All language subtitles for Hidden Heroes Nisei Soldiers WWII 2021 1080p WEBRip x264-RARBG

- It is the most
decorated military unit

in United States history.

- They fought for the ideals
of American democracy.

- Their stories are
the stuff of movies.

- They were fighting the Nazis,
but they were also fighting

the internal racism
of our nation.

- The Japanese
American soldiers

of World War II

played a pivotal role
in the Allied victory,

yet their story
is not well known.

- As a soldier, I
revere their record.

I study it,

as do other soldiers,
for what it teaches us:

how to lead, how to persevere,
what obligation means,

what cohesion means,
what comradery means.

- Most of the
soldiers are gone now,

but their stories are preserved

in letters, photos,
and oral histories

uncovered from a special
collection of archives.

- I feel proud that
I was allowed

to defend my country.

- This
is "Hidden

"The Nisei Soldiers
of World War II."

After more than five
years of intense fighting,

the Allies have the upper
hand in World War II,

but they can't break through
the last major Nazi defense

in the mountains of Italy,
known as the Gothic Line.

- The Gothic Line, it was a
heavily-fortified 200-mile line.

The Army had been attempting

to break through that
fortification for months,

months and months and months.

- That's
when the Allies bring in

the 100th/442nd
Regimental Combat Team,

made up of second-generation
Japanese American soldiers

known as Nisei.

- The 100th/442nd
is the only regiment

that the Nazis were following

and making sure their
location at all times.

- To break through
the German defensive line,

the Nisei soldiers
come up with a plan

that the Nazis
would never expect:

scaling cliffs up the back
of the treacherous mountains

in complete darkness.

- 60-degree incline,
slippery at certain places

because it was shale and
there was condensation.

And there was an agreement
and an understanding

that if you fell,
you don't yell out

because that would give away
the position of the unit.

- In a very daring,
bold nighttime assault,

they climbed up the backside
of one of these mountains,

surrounded the Germans,
overwhelmed them,

and punched a hole
through the Gothic Line.

- What Allied forces

had been trying to
accomplish for months,

the Nisei soldiers
achieve in minutes.

It's a pivotal turning point.

- Once the line was ruptured

and you're behind
the German defenses,

they started crumbling.

And then it was
attack, attack, attack

to the end of the war.

- The soldiers'
bold and courageous attack

signals the beginning of
the end for the Nazis.

- Different commanding
officers argued over the right

to have the 100th and the 442nd

as part of their fighting unit

because they were the crack
unit, the tip of the spear.

- But the
journey to victory

for the Nisei soldiers
is a complicated one

that begins more than
three years earlier.

December 7th,

1941,

a date which will live

in infamy.

- The bombing
of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,

by Japanese forces marks
the United States' entry

into World War II and
forever changes the lives

of thousands of
Japanese Americans.

- In Hawaii, the young men,
as well as their families,

many of them witnessed the
bombing of Pearl Harbor.

They get hear the bombs falling.

They could hear the explosions.

And for many of them,

they had a very visceral
reaction in that moment.

- 17-year-old
Daniel Inouye

sees the Japanese planes

and realizes his life
is about to change.

- And then, suddenly,
three planes,

they were the fighter bombers,

flew overhead after
they had made their run

across Pearl Harbor.

I felt that my life had
come to an end at that point

because, obviously, the pilot
in that plane looked like me.

And I wasn't quite certain

as to what the
future held for us.

- Sakae
Takahashi is a student

at the University of Hawaii
and also witnesses the attack.

- I felt the...

Rumbling, you know?

I saw the planes bombing the
Arizona and the Oklahoma and

all those ships,
and I said, "It's war."

- Takahashi
is a member of the ROTC.

He's immediately called
out to defend Hawaii.

- These college kids were
deployed all over the island,

along with the National Guard,

to guard critical installations.

And in January of
1942, a month later,

they were summarily discharged.

- Following the
attack on Pearl Harbor,

fear and paranoia grips America.

The government designates
Japanese Americans

across the country
as enemy aliens.

- American citizens, simply
because of our faces,

were considered enemy aliens.

- That classification was
devastating to the ROTC cadets.

It was humiliating, frustrating.

They wanted to serve.

