By Joshua Cline
The 100th Battalion, 442d Infantry Regiment, carries on the legacy of the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) of World War II fame. A unit created out of second-generation Japanese-American (Nisei) Hawai’i National Guard infantrymen loyally serving the United States before Pearl Harbor was attacked on 7 December 1941, the Nisei of the “One Puka Puka” served with incredible heroism and distinction in World War II. The 100th earned the nickname “Purple Heart Battalion” due to the casualties they suffered. Allowed to keep its distinctive designation as the 100th when permanently attached to the 442d Regimental Combat Team (RCT), the battalion contributed greatly to the 442d RCT rightly being known as the most decorated unit of its size and length of service in the history of the U.S. Army. Today, the 100th Battalion, 442d Infantry Regiment, is the only infantry unit in the Army Reserve and plays a key role in the defense of Hawai’i and the Pacific region.
The 100th Infantry Battalion’s original members were all second-generation Japanese-Americans known as Nisei, who had been part of the Hawai’i’ National Guard’s 298th and 299th Infantry Regiments when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The Nisei soldiers took part in recovery efforts after the attack, but soon white troops confiscated their weapons and ammunition. On 5 January 1942, the War Department “classified Japanese-Americans as 4-C, enemy aliens ineligible for the draft.” Like their families sent to internment camps due to Executive Order 9066, it appeared that like loyal Japanese-American Hawaiians were going to be shunned as untrustworthy. Indeed, as a Japanese armada bore down on Midway in May 1942, Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall ordered the removal of the soldiers of questionable loyalty from Hawai’i to California. This was both to prevent a suspected uprising, were Midway to be lost, and because Marshall had a new plan for them.
On 1 January 1942, Brigadier General Raymond E. Lee, Acting Assistant Chief of Staff, delivered a memorandum to General Marshall. Lee argued for rescinding the rules that prevented foreign aliens from serving in the Army, envisioning units of highly motivated men who wanted to liberate their occupied homelands in Europe, or prove their loyalty to America. Lee’s memo led to five ethnic infantry battalions being created, organized like Lee proposed. These battalions were designated Separate, meaning independent of any regimental structure, and were thus larger to have their own support units. These five units were the 1st Filipino Infantry Battalion, the 99th (Norwegian), 101st (Austrian, inactivated before it left the United States), 122d (Greek), and the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate), the latter formed from the Nisei who wanted to prove their worth.
The 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) was activated on 12 June 1942 in Oakland, California, with 1,406 Japanese-American enlistees, led by white officers from the Hawaiian Provisional Infantry Battalion who had commanded the men before the war and trusted their loyalty and capabilities. Due to such trust, a number of Japanese-Americans were given positions of command, though nothing larger than a platoon. Their commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Farrant Turner, had led the 298th Infantry on 7 December 1941 and begged to lead his men into combat. First training at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, from June 1942 to January 1943, the 100th was moved to Camp Shelby, Mississippi for the Louisiana Maneuvers. On 1 February 1943, the 442d RCT followed in the 100th’s footsteps and was activated at Camp Shelby, similarly formed from Japanese-American men.
Before the 100th departed, it took up the motto, “Remember Pearl Harbor.” This was changed to “Go for Broke,” which meant to gamble and risk it all. The 100th was deployed to Oran, Algeria, in North Africa, arriving 2 September 1943. Slated for non-combat duty guarding prisoners, Lieutenant Colonel Turner demanded deployment to Italy for a combat assignment.
On 22 September, the 100th landed at Salerno and was attached to the 34th Infantry Division. One week later, the battalion suffered its first combat death, Sergeant Shigeo Takata. In the first eight weeks of combat following their arrival in Italy, six soldiers of the 100th received the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC).. Accomplishments of the unit included securing a bridgehead over the Volturno River and participating in attacking Monte Cassino in early 1944. Their heroism, however, came at a cost. With a strength of 1,300 men upon arrival in Italy, the unit was left with 521 combat-capable soldiers in January 1944. Of Company C’s original 170 men, only twenty-three remained. Thus, the unit picked up its nickname, Purple Heart Battalion. Replacements from the 442d brought the battalion back to a strength of 1,095. Sent to the Anzio Beachhead on 26 March 1944, soldiers of the 100th earned another six DSCs in the breakout starting on 23 May. Impressed with the Nisei’s conduct in combat, the War Department recruited more of them to the 442d RCT. The 442d deployed to Italy and joined with the 100th, leaving behind their first battalion to train Nisei replacements recruited from the internment camps.
