The average height was about 5’4", average weight about 125 pounds, they had almond eyes and brown skin, and liked rice. They had funny sounding names like Kazumura, Hirata, and Inouye. But they played baseball, listened to big band music, and were Americans……almost. They were for the most part second generation Japanese-Americans and their country was just attacked by the Empire of Japan. 

So what were they supposed to do? How were they supposed to act? Were they Americans or were they Japanese? For some these questions were harder to answer when the government of the United States, the government of the country that they thought they were apart of, took away the one thing that made America special, their freedom. Herded from the coastlines of the continental United States and placed in "internment camps", stripped of their right of due process, forced to sell their property and leave their homes, and most importantly robbed of their dignity. How could anyone ask them to volunteer and fight? 

How could this have happened? It didn't happen over night but it did happen. Years of exclusion laws prohibiting the isei, first generation Japanese Americans, from owning property or becoming American citizens. It climaxed with Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. Executive Order 9066 authorized the War Department to prescribe military areas from which any persons may be excluded and the right of any person to enter or leave was at the discretion of the "military authorities". Even though this order made no references to people of Japanese ancestry it was the basis of curfew laws, and exclusion orders, and eventually the mass incarceration of the Japanese-Americans. In all, 110,000 persons of Japanese ancestry (70,000 of whom were native-born United States citizens) were summarily moved from their homes and ordered to show up at the Assembly Centers and eventually the Internment Camps located in barren wastelands and deserts of California and several mountain and central plain states. 

Assembly Centers were hastily erected and located throughout California and the West at fairgrounds, racetracks and other facilities. Though conditions varied from camp to camp, perhaps the worst of them was the housing of people in horse stables at Tanforan and Santa Anita Racetracks. Security was run by the military police and most of the camps were surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers. Who exactly were they trying to protect? At the time, the government pleaded that it was for the safety of the Japanese Americans. And because they were loyal Americans they submitted to the indignity and left everything that they worked for behind. 

These Internment Camps are also referred to as "relocation centers". There were ten camps in all: Topaz(Central Utah), Poston (Colorado River), Gila River (Arizona), Granada(Colorado), Heart Mountain (Wyoming), Jerome and Rohwer (Arkansas), Manzanar and Tule Lake(California), Minidoka (Hunt, Idaho). Incarceration of the Japanese-Americans lasted three years, 1942-1945. These camps were under the authority of the War Relocation Authority (WRA). Located in isolated areas in either desert or swampland they were surrounded by barbed wire and guards with guns pointed inward instead of out of them. The WRA tried to make conditions resemble normal communities by erecting schools, hospitals, and having camp newspapers. However, for the most part conditions at camps were primitive and cramped. The WRA conducted "loyalty checks" upon the residents of the camps and those that they deemed "disloyal" were isolated at Tule Lake "Segregation Center" or in WRA prisons. Conditions at Tule Lake led to the tragic Renunciation of Citizenship by 5,589 native-born American citizens. 

The Renunciation of Citizenship was the product of Public Law 405 of the 78th Congress, an amendment to the Nationality Act of 1798, which permitted a citizen of the United States to renounce his or her citizenship during time of war, upon approval of the attorney general. Later after much thought many of the applicants of renunciation appealed their decision and 5,409 asked to have their citizenship returned (4,978 were granted). 

In Hawaii the government couldn't incarcerate the population of Japanese-Americans. Most of the economy and population hinged on the backs of the Japanese farmers, fishermen, everyday workers, and shop owners. Curfew laws came into effect here as well as most of the West Coast, the incarceration of Buddhist priests, and the government suspicion of any person of Japanese ancestry. However, the treatment of the Hawaiian Japanese-Americans was far better than the humiliation suffered by the mainland Japanese. This is where the 100th Battalion came from.