Tomorrow is the 80th Anniversary of the formation of the 100th Infantry Bn.
So what?
Well, this is part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team comprised mostly of Japanese men.
Many of these men fought for our country even as their families were placed in "internment camps" around the country.
Including the Honouliuli Camp which is just a short distance away from my house in Waipahu.
The men and the families were considered untrustworthy, but the guys went and fought and died anyway.
I only know of one survivor left today and he is about 104 yrs. old.

Herewith are some sites describing the "Purple Heart Battalion"
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/nisei-purple-heart-battalion.html?edg-c=1
https://historyofyesterday.com/the-purple-heart-battalion-were-japanese-american-soldiers-of-world-war-ii-d80203a64e52

About 30 years ago there was a 2 hour locally produced documentary where a group of veterans talk about their experiences and actually travelled back to the areas in which they fought.
The documentary will be rebroadcast once again this week. The dates and times are listed below.

my uncle passed away late last year
he was with the second group of "katonks" that joined the 100th batallion
i will always regret not asking him about fighting with da "pineapple heads" when they first met
my uncle's family was relatively wealthy (hey owned a hotel), so they were able to buy property in eastern washington to farm, and thus did not have to go to an "internment camp"
he volunteered in 1942, when he was 16 or 17 years old (i don't know how he got in), and thus was nicknamed "junior" by the others in the 100th
of course, it was pronounced "jun-yah" in pidgin...

RIP  frank "junior" nishimura
https://www.seattlechannel.org/CommunityStories?videoid=x68582
https://www.nvcfoundation.org/newsletter/2016/11/speaker-series--frank-nishimura/
https://www.facebook.com/SeattleNVC/posts/the-late-frank-nishimura-served-in-b100th-in-bn442nd-rct/733836897965310/

My grandma's brother joined, C company..  He was awarded the Distinguished  Service Cross (Army) for capturing a German machine gun nest with his shovel and having that MG crew surrender.  His pic was at Fort Derusy Museum.

Unfortunately, I couldn't talk too much about it with him as my parents made sure they kept me away because he was very adamant that Germans are cowards among other things. 

The joke with my grandma was that he didn't do what he said, instead he was going to take a shit, which is why he had only his shovel and a group of Germans who were looking for a US soldier to surrender to, found him and surrendered because this was the end of the war and food, ammo, equipment were all running low.

Then when I got old enough to talk to him, he became very religious and never talked about the war. Even at his funeral, him being in the 100/442 was only 1 sentence long of his eulogy. And all it stated is that he was in the Go for Broke unit. 

Apparently, there are a dozen guys still alive.
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2022/06/13/wwii-100th-infantry-battalion-nisei-veterans-honored-80th-anniversary/