Seven miles from Rome, on 3 June, the 100th’s advance was abruptly halted and the battalion was ordered to cease approaching the Eternal City. Many members of the 100th were certain this was due to racial prejudice, denying the battalion the honor of capturing Rome. Morale was buoyed, however, by meeting up with the 442d RCT in Civitavecchia on 11 June. For their actions on 26-27 June 1944, the 100th was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation, now known as the Presidential Unit Citation (PUC). The 100th formally became part of the 442d on 10 August, 1944, losing their separate designation and becoming an organic element. Originally intended to be redesignated accordingly as the 442d’s 1st Battalion, the regiment’s chaplain, Masao Yamada, petitioned for the 100th to keep its original designation. This rare honor was granted. On 27 September, the 442d departed Naples for France, arriving in Marseilles two days later and joining Seventh Army.
In France, the 442d was attached to the 36th Infantry Division for the push into the Vosges Mountains. Between September and November, the regiment liberated Bruyeres, Biffontain, and rescued a “lost battalion” of the 141st Infantry Regiment, being awarded their second PUC for their efforts. In November, the battalion was rotated to defensive positions in the Maritime Alps along the Franco-Italian Border, where they remained for four months. In late March 1945, the 442d returned to Fifth Army in Italy for the Po Valley Campaign to attack the Gothic Line. The 442d RCT was attached to the 92d Infantry Division, a segregated African American division with white senior officers. In this campaign, the 100th was awarded a third PUC for turning a diversionary attack into a successful offensive operation, which was a critical accomplishment in destroying the Wehrmacht in Italy. Private First Class Sadao S. Munemori was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for sacrificing his life to protect two others on 5 April 1945. Munemori was the 100th’s sole recipient of the nation’s highest military decoration during the war. The 100th continued occupation duty in Italy until summer 1946.
The 100th Infantry Battalion was inactivated in Hawai’i on 15 August 1946. During World War II, the 100th was credited with participating in six campaigns (Naples-Foggia, Anzio, Rome-Arno, North Apennines, Rhineland, and Po Valley). In eighteen months of combat, the unit suffered 337 killed in action and was awarded 1,703 Purple Hearts. Along with these were three PUCs, one Medal of Honor, twenty-four DSCs, 147 Silver Stars, and 2,173 Bronze Stars. Years later, after Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) launched an investigation in 1996 into racial bias of awards during World War II, twenty more Medals of Honor were awarded to Japanese-Americans, including eight members of the 100th Infantry Battalion. On 2 November 2011, President Barack Obama signed legislation to grant the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442d RCT, and Japanese-American soldiers of the Military Intelligence Service the Congressional Gold Medal.
General Joseph Stilwell said in December 1945, “The Nisei bought an awful big hunk of America with their blood. You’re damn right those Nisei boys have a place in the American heart, now and forever.” It is also evident that General Marshall did not regret his decision to allow the Nisei to distinguish themselves in combat. Quoted in 1957, Marshall declared:
I will say about the Japanese fighting then in these units we had: They were superb! That word correctly describes it: superb! They took terrific casualties. They showed rare courage and tremendous fighting spirit. Not too much can be said of the performance of those battalions in Europe and everybody wanted them in the operations, and we used them quite dramatically in the great advance in Italy.
On 31 July 1947, the 100th Battalion was reactivated at Fort DeRussy, Hawai’i, as an element of the 442d Infantry in the Organized Reserves (later the U.S. Army Reserve). The Korean War saw all officers and senior noncommissioned officers recalled to active duty, though the 100th Battalion itself did not deploy. The unit was reorganized and redesignated the 100th Battle Group, 442d Infantry on 29 May 1959. Five years later, on 1 May 1964, the unit was again reorganized and redesignated as the 100th Battalion, 442d Infantry. Colloquially, the unit was often referred to as the 100th/442d, rarely referred to as only the 100th, a tradition that continues to this day.
