "Remember Pearl Harbor".
Quote: [Nearly a century later,] "the "Remember Pearl Harbor" 100th Infantry Battalion, and the "Go For Broke" 442d Regimental Combat Team is still the most decorated unit in U.S. military history. Members of this World War II unit earned over 18,000 individual decorations including over 4,000 Purple Hearts, and 21 Medals of Honor. The Combat Team earned five Presidential Citations in 20 days of Rhineland fighting, the only military unit ever to claim that achievement. General of the Army George C. Marshall praised the team saying, "they were superb: the men of the 100/442d... showed rare courage and tremendous fighting spirit... everybody wanted them." General Mark W. Clark (Fifth Army) said, "these are some the best... fighters in the U.S. Army. If you have more, send them over.""
Based at Fort Shafter, Honolulu, Hawaii, the 100th Battalion continues the legacy of the 442nd Infantry Regiment, officially designated as 100th Battalion/442nd Infantry Regiment. The 100th Battalion/442nd Infantry Regiment has maintained an alignment with the active 25th Infantry Division since a reorganization in 1972. This alignment has resulted in the 100th's mobilization for combat duty in the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. The 100th Infantry Battalion is staffed with reservists from Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Saipan and Washington. The battalion is subordinate to the 9th Mission Support Command.
History
Background
On the morning of 7 December 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, marking the beginning of World War II for the United States. After the attack, Japanese Americans and those of Japanese descent faced prejudice at home. Chaos ensued in the hours that followed the Pearl Harbor attack, but the 298th and 299th Hawaii National Guard prepared for an invasion, cleared the rubble, donated their blood, and aided the wounded. However, three days after the attack, the unit's rifles were stripped from them because of the ethnicity of members; eventually those rifles were returned. Nisei that were a part of the ROTC program at the University of Hawaii were discharged from the Hawaii Territorial Guard. Those former members eventually formed the Varsity Victory Volunteers.
At 11:30 a.m. martial law was declared, and Governor Joseph Poindexter told President Franklin D. Roosevelt that his greatest fear was sabotage by the large Japanese population in Hawaii. The FBI rounded up known Japanese sympathizers, Buddhist priests, language school principals and teachers, civic and business leaders, fishermen, and instructors of Judo and related martial arts.Tamashiro, Ben. Remembrances: 100th Infantry Battalion 50th Anniversary Celebration 1942–1992. Published and distributed by 100th Infantry Battalion Publication Committee. Pg. 49. The War Department reassigned soldiers of Japanese ancestry on the mainland, had all Japanese Americans on the West Coast rounded up and placed in internment camps around the U S, discharged those of Japanese descent from the Hawaii Territorial Guard, and had all Japanese Americans reclassified as 4-C: enemy aliens.
General Delos Carleton Emmons, appointed military governor on 17 December, supported placing Japanese Americans in internment camps and having them reclassified as enemy aliens, but he wanted to give them a chance to prove their patriotism. After General Emmons agreed to let the Varsity Victory Volunteers form, a confidential memo was sent to the War Department in early April 1942 stating that 2,000 Japanese American soldiers served, and many more who wished to serve to demonstrate their loyalty to the United States. Their desire was to organize into a fighting force to be sent to Europe or Africa to fight the Germans and Italians, but the request was later denied by the War Department.Tamashiro, Ben. Remembrances: 100th Infantry Battalion 50th Anniversary Celebration 1942–1992. Published and distributed by 100th Infantry Battalion Publication Committee. Pages. 51, 53.
Formation As the Battle of Midway was well underway on 4 June 1942, 1,432 Nisei of the Hawaii National Guard boarded the U.S. Army transport USAT , formerly a Matson liner, under the cover of night and were shipped to the mainland without saying goodbye to their family or loved ones. Under the title "Hawaiian Provisional Infantry Battalion" the week-long zigzag journey took them to a port in Oakland where they were designated the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) on 12 June 1942.Crost, Lyn. Honor by Fire: Japanese Americans at War in Europe and the Pacific. Novato: Presidio Press, 1994. Pg. 15. The unit number was an indication of the Army's recently formulated plan for a modern organization for Combat Arms. Under normal pre-war Army procedures, all infantry battalions were organic to the regiment they were a part of and were known as, for instance, "1st Battalion, 5th Regiment." With the new system of organization, the infantry regiment was reorganized as a headquarters with no organic battalions, but with three separate battalions attached. The headquarters was organized into three combat commands that could be dispatched on separate combat actions with units that were attached. One infantry battalion would be assigned to a combat command, with attachments from the higher headquarters reserve. The 100th, however, was not initially attached to a regiment. It came to be known unofficially as the "One-Puka-Puka" (Puka means "hole" in Hawaiian).
