Sven Hassel

[pauk]

not a place but...

I bought Sven Hassel books (Dan who fought in the Wermacht and survived WW II) - exciting books!

In one of them (named Monte Cassino) i read that Hassel and his comrades fought against American unit (not suprisingly, eh) fullfied with American citizens but japanese nacionality (this is suprise!). And they were equipped with samurai swords....

Well, i know SH not always pay attention to historical accuracy and Anglo-Japanese were in "camps" in the USA during a war, but i wonder if this can be a true?

Does anybody knows something about Japanese soldiers in American Army or it is (more likely) just product of Hassel imagination?

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: pauk

not a place but...

I bought Sven Hassel books (Dan who fought in the Wermacht and survived WW II) - exciting books!

In one of them (named Monte Cassino) i read that Hassel and his comrades fought against American unit (not suprisingly, eh) fullfied with American citizens but japanese nacionality (this is suprise!). And they were equipped with samurai swords....

Well, i know SH not always pay attention to historical accuracy and Anglo-Japanese were in "camps" in the USA during a war, but i wonder if this can be a true?

Does anybody knows something about Japanese soldiers in American Army or it is (more likely) just product of Hassel imagination?

Nisseis (USA citizes on Japanese origin) were fighting in WWII on USA side (after initial blunder of putting them in camps).

They were fighting in Europe mostly (I think).

I also remember reading that they had _VERY_ high number of war medals (much bigger than other simila sized units)...


Leo "Apollo11"

[tsimmonds]

Absolutely true.

The first all-Japanese American Nisei military unit was the 100th Battalion, which was the designation for the unit which was formed from the Japanese Americans who comprised a large part of the Hawaiian National Guard. These Nisei were sent to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin for combat training and later were moved to Camp Shelby, Mississippi for additional training. They adopted the phrase "Remember Pearl Harbor" as their motto.

In 1943, the War Department in need of manpower reverse itself and sent recruiters to the relocation camps asking for volunteers to form a new Japanese American combat unit the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Volunteers were also accepted from Hawaii where 12,500 men had volunteered. The Nisei volunteers were combined with Japanese Americans still in the military and were sent to Camp Shelby, Mississippi for combat training.

At Camp Shelby, they were formed into the 442nd Infantry Regiment, consisting of three battalions plus support companies, the 522nd Artillery Battalion and the 232nd Combat Engineers. The unit designation was the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and most of its officers were Caucasians. The 442nd chose "Go For Broke", a Hawaiian slang term from the dice game craps. "Go For Broke" meant to risk everything, give everything you have--all or nothing!

While the 442nd was being formed and trained, the 1,432 men of the 100th battalion had entered combat in Italy, September 26, 1943. The Italian campaign bloodied the 100th battalion and it suffered heavy casualties earning it the nickname "Purple Heart Battalion" as it was depleted down to 521 men by 1944. Replacements came from men who had finished training with the 442nd at Camp Shelby.

On June 2, 1944 the 442nd had landed at Naples and pushed to the Anzio beaches. On June 15th the 100th Battalion and the 442nd were merged into a single unit. The 100th battalion became the first battalion of the 442nd because the original first battalion of the 442nd had been used for replacements for the 100th. They were attached to the 133rd Regiment in the 34th Division.

After heavy fighting at Belvedere, Luciana, and Livorno, the 442nd was pulled back for a rest and was presented with a Presidential Unit Citation. After fighting at the Arno River in August, 1944, the 442nd moved to France for an attack in the Vosages Mountains. While in France, the 442nd was detached from the 34th Division and attached to the 36th Division of the Seventh Army. Given the assignment to capture the town of Bruyeres, the 442nd fought a bitter house to house battle and captured over 200 German soldiers.

Their bloodiest battle occured during their rescue of the "Lost Battalion". The First Battalion of the 36th Division had been given the assignment to clear a ridge deep in the Vosages, but had been cut-off by the Germans. The battalion, the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment (a former Texas National Guard unit), had been cut off since October 24,1944. The other two battalions of the 141st were unable to break through. The 100th /442nd, was ordered to rescue the Lost Battalion in a real-life "Saving Private Ryan" mission (More men were lost in the 100th/442nd in the rescue operation than there were to save in the 1st of the 141st.).

The 2nd Battalion jumped off at 0300 on the 26th. Before dawn on the 27th, the 100th and 3rd Battalions were called in, too. Fire support came from the 522nd FA Battalion. Enemy resistance was fierce; captured German prisoners revealed that orders from Hitler were to prevent any relief of the trapped battalion. The soldiers of the 100th/442nd fought in dense woods and heavy fog in freezing temperatures. Late in the afternoon of October 30, scouts from the Lost Battalion spotted soldiers in olive-drab uniforms and with Japanese faces approaching and knew the 442nd had broken through.

