• d00ery@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Assuming some of these guys are Americans of Japanese descent, it should narrow things down as I thought an awful lot were interred during the war.

    Then again I’m not very good at spotting ethnicity, so apologies if not Japanese! Could be Korean or Chinese with the surname Lee.

    This looks similar, but I was thinking the original patch in the photo has 2 colours in the background.

    https://www.epicmilitaria.com/original-us-army-europe.html

    • ArtieShaw@fedia.io
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      3 months ago

      Internment was a bit complicated, but my understanding is that the US army wouldn’t turn away young Japanese-American men who were willing to fight in Europe.

      There was also a secret program where second generation men served as translators for US naval intelligence in the Pacific. They translated intercepted messages and assisted with prisoner interrogations. They were also in very real danger of being mistaken by the enemy by US or allied troops. The existence of this program was only revealed in the 1980s. If anyone is interested, google “Nisei linguists” or check out these references

      https://www.nps.gov/goga/blogs/nisei-linguists-in-world-war-ii.htm

      https://history.army.mil/html/books/nisei_linguists/CMH_70-99-1.pdf

      • PugJesus@lemmy.worldM
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        3 months ago

        Internment was a bit complicated, but my understanding is that the US army wouldn’t turn away young Japanese-American men who were willing to fight in Europe.

        Japanese-Americans (and Korean-Americans as ‘enemy nationals’) largely served in segregated units during the war, unlike other Asian-Americans.

        Go for broke, 442nd!