The best recruits the commander had seen in 45 years were the enemy aliens.
June 12, 1942: The all-Japanese American 100th Infantry Battalion was officially activated.
They were Japanese Americans. Loyal to the United States. Born in Hawaii. Eager to serve. And yet, they were labeled “enemy aliens” by their own government.
In the months following Pearl Harbor, many of these young Nisei men were already doing what they could to help. Some pulled civilians from wreckage. Others dug through debris for survivors. They joined emergency services, guarded infrastructure, or enlisted wherever they could. But the official stance of the U.S. War Department was clear: people of Japanese ancestry could not be trusted.
For months, they were turned away from military service. Even those already in uniform were sidelined. Some were reassigned to labor units. Others faced suspicion or hostility from fellow soldiers.
But Japanese Americans kept volunteering. Kept asking to serve. Kept showing up. Eventually, that persistence cracked the prejudice.
A proposal emerged in Hawaii: what if a separate unit could be formed, made entirely of Nisei soldiers? It was a gamble — a way to test their loyalty without “risking” white troops. The War Department agreed. The 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) was born.
The first group was 1,432 men, all of Japanese descent. Most had been part of the Hawaii National Guard. They were shipped off to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, for training, far from home.
What happened next shocked even the Army brass.
These undersized men trained harder than anyone. Ran longer. Marched farther. Outperformed every unit around them. Lieutenant General Charles D. Herron, commander of the U.S. Army’s Hawaiian Department, remarked they were the best recruits he’d seen in 45 years of service.
They didn’t do it for medals. They did it because they had something to prove. Something to fight for.
They called themselves the “Remember Pearl Harbor” Battalion. But the name they earned on the battlefield would be even more lasting: the “Purple Heart Battalion.”
Their bravery would lead to the formation of another Nisei unit — the 442nd Regimental Combat Team — and together, they would become the most decorated military unit of its size and length of service in U.S. history.
The Germans were tough. So was prejudice. But these men were even tougher.