In five days and nights of continuous combat, the 100th/442nd RCT had suffered more than 800 casualties. In the 3rd Battalion, Company K had 17 riflemen left and Company I had eight riflemen left. Sergeants commanded both companies; all the officers had been killed or wounded. The 2,000 men on the casualty list included 140 killed.

More of this story can be found here....

[Kereguelen]

Hi,

the US put Americans of Japanese origin (Nisei) in closed camps (surely no concentration camps or prisoner camps, but still camps) after the outbreak of the war. But I don't know to which extend (all of them, only males?).

But it seems that many (all?) of them were put to freedom at some later time. And there was a US-Army unit (a RCT, I believe) composed of Nisei that fought in Italy against the Germans in 1944.

K

[pauk]

thanks Apollo!

EDITED: ups, thanks to all of you, guys!

btw, you can buy this books in Zagreb. The publisher is Zagrebacka naklada. If you interested, send me a pm and i give you additional informations.


this books are really interesting, read about British SS unit (formed with British prisoners of war).

[Kereguelen]

LOL,

irrelevant and Apollo were faster and much more precise with an answer.

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: pauk
btw, you can buy this books in Zagreb. The publisher is Zagrebacka naklada. If you interested, send me a pm and i give you additional informations.

this books are really interesting, read about British SS unit (formed with British prisoners of war).

I read _ALL_ published Sven Hassel books when I was a kid (teenager). I think that you can still find them in library (i.e. what you bought is just new reprint of those old books - if I recall correctly they were first printed in 1970's and 1980's)...


Leo "Apollo11"

[testarossa]

ORIGINAL: Kereguelen

Hi,

the US put Americans of Japanese origin (Nisei) in closed camps (surely no concentration camps or prisoner camps, but still camps) after the outbreak of the war. But I don't know to which extend (all of them, only males?).

But it seems that many (all?) of them were put to freedom at some later time. And there was a US-Army unit (a RCT, I believe) composed of Nisei that fought in Italy against the Germans in 1944.

K

Kids and women too. Same in Canada.

[Ron Saueracker]

ORIGINAL: testarossa

ORIGINAL: Kereguelen

Hi,

the US put Americans of Japanese origin (Nisei) in closed camps (surely no concentration camps or prisoner camps, but still camps) after the outbreak of the war. But I don't know to which extend (all of them, only males?).

But it seems that many (all?) of them were put to freedom at some later time. And there was a US-Army unit (a RCT, I believe) composed of Nisei that fought in Italy against the Germans in 1944.

K

Kids and women too. Same in Canada.

It was understandable as a war measure if taken in context. Was alot less deplorable than the treatment of other races within various countries. Jews internationally(Canada was quite bad), blacks in the States,Chinese decent in the west, whites in Japan...

[mlees]

It was understandable as a war measure if taken in context. Was alot less deplorable than the treatment of other races within various countries. Jews internationally(Canada was quite bad), blacks in the States,Chinese decent in the west, whites in Japan...

Opinion time:
It might have been "less deplorable", but it was still not right. We ARE talking about American Born Japanese, as well, not just foreign residents. Ethnic Italian and German folks were not touched, relatively speaking. (Although, who knows what Hoover had for files...)

I would hate to think that I would get thrown into a holding camp because I'm half French
from my moms side of the family (Vichy, anyone?)...

All I can say is THANK GOD few, if any, were killed or tortured. Makes making up afterwards easier...
End opinion. Thank you. Return to your regularly scheduled game...

[witpqs]

Ethnic Italian and German folks were not touched, relatively speaking.

I always thought so too, but I've read recently that about 40% of those interned in the US in WW2 were of European ethnicities, and about 60% Japanese. The internment of members of the other (non-Japanese) ethnic groups has been much less publicized. The reparations made by the US government in recent years was to Japanese-Americans only, ticking off the other 40% (or their families).

[mlees]

Your right about it not being publicised, where did you read this?

[witpqs]

This lady http://michellemalkin.com/index.htm (Michelle Malkin) wrote a very controversial book about internment in the US in WW2. I have not read the book although I might at some point. I heard/saw her on radio and TV interviews. The 40% figure was so contrary to what I had 'known' previously that it got my attention. Her basic conclusion (as I understand it from hearing her) is that the internment was not as evil as has been made out in the years since, although there was indeed much wrong perpretrated on innocent people (for example I guess California/Californians were particularly bad about illicitly seizing property and such). Apparently many in the popular press jumped on the title of the book In Defense of Internment and accused her of advocating throwing innocent people in camps, which (according to her because I haven't read it) is not at all what she says in the book.

