Arthur Iwasaki WWII 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Most Japanese Americans who fought in WWII were Nisei, second-generation Japanese Americans born in the U.S. Nevertheless, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese American men were categorized as 4C (enemy alien) and therefore non-draftable.
As a regimental combat team, the 442nd RCT was a self-sufficient fighting formation of three infantry battalions (originally 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions, 442d Infantry, and later the 100th Infantry Battalion in place of the 1st), the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, the 232nd Engineering Company, an anti-tank company, cannon company, service company, medical detachment, headquarters companies, and the 206th Army Band.
Flightline Fabrications recently interviewed retired 442nd Regimental Combat Team US Army Veteran Arthur Iwasaki. Mr. Iwasaki was generous enough to sit down for our Living History Project and tell us about his life during WWII, fighting in Europe, and one of the soldiers who helped to rescue the “Lost Battalion” in France during WWII.
The 442nd famously rescued the “Lost Battalion” at Biffontaine. Pursuant to army tradition of never leaving soldiers behind, over a five-day period, from October 26 to October 30, 1944, the 442nd suffered the loss of nearly half of its roster—over 800 casualties, including 121 dead — while rescuing 211 members of the 36th Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry, which had been surrounded by German forces in the Vosges mountains since October 24.
Over the next three weeks Flightline Fabrications will be posting segments of Mr Iwasaki’s interview for all generations to hear. Arthur’s story is truly one of honor, sacrifice, and heroism; you will feel for Arthur and the men who fought along side him.
