Excerpt from Telling All Americans' Stories: Introduction to Aslan American and Pacific Islander Heritage Source: The National Park Service
By the mid-1900s, generations of Asian Americans had built enduring communities throughout the United States. However, Japan's attack on
the U. S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in 1941 revived existing hostility towards Japanese Americans. In response to public outcry against the attack
and widespread fear of Japanese American disloyalty, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which forcibly relocated over 120,000
Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast to one of ten Relocation Centers. The Minidoka National Historic Site is one of the
places that interprets this largest forced relocation of American citizens.
Despite the denial of their civil liberties and constitutional rights, many Japanese Americans still felt it was their duty to contribute to the war
effort. Initially barred from enlisting following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the armed forces later formed a segregated unit for Japanese
American volunteers from the mainland and Hawaiian Islands. The men of 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team fought on the battlefields
of Italy, Germany, and southern France while most of their families remained in internment camps for the duration of the war. James Hishinuma
left his family farm in Colorado-listed in the National Register of Historic Places--to fight for his country. Because of the sacrifices of Hishinuma
and men like him, the 442nd would go on to become the most decorated unit of its size in American military history.