The 100th/442d was mobilized on 13 May 1968 to serve as a strategic reserve and to provide individual replacement personnel for the Vietnam War. A total of 187 men from the unit deployed to Southeast Asia; nine were killed in action during their service in the conflict. In the order they fell, they were Private First Class Dennis Silveri; Private First Class Rodney Fukunaga; Specialist 4 Larry Leopoldino; Specialist 4 Clifford Taira; Specialist 4 Leonard Castillo; Specialist 4 Anthony Bongo; Staff Sergeant Melvin Fujita; Staff Sergeant Robert Spillner; and Sergeant First Class Alfredo Pacolba. All are buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawai’i. The unit was released from active service on 12 December 1969. The 100th/442d continued reserve service through the rest of the century, with elements called up as needed to provide services such as disaster relief and security. The location of the headquarters changed to Fort Shafter, Hawai’i on 1 September 1994.
Ordered to active military service on 16 August 2004, the 100th Battalion, 442d Infantry, deployed in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM III (OIF-III) as part of the 29th Infantry Brigade, Hawai’i Army National Guard. The battalion was stationed at Logistics Support Area Anaconda in Balad, Iraq. Of 732 soldiers in the unit, five were killed in action during the deployment and forty-five wounded during their tour in Iraq. One, for example, was Staff Sergeant Frank Tiai of Pago Pago, American Samoa, who had served with the battalion for more than twenty years; he was killed on 17 July 2005 by an improvised explosive device in Baghdad that detonated beneath his vehicle. The others were Sergeant Deyson K. Cariaga of Honolulu, Hawai’i; Sergeant Evan S. Parker of Arkansas City, Kansas; Corporal Derence W. Jack of Saipan; and Staff Sergeant Wilgene T. Lieto of Saipan. Soldiers of Task Force 100-442 discovered more thanfifty weapons caches during their deployment. While deployed, on 1 October 2005, the unit was redesignated as the 100th Battalion, 442d Infantry Regiment. The unit returned to Hawai’i in January 2006 and reverted to reserve status on 13 March. For this deployment, the 100th/442d was awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation (MUC).
On 19 August, 2008, the 100th/442d was attached to the 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, for a one-year deployment to Kuwait and Iraq during OIF-XI. The battalion performed over 1,500 combat missions—predominantly convoy escort—totaling over 1.3 million miles. Two soldiers in the unit died during the deployment. Corporal Casey L. Hills of Salem, Illinois, was killed in a multi-vehicle collision, while Staff Sergeant Julian Manglona of the Northern Mariana Islands died in training. Sixteen soldiers of the battalion earned Bronze Stars during OIF-XI. In 2018, for actions between 5 November 2008 and 15 August 2009, the unit was awarded a second MUC. The unit was released from active military service on 22 September 2009 and reverted to reserve status. For their service in the War on Terrorism, the 100th/442d Infantry Regiment is credited with two campaigns: Iraqi Governance and National Resolution.
On 27 August 2017, the Army Reserve’s first female infantry company commander, Captain Carneen Cotton, took the guidon of Charlie Company, 100th Battalion, 442d Infantry Regiment. She passed the baton in turn to Captain Timothy Shea in September 2018. In 2023, the battalion celebrated having the first female Reserve Ranger School graduate, First Lieutenant Anna Zaccaria.
The 100th Battalion, 442d Infantry Regiment, is still active today. The legacy attached to the 100th is immense, and upholding the lineage and honors of the men who shouted “Go for Broke” in their fight against the Germans in World War II is a tough assignment. The only infantry unit in the Army Reserves, the unit serves a key role in the 9th Mission Support Command and the 303d Maneuver Enhancement Brigade. Headquartered at Fort Shafter when not deployed in training maneuvers with key allies, elements of the 100th/442d are spread across a large geographical area, including Hawai’i, American Samoa, Saipan, Guam, and Washington State, performing a key role in operational readiness and security in the Pacific.