Separately, while the controversy was at it's height I learned that groups representing others (other than Japanese-Americans) who had been interned in US in WW2 had sued to stop the reparation payments because the payments were specifically limited to Japanese-Americans only (by the law authorizing the reparations payments). They contended that the payments should be made to anyone who was wrongfully interned. They lost.

[mlees]

Thanks for the info, I wonder why we haven't seen this much, even on the History Channel...

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

I found this on Internet:

http://www.children-of-the-camps.org/hi ... eline.html


Also I remember seeing one rather recent USA movie about that period of time (it was interesting movie BTW):

Come See the Paradise (1990)

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0099291/


Leo "Apollo11"

[rhondabrwn]

It's a very dark part of America's history. Anti-Japanese predjudice on the West Coast was rabid.. examples (from memory):

1. Native born Japanese could not be granted American Citizenship... they were specifically exempted from the Naturalization Laws.

2. California even had laws against Japanese ownership of land and businesses for many years.

3. When the internment camps were set up, the Japanese could take only a couple of suitcases. In most cases, they had only days to dispose of all their other possessions, usually selling everything at yard sale prices. Those who stored property came home later to find it all had vanished.

4. The camps were absolutely horrible, built in deserts and other barren areas. I've seen some very crude movie footage of these camps and I can't begin to describe the conditions.

5. The 422nd RCT (Nisei) was THE most decorated unit in the US Army in World War II. They fought in Italy and at Monte Cassino among other battles. When you think about the racism that they faced and the treatment of their family in the concentration camps, it one of the most amazing things ever that they so much wanted to serve their country, that they fought for the right to serve... and then served brilliantly and courageously.

6. There was never one single documented case of a Japanese-American being involved in any acts of sabotage or espionage during the war, while there were numerous instances of German Americans committing such acts.

Link: Japanese Internment Camps

While we're on the subject of discrimination:

The Tuskeegee Airmen, a Black-American fighter squadron, had to face the same kind of blind opposition and outright racism before being allowed to serve. You've probably seen the movie of that name. The Tuskeegee Airman were the most decorated fighter squadron in World War II and had the reputation that they never lost an escorted bomber to enemy fighters.

And while I'm on the subject of people who didn't get a fair shake in WW II:

Link: WASP

The Women Air Service Pilots (WASP) were test pilots and aircraft ferry pilots during the war. They flew every combat aircraft in the US arsenal, freeing up male pilots to serve overseas where they were desperately needed. They were test pilots for many aircraft, including the first US jet. I'm not going to write a book here, just check out their website and read about them. They were screwed over so badly that it is a crime. Efforts are still ongoing to get them proper recognition before the last of these gallant women die. So a contribution to their museum fund would be welcomed.

I've got a rather interesting multi-media presentation on all three of the above, I'll see if I can get it online so I can post a link to it.

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

"Pauk", since you live in Zagreb (same as I do) here is the link for Sven Hassel in our library system:

http://opac.zaki.com.hr/kgz/lstTitle.as ... r=63005435


BTW, I was right when I remembered that original batch of books was from 1970's... I am glad that my memory still serves me good... [;)]


Leo "Apollo11"

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

Rhondalynn Brown - a lady historian among our ranks here!

BTW, I remember that long long ago (when UV was beginning) there was one other lady ho were frequent on forums but, as far as I know, nobody else in recent times...


Leo "Apollo11"

[pauk]

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

Hi all,

"Pauk", since you live in Zagreb (same as I do) here is the link for Sven Hassel in our library system:

http://opac.zaki.com.hr/kgz/lstTitle.as ... r=63005435


BTW, I was right when I remembered that original batch of books was from 1970's... I am glad that my memory still serves me good... [;)]


Leo "Apollo11"

Thanks... i also read SH when i was a kid (publiser was Globus). But i want them in my personal library. 320 kn (cca 50 USD) for first 5 re-published books is really cheap
[:)]

[rhondabrwn]

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

Hi all,

Rhondalynn Brown - a lady historian among our ranks here!

BTW, I remember that long long ago (when UV was beginning) there was one other lady ho were frequent on forums but, as far as I know, nobody else in recent times...


Leo "Apollo11"

My older brother was an American Civil War buff and every family vacation from the time I was 6 years old involved touring battlefields... the experience warped me forever [;)]

As to my being the only girl here, well I have found one other, so I'm not totally unique.

I hope I can add a different perspective.