How Much Would You Sacrifice For A Country That Despised You?

Asians were discriminated against in America long before Pearl Harbor in 1941. But soon after the devastating attack on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii, more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their West Coast homes and incarcerated more than a thousand miles inland.

Issei (first generation Japanese American) Nisei (2nd generation) and Kibei (2nd generation that had returned to Japan for their schooling and to absorb the culture.) Several thousand Nisei, despite the treatment of their families, volunteered to fight as the 442nd regiment. This fighting group reached almost mythical status as the most decorated fighting force in US Army history. Many of the Kibei also volunteered, and they brought a priceless skill: not just the Japanese language but an indepth understanding of the Japanese culture and people. Skills that could be honed to interrogate POWs, sift through captured documents, and negotiate the surrender of Japanese soldiers.

Their story was told in a traveling exhibit held in the very building where the first class of Japanese American students received their training, located in the Presidio.

The exhibit was housed in the very same building where, in 1941, the first class of Japanese Americans was taught the language skills to interrogate prisoners of war, examine captured documents, and negotiate the surrender of enemy soldiers. The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred during this first class, and the program was moved to Minnesota, far from the Pacific coast.

The building was divided into teaching and living spaces. This is what living looked like.

Congressional Medal of Honor.

Congressional Gold Medal ceremony

You displayed the flag in your window. A blue star meant you had a child serving in the military during WWII, a gold star meant they had died in service.

This was the front desk clerk at the exhibit. He was a character. Very friendly, and a clothing designer in the works. His employer let him bring the sewing machine behind him to work. He made the hat he's wearing that morning between museum visitors. He incorporates Japanese culture into his designs; the inside panels of the hat were repurposed from a silk kimono sash.