Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Honoring the Nisei Vets


Monday at the CE Chicks luncheon, we discovered that the father of one of our group was a member of WWII's fabled 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up of Americans of Japanese descent.

That unit broke through enemy lines and rescued survivors of the First Battalion of the Texas 141 Regiment (the Lost Battalion) and led them to safety after they had fallen into a trap of Nazi forces in the mountains of northern France in October, 1944.

Last week there was a big dinner honoring the surviving members of the 442nd and 441st in Houston. I read this story in the Houston Chronicle about it, but didn't realize that one of the men quoted in the piece was my friend's father. The photo here is from the Chronicle's story.

She attended the dinner with her father and said it was a wonderful evening. Recently a couple of journalists from Japan came to her parents' home to interview him about his experiences during the war and take pictures. Like many veterans, he never talked about his wartime service so she heard new stories about this time in his life.

God bless him and his comrades for their service to our country during a time in which Japanese Americans were interned and treated with suspicion and discrimination.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!

1 comment:

Mac said...

the 442d Infantry("Go For Broke") was a great regiment. They had something to prove and they did--the Nazis never knew what hit them.