Camp McCoy and Camp Shelby
In Oakland, the 100th boarded a train to their final destination, Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. Immediately following their arrival to Camp McCoy many of the Nisei felt animosity and distrust from fellow soldiers and military and political leaders.Sterner, C. Douglas. Go For Broke: The Nisei Warriors of World War II Who Conquered Germany, Japan, and American Bigotry. Clearfield: American Legacy Historical Press, 2008. Pg. 16. The 100th was quartered in tents, four soldiers per tent, which contained a bunk bed, blanket, towels, and backpack. It would be several months until the Nisei moved into military barracks. Eventually soldiers were permanently placed into military units, such as Companies A through F, and pushed through physical, marksmanship, and tactical training.Tamashiro, Ben. Remembrances: 100th Infantry Battalion 50th Anniversary Celebration 1942–1992. Published and distributed by 100th Infantry Battalion Publication Committee. Pg. 71.
Some of the white officers and NCO's appointed to the 100th were schooled in psychology and were ordered to test the recruits' physical capabilities, military capabilities, and loyalty. The Nisei competed with other companies in marksmanship, baseball, softball, physical combat such as scuffles, boxing, and wrestling.Tamashiro, Ben. Remembrances: 100th Infantry Battalion 50th Anniversary Celebration 1942–1992. Published and distributed by 100th Infantry Battalion Publication Committee. Pg. 73.
On one such occasion that happened to prove the loyalty and bravery of the new recruits, five Nisei soldiers received the Soldier's Medal for their rescue of several local civilians from drowning on a frozen Wisconsin lake.Sterner, C. Douglas. Go For Broke: The Nisei Warriors of World War II Who Conquered Germany, Japan, and American Bigotry. Clearfield: American Legacy Historical Press, 2008. Pg. 17. On one occasion, about 25 of the Japanese-American soldiers were sent to a secret training mission on a small island, Cat Island, near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Some top military officers thought that the "Jap" soldiers smelled differently, and that the Nisei soldiers would give off a similar scent. So for three months these 25 Nisei were ordered to train attack dogs to "smell Japs." The training didn't work.
Training at Camp McCoy lasted six months until on 6 January 1943 the 100th Battalion was transferred to Camp Shelby, Mississippi. The 100th was attached to the 85th Division under Major General Wade Haislip and would receive even tougher training than they did at Camp McCoy. Upon arrival at Camp Shelby the 100th received the same amount of skepticism as they did at McCoy. The 100th successfully passed the training exercises.Tamashiro, Ben. Remembrances: 100th Infantry Battalion 50th Anniversary Celebration 1942–1992. Published and distributed by 100th Infantry Battalion Publication Committee. Pgs. 77 and 79. At Camp Shelby where 100th received its most intense and advanced training and then was sent to Camp Clairborne, Louisiana for field exercises and war games.Sterner, C. Douglas. Go For Broke: The Nisei Warriors of World War II Who Conquered Germany, Japan, and American Bigotry. Clearfield: American Legacy Historical Press, 2008. Pgs. 20–21.
On return from Camp Clairborne, the 100th met up with the newly formed 442nd Regimental Combat Team on 16 July. On 20 July 1943 the 100th received its battalion colors and motto, "Remember Pearl Harbor," as requested by the unit.Tamashiro, Ben. Remembrances: 100th Infantry Battalion 50th Anniversary Celebration 1942–1992. Published and distributed by 100th Infantry Battalion Publication Committee. Pg. 83.
Africa and Italy After training at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, and Camp Shelby, Mississippi, the battalion deployed from Shelby on 11 August by train to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey and then to the Mediterranean on 21 August 1943.
The 100th arrived in Oran, North Africa on 2 September 1943 but was refused by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, then the commander of the North African Theater of Operations. Lieutenant General Mark Wayne Clark, commanding the United States Fifth Army, accepted the offer, and the 100th became a part of the 133rd Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division, in place of the regiment's 2nd Battalion that had been assigned to guard General Eisenhower's headquarters in Oran, North Africa, and took part in training with white soldiers. On 19 September, the 34th Division sailed from Africa to southeast of Naples, with the 100th with them.
The unit were to fight in the Italian Campaign and entered combat on 29 September 1943, near Salerno in Southern Italy. The unit advanced in 24 hours for a week against strong enemy resistance which allowed them to take Benevento, an important rail center and road intersection. The 100th crossed the Volturno River three times, taking on heavy German machine gun fire and rocket launchers before driving the German force even further north.
Monte Cassino