- That, to me, was
not only distressing

but it was insulting.

And I could feel the tension
among my contemporaries.

We resented that very much
because we considered ourselves

to be not only law-abiding
but good patriotic Americans.

- On February 19th, 1942,

the president of
the United States,

Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
signed Executive Order 9066,

which ordered all Japanese
Americans on the West Coast,

Washington, Oregon, California,
and a part of Arizona,

to be summarily rounded up

and put in 10 barbwire
prison camps with no charge,

no trial, no due process.

- Nearly 120,000
people of Japanese ancestry

living on the mainland
are forced into the camps.

Two-thirds of them are
American citizens by birth.

- They lost their jobs,
they lost their businesses.

But most of all, what they
lost was a sense of place

at the American
table of citizenship.

- They also
lose their ability

to fight for their homeland.

Japanese Americans are
prohibited from enlisting,

and those already
serving are sidelined.

- At the outbreak of war,
there were about 1,400 Nisei

who were already serving in
the Hawaii National Guard,

and most of them had been
drafted into the Army.

But the Army did not
know what to do with them

when war broke out,

so it held them in limbo
for several months.

- Then, in June 1942,

the Nisei soldiers are
secretly shipped off Hawaii

in the middle of the night.

They aren't told where
they're going or why.

- When they landed in
California, they were told,

"You are now the 100th
Infantry Battalion, Separate,"

meaning they were not
attached to any regiment

within the Army.

- The
new 100th Battalion

of Japanese American
soldiers begins training

at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin

under the command
of white officers.

- They were considerably smaller

than Caucasian
soldiers at this time,

really having to
fight for their place

and demonstrate their
loyalty and "gaman,"

or try as hard as they can

to prove that they could hit
these military standards.

- The Japanese
American soldiers

weigh an average of 125 pounds

and stand an average
of 5'4" tall.

During training, they
surpass military benchmarks,

proving they are just
as tough and loyal

as any other American soldier.

- Many of them were told
specifically or explicitly

by their parents, "Do not
cause shame for your family.

"Fight bravely.

"Demonstrate your loyalty,
your obligation to America,

"this country that is the
country of your birth,

"the country that
you owe loyalty to."

We know all eyes
were watching us

and we knew we had to prove

how valuable Japanese were
in America at this time.

- By 1943,
the Nisei soldiers

have proven their value

and the Army wants to recruit

even more Japanese
American soldiers.

But would they volunteer
to fight for a country

that has imprisoned them?

- Just over a year
after Pearl Harbor,

the United States is
battling the Axis powers

in both the Pacific
and North Africa.

The Army is stretched thin

and looking for
more men to serve.

- The training
record was superior

of the 100th Infantry Battalion,

and the government decided
it was time to try their hand

at an all-Japanese
volunteer unit, combat unit.

- The
government reverses its ban

on enlisting Japanese Americans.

- The government asked for
about 4,500 men to serve.

Well, here in Hawaii, nearly
10,000 stepped forward.

My dad was one of them.

And he told us that many
of his friends wept,

they cried when they were
rejected from serving

because they wanted
to serve so badly.

- On Hawaii, they weren't
incarcerated en masse.

They were eager to go
and they were angry

because, again, their
home had been attacked.

- Most Japanese
Americans in Hawaii

are not in camps
because they make up

such a large part of
the local labor force.

- And yet on the mainland,

it was a very different story
because, for the most part,

most Japanese American
men of draft age

or of service age were
in concentration camps.

- Young men like
17-year-old Rudy Tokiwa,

who's incarcerated
in Poston, Arizona.

- My dad was a veteran
of World War I.

And when they started
gonna put us all

into concentration camps,

I asked him at that time,

"Why us?

"You fought for the United
States in World War I."

- Despite
being imprisoned,

Tokiwa feels a
duty to volunteer.

- A lot of people
told me I was crazy.

They told me, "You didn't
have to volunteer."

But to me, there was
a task ahead of us.

We not only had to show

but we had to prove
that we were Americans.

- Tokiwa
becomes part of

the 442nd Regimental
Combat Team,

made up of newly-enlisted
Japanese Americans

from Hawaii and the mainland.

They begin training
with the 100th

at Camp Shelby in Mississippi.

- All Japanese,

but yet from very
different life experiences.

So, the Japanese from Hawaii,
they spoke pidgin English.

They were a bit more laid back.

The Japanese who volunteered
from the mainland

were a bit more formal.

They volunteered from
incarceration camps,

so their life experiences
were very different.

- And literally, these
two groups would fight.

I mean, fistfights galore.

It got so bad that the
Army at one point thought,

"This is a failed experiment.

"These guys can't get along.

"They are never gonna
be a fighting unit."

- Daniel Inouye
volunteers from Hawaii

and remembers the fights
with the mainland soldiers.

He also remembers what
finally brings them together.

- We nearly got disbanded

and scattered all over
the United States.

And so, the leadership
tried all...

They tried everything:
discussion groups, social hours,

and nothing worked.

- Then, Inouye and
some of his fellow soldiers

from Hawaii are sent to visit

incarceration camps in Arkansas.

They are shocked
by what they see.

- And this one had a tall
fence around, a barbwire fence.

- Its military guns
were pointed in,

and anyone who attempted to
escape was immediately shot.

- They were struggling to make
heads and tails out of this.

And as they went in to the camp,

they saw the Japanese
American families.

- The people there had set
aside one week's ration of food

so that they could
give us a party.

They had an orchestra
and all that.

We tried our best to be happy,

but how can you be happy
in those circumstances?

And I believe that what was
running through the minds

of most, if not
all, was a question.

"Would I have volunteered
from that camp?"

In our eyes, they were heroes
that they would take that step

in spite of this incarceration

to stand up and defend the
country that did that to them.

- After seeing
the harsh conditions

of the camps in 1943,

Japanese American soldiers
of all backgrounds

unite behind a common cause,
with the motto "Go for broke."

- They were all in.

In whatever mission they
had, they were going for it.

They were all in.

- The 442nd
continues their training

in Mississippi, and
the 100th Battalion

of about 1,400 Japanese
American soldiers from Hawaii

leaves for the frontlines,

where they will face
a ferocious enemy.

The United States forces the
Axis powers out of Africa

and moves on to Europe.

The 100th Infantry Battalion
of Japanese American soldiers

is sent to Italy to capture

a heavily-defended
Nazi facility.

- Monte Cassino was a monastery

that was built on the slopes
of this large mountain

about 1,500 feet high.

Four stories, 10-foot walls,

surrounded by a valley that
had a river running through it.

And what the Nazis had
done is dammed up the river

such that when the
time was appropriate,

they could flood the
valley with water.

- The Allies
have to defeat the Nazis

at Monte Cassino in order
to continue on to Rome,

a key Nazi stronghold.

But getting across the
valley is no easy task.

- They were going to negotiate
that two miles of swampland

under fire and try
to get to the river,

cross the river, and
attack the village

and a couple of smaller
Hills around Monte Cassino.

- Two miles
to cross with no cover,

nowhere to hide.

The first of the Nisei soldiers
makes their move at night.

- They go out at night.

And incredibly,
they're able to make it

all the way across at night.

They left behind
dead and wounded

over that two-mile stretch,
screaming, crying for help,

and some of 'em laid out
there two days and two nights

before anybody could get to 'em.

- It was already a
dangerous crossing at night,

but then the order comes in:

The rest of the soldiers
are to cross in daylight.

- It was almost suicidal because
it was a frontal assault.

It was no maneuver; you
had to go right at them.

- Sakae Takahashi
is a company commander

in the 100th, one of only a
handful of nonwhite officers.

- We told him that
it was impossible

for us to accomplish
anything during the day,

but he said, "No, you go across.

"This is the order."

- It was so dangerous
that the ranking officer,

Major Clough, refuses the order,

eventually leaving
Takahashi in charge.

- And Major Clough
says, "I won't do it,"

so Major Clough is
relieved on the spot.

Sakae Takahashi was
widely respected already.

He's a company commander.

He goes back and he
talks to his lieutenants

and says, "What do you think?"

And the lieutenants say,
"Okay, that's our orders.

"Let's try it."

- Under the cover of smoke,

they would try and
transverse that field.

Once they got out there,
however, the wind changed

and the smoke blew in
the opposite direction

and they were
revealed to the Nazis.

And it's at that point

that they took incredibly
heavy casualties.

- The Allies never
take the abbey on the ground

and eventually call
in an airstrike.

- There's no doubt in my
mind, especially initially,

that the 100th Battalion
were used as cannon fodder.

They were the first ones in.

They took the heavy casualties.

They were considered expendable.

- It was from that battle
that they develop the nickname

"The Purple Heart Battalion."

And the Purple Heart is given
to those who are wounded

or are killed as a
result of enemy action.

- The 100th landed
in Italy with about 1,400 men.

After fighting for
just over four months,

there were only 521 left.

- So, wave after wave after
wave of young Japanese Americans

went into those battles,

each wave fighting
with incredible,

unbelievable courage,

each wave fighting
with amazing heroism.

- Normally in the military
parlance of the time,

you had to outnumber the
defender three to one.

Rarely did the 100th
Battalion ever attack

where they outnumbered the
defensive forces three to one,

but they doggedly fought
against a tremendous enemy.

- The battalion's
courageous performance in Italy

earns them their first
presidential citation.

- All of you Americans
of Japanese descent

have a right to be proud today.

You have demonstrated
true Americanism

and true American citizenship
on the field of battle.

- By 1944, the 100th
Battalion earns a reputation

for courage on the battlefield.

At the same time,

there's another group
of Japanese Americans

using a secret weapon to win
the war off the battlefield.

The Allies are
battling the Japanese

on the frontlines
in the Pacific.

And behind the scenes,

the United States is
planning to strike

at the heart of the
Japanese military.

- The United States at that time

was just starting to
plan bombing over Japan,

but they had no
idea where to bomb.

They didn't know where the
manufacturing plants were.

They didn't know where
weapons were stored.

- Hoping to
gain the upper hand,

they call in the Military
Intelligence Service, or MIS,

about 6,000 Nisei soldiers

working as linguists
and translators.

- They were sometimes
called the secret weapon

of the Pacific war
because Japan did not know

that we had American soldiers

who could speak the
Japanese language.

- They had to master
not just, of course,

the regular vernacular
terminology,

but also a very specific script

used by high-ranking
military officers

that is incredibly difficult
to read, difficult to master.

- One
soldier, Kazuo Yamane,

is particularly
skilled at decoding

secret Japanese communications.

He had attended a
university in Japan

where he was also
required to join

the Japanese equivalent of ROTC.

- His Japanese was
very, very fluent,

as well as familiarity
with military terminology,

which was critical.

- While working
at Camp Ritchie in Maryland,

Yamane makes a discovery

that would change the
course of the war.

- It was 15 waterlogged crates

that were discovered by the
Navy floating on the ocean.

Navy intelligence screened it,

labeled them no military value.

But fortunately,
his commander says,

"Just check it over really
quickly, just in case,"

and that's when he made
that critical discovery.

He opened it up, saw
the table of contents,

and realized it was
the ordinance inventory

of the Japanese Army.

- They had the location of
the depots and the armaments.

It became the basis

for a strategic bombing
campaign of Japan.

- They could now pinpoint
the exact location

of what they wanted
to accomplish.

That wouldn't have been possible

without my father's discovery.

- Yamane has no idea
the impact he has on the war

until the 1970s, when the
files are declassified.

- When he was asked
about his discovery,

he always reminded people that,

"I may have strong family ties
to Japan, but I am American

"and I have proved my loyalty,

"just like all of the
Nisei soldiers did."

- General MacArthur said

that never before
in military history

was an army as well-informed
about the enemy

prior to engagement.

And truly, they were credited
with helping to end the war

years earlier than
otherwise would've happened.

- While the Japanese
American soldiers in the MIS

have a major impact from
their bases at home,

many are also sent on
dangerous combat missions

in the Pacific.

- They would interrogate
prisoners of war

that were captured.

They were asked to
crawl across terrain,

eavesdrop on
Japanese encampments,

the soldiers as they talked.

- Takejiro Higa
is recruited into the MIS

not only because of
his language skills

but because he spent
much of his childhood

in Okinawa, Japan.

- He was sent to participate
in the Battle of Okinawa,

which was one of the bloodiest
battles of World War II.

During one of his
interrogations,

he came across two of
his former classmates.

- They look at me in shock, you
know, and they start crying.

"Why are you crying?"

"Well, until now,

"after this
interrogation is over

"and our usefulness is over,

"you guys might take us
over the hill and shoot 'em.

"Now, knowing that
our own classmates

"are on the other
side of the fence,

"we figure our life
will be saved."

Say, "We cry for happiness."

That kinda hit me.

So, three of us grabbed
each other's shoulder

and I don't mind tell
you, we had a cry.

- In Okinawa, it
is common for even civilians

to commit suicide when
American soldiers arrive,

believing they will be tortured.

- Men like Takejiro

who could speak the
Okinawan language

were able to coax hundreds
of civilians and soldiers

to surrender, thereby
saving many, many lives.

- The Nisei
soldiers save not just American

and Japanese lives, but also
Jewish prisoners in Germany,

where they witness the horrors
of Hitler's regime firsthand.

- The Allied D-Day
invasion of Normandy

brings the US closer to victory.

At the same time,

the Japanese American men
of the 100th Battalion

are finally joined by their
counterparts from the 442nd.

They are given another
seemingly impossible mission

a few months later.

- There were about
200 Texan soldiers

that had been stuck in the
Vosges mountains in France.

- And they had become
surrounded by the Germans.

The commanding general,
General Dahlquist,

had sent unit after unit up

to try to break through
and get them out,

and none of these other
units were able to do so.

- That's when the
100th/442nd is called in.

The Nisei soldiers had
been in horrific fighting

for 10 days when they
are sent to rescue

the lost battalion
of Texan soldiers.

Rudy Tokiwa remembers how he
felt when he got the order.

- If an order comes
through, you gotta do it.

So, like we always say,

",
we do it."

The trees in there
were so damn thick

you couldn't see a
hundred feet ahead of you.

And one of the things
we had to worry about

is the Germans
would let us go in

and then they'd close
the door in back of us.

- The men of the
442nd understood

that this was a suicide mission.

They understood that
walking into that forest

to do what they are
being asked to do

would mean that many of
them would be injured

and many of them
would not walk out.

But they also understood

that the eyes of a
nation were upon them.

- They had to fight their way
up the side of this mountain

to get to this Texas unit.

Rudy was wounded,
like almost everybody

that started up the
mountain that day.

It was a wound that he was
able to keep fighting through,

but he saw many of his
friends cut down that day.

- The men fight
for six grueling days

until they reach the
Texans and rescue them,

succeeding where so
many others fail.

- Out of
the jaws of death

come infantry men of
the 36th Division.

- While 211
US soldiers are saved,

it comes at a high cost.

Over 300 Nisei soldiers
are killed or wounded.

After the rescue,
General John Dahlquist

orders the 100th/442nd
to assemble.

- But literally,
there's only a fraction

of the number of men who
normally make up a regiment

because they were wounded,
they had been killed.

- He demanded to know
why everybody in the unit

hadn't turned out
for this ceremony.

And the lieutenant colonel
had to turn to him,

and he had tears in his
eyes as he said this.

He said, "General, these
are all the men I have."

- When I think of these
guys who never came home,

it's real hard because
they didn't volunteer

because they had a country
that was backing them up.

But they volunteered for a
purpose of proving themselves

to this country that
the Japanese American

is just as good American as
anybody else, if not better.

- In spring 1945,

Nisei soldiers are involved in
another history-making rescue

as they chase the
Nazis into Germany.

But for years, their part
in this story is never told.

Ed Ichiyama is a
forward observer

with the artillery unit.

He has been in some of the
war's fiercest fighting,

saw his three friends die

in the rescue of
the Lost Battalion,

but nothing prepares him

for what he's about
to see in Germany.

- We're traipsing along
the countryside of Dachau.

Then all of a sudden,
we came across hundreds

and hundreds and
hundreds of prisoners

in the black-and-white
prison garb,

shaven heads, sunken
eyes, hollow cheeks,

mere skeletons roaming aimlessly
around the countryside.

- As the approach, they
would see lumps in the snow,

and they thought they
were logs covered by snow

until they got closer and they
realized they weren't logs.

They were bodies.

And what they soon realize is
that what this installment was

was a satellite of Dachau.

- I still remember the stench,

the stench of that
concentration camp.

Indescribable, indescribable.

And you think to yourself,
"Gee, how can a human being

"be so inhumane to somebody,
another human being?"

- Ichiyama and
his fellow Nisei soldiers

help rescue about
3,000 Jewish prisoners

from Dachau sub-camps,

coming face to face
with Hitler's Holocaust.

- One of the greatest
ironies of World War II

happened there in Dachau

when members of a
persecuted minority,

the Japanese Americans,

reaching out to help members
of another persecuted minority,

the Jewish people of Europe.

And what are our crimes?

One for being Jewish and
one for being Japanese.

- This
unique connection

lasts their entire lives.

- After the war, they
would have mini reunions

where they would link up with
some of the Jewish survivors

that they had liberated.

They were called sushi
and bagel reunions.

It had a profound, lasting,

deeply impactful effect

on those guys that saw
man's inhumanity to man.

Real inhumanity.

- Just over a
week after the liberation

of Dachau, the
Nazis are defeated.

- The flags of freedom
fly all over Europe.

- On May 8th, 1945,

the Allies officially
declare victory in Europe.

But as the Nisei
soldiers return home,

they discover their
fight is not yet over.

- The war
abroad is over

and the Nisei soldiers
return home to the US.

- They were welcomed back
on the White House lawn

by President Harry Truman.

And he said to them, "You
fought not only the enemy

"but prejudice, and you won."

They came back as
heroes, as winners.

But they were seen as Japanese

and, by some, as Japs.

- Despite
their sacrifices,

many Japanese Americans
continue to face prejudice,

like the Masudas.

Their son, Kazuo,
served with the 442nd

while his family
was incarcerated.

He died fighting
for his country,

and still his family is not
welcomed home after the war.

- You were met with
nothing but hate speech,

threats of bodily harm.

The Army realized that
this was a PR fiasco,

that one of its
own fallen heroes,

his own family couldn't
even move back home.

So, they sent out a
contingent of Army officers

to have a medal ceremony
for the Masuda family.

- Later,
a young captain

gives a moving
speech to the crowd.

- Blood that has
soaked into the sands of a beach

is all of one color.

- And it's the story of the
Masuda family's sacrifice

that, decades later,

will begin to right the
wrongs of World War II.

- 40 years after the
war, in the late-'80s,

there is a bill working its
way through the US Congress.

- HR 442, an act to-

- A bill that would provide

a presidential apology
and monetary reparations

for Japanese Americans
who had been incarcerated

during World War II.

- Rudy Tokiwa
and the Nisei soldiers

are part of the movement to get
the bill passed by Congress,

a huge feat, but it still needs
the president's signature.

- The president of
the United States

was none other
than Ronald Reagan,

whose own administration

had been fighting
against the redress bill,

both in the courts as well
as in the legislature.

So, many of us, myself included,

felt there was no way
on God's green earth

that Ronald Reagan would sign

this particular
piece of legislation.

- But then
the president is reminded

of his personal connection
to the Masuda family,

as he was the young
captain who gave the speech

all those years ago.

- My fellow Americans,
we gather here today

to right a grave wrong.

- President Ronald
Reagan apologized

on behalf of the American people

and officially signed
the Civil Liberties Act.

America was made whole.

Its ideals were made true.

- And yet racism
also prevents the Nisei soldiers

from being truly recognized
for their own heroism

for more than 50 years.

- Hajiro.

Hayashi.

Inouye.

- In 2000, 20
Japanese American soldiers

from World War II are finally
awarded the Medal of Honor,

the nation's highest award.

- The 100th
Battalion/442nd, as a unit,

for its time and
service and its size

is not one of the most,

it's the most decorated
unit in the Army history

and in military history
of this country.

- But the legacy
of the Nisei soldiers

of World War II lasts
long after they are gone.

- They said, "We have shed
our blood on the battlefield

"and we have proven our loyalty,

"and we're no longer willing

"to be second-class
citizens anymore."

They went into business,
they went into law,

they became politicians.

- Sakae Takahashi
co-founds a bank

to serve the needs
of Japanese Americans