Prior To The 100th Battalion
On the morning 7 December 1941, the United States was attacked by the Empire of Japan starting off World War II for the United States. After the attack, Japanese-Americans and those of Japanese ancestry would not only be fighting the enemy across the Pacific but also fighting prejudice as well. Chaos ensued in the hours that followed the attack on that dreadful day but those who were a part of the 298th and 299th Hawaii National Guard knew clearly what they had to do, prepare for an invasion guard the shores, clear the rubble, donate their blood, and aid the wounded. Although their patriotism to the United States was clearly defined as they prepared the beaches against a Japanese invasion, the color of their skin could not prevent the coming storm. Three days after the attack their rifles were stripped away from them because of the way they looked and thought to be spies or soldiers for Japan but the rifles were eventually returned them. Nearly the same situation can be seen with those that were a part of the ROTC program at the University of Hawaii were discharged from the Hawaii Territorial Guard because of the way they looked. Those former members would eventually make their own stand as they formed the Varsity Victory Volunteers.
The reason for such prejudice to even happen was because at 11:30 a.m. Martial Law was declared and the governor at the time, Joseph Poindexter, told President Franklin D. Roosevelt that his greatest fear was sabotage by the large Japanese community in Hawaii thus provoking: the FBI to round up Japanese sympathizers, Buddhist priests, language school principals and teachers, civic and business leaders, fisherman, instructors of judo and martial arts, the War Department to discharge all soldiers of Japanese ancestry, the rounding up of Japanese-Americans on the west coast and placed in internment camps, the deactivation of the Hawaii Territorial Guard, and the classification of Japanese-Americans as being 4-C enemy aliens.
Although it can be seen as General Delos Emmons, appointed military governor on 17 December, was all for placing Japanese-Americans in internment camps and having them be enemy aliens but in actuality he wanted to give them a chance to prove everyone wrong. After General Emmons granted the Varsity Victory Volunteers to form, a confidential memo was sent to the War Department in early April stating that there were 2,000 Japanese-American soldiers now serving and many more who wished to serve in order to demonstrate their loyalty to the United States and requests to organize them into a fighting force to be sent to Europe or Africa. The request was denied by the War Department.
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“Prior to the meeting, there was a prayer. In general, in the United States there was always praying.”
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