May highlights Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders

Courtesy Photo | Sgt. Akira Toki of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 100th Infantry Battalion, is shown in his uniform in the 1940s. Toki, a Japanese American, served overseas in Italy and France and was wounded twice in combat, for which he received the Purple Heart. The 100th Infantry Battalion is also known as the “Purple Heart Battalion” for the high number of honors its members received. Toki shared his story and artifacts with the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison before his death in 2012. (DoD file photo)  

FORT MCCOY, WI, UNITED STATES

05.28.2021

Courtesy Story

Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office           

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have helped shape the history of the United States, and many of their lives have been dramatically influenced by moments in U.S. history. Every May, the Department of Defense joins the rest of the nation in celebrating Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

The observance originated in a congressional bill in 1977 by U.S. Reps. Frank Horton, R-N.Y., and Norman Y. Mineta, D-Calif. They introduced a House resolution that called on the president to proclaim the first 10 days of May as Asian/Pacific Heritage Week. The following month, U.S. Sens. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Spark Matsunaga, D-Hawaii, introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Both were passed in 1978.

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush designated the month of May as Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the U.S. on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of workers on the western portion of the line were Chinese immigrants.

Today, Asian and Pacific Islanders make up about 3 percent of the military’s active National Guardsmen and reservists of the military.
Although small in number, their contributions to America’s wars have been tremendous. Thousands deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Other examples are but a small sampling:

• The 100th Infantry Battalion, composed of Japanese Americans during World War II, achieved noteworthy service in the 1944 Italian campaign.
Members of this unit were training at Camp McCoy while the barracks and cantonment area were being built in the 1940s. They were the first Soldiers to use the new barracks.

• Retired Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, who was of Japanese descent, became the Army chief of staff in 1999 and was later secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

• Marine Corps Maj. Kurt Chew-Een Lee, who is of Chinese descent, was awarded the Navy Cross Medal for extraordinary heroism in leading a counterattack against enemy forces during the Korean War. He also served during World War II and the Vietnam War.

• Cpl. Joseph Pierce, a soldier in the Union Army who fought in both the Battles of Antietam and Gettysburg as a member of the 14th Connecticut Infantry, was one of about 50 Chinese Americans who enlisted during the U.S. Civil War.

• Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Telesforo Trinidad, who was of Filipino descent, became the first Asian American to receive the Medal of Honor after rescuing two shipmates when an explosion occurred aboard the armored cruiser USS San Diego in 1915. Risking his own life, Trinidad entered a smoke-filled fire room and carried sailors to safety before being injured when a boiler exploded.

In years since then, 31 service members of Asian or Pacific Islander heritage were awarded Medals of Honor.

Through the Navy’s female reserve program during World War II, Asian American women also supported the war effort, mainly as linguists and nurses. Navy Lt. Susan Ahn Cuddy blazed a trail when she became the first Asian American woman to join the Navy alongside her brothers in 1942. The daughter of Korean immigrants, Cuddy would go on to become a code breaker and the first female Navy gunnery officer.

Fort McCoy’s observance for Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month featured another heroic Asian American: Akira Toki, a World War II veteran from Madison, Wis. Toki was a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated Japanese American unit that was highly decorated for its actions in World War II. Toki himself received the Purple Heart for his service.

Guest speaker Russell Horton, a reference and outreach archivist with the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison, shared some of Toki’s story, who was

“He was humble, he had a great sense of humor, and he had the ‘no big deal, I just did what I had to do’ attitude that so many men and women of the World War II era have,” Horton said. “But I think Akira Toki’s story is a big deal, and he did much more than he had to do.

“The story of what Akira Toki and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team accomplished reflects what is so special about this country,” Horton said.
Toki shared his story with the Wisconsin Veterans Museum about being segregated from other Soldiers and being shuttled around the country while the Army figured out what to do with its Japanese American Soldiers.

Horton also spoke about the challenges Toki’s parents faced back in Madison, although Toki said his parents were allowed to remain in their home thanks to the support and assistance of their neighbors and community members.

Toki donated several artifacts and his papers to the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and conducted an oral history interview for the museum.
A presentation of his story, which was presented to Fort McCoy community members by Russell Horton over Microsoft Teams in honor of Asian American Pacific Islander Month, is available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/oRRqfDFqK1A.

More information about the 442nd Combat Regimental Team is available online at www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/442nd-regimental-combat-team.

(Article prepared by Department of Defense News and the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office.)

• Date Taken: 05.28.2021
• Date Posted: 05.28.2021 15:06
• Story ID: 397731
• Location: FORT MCCOY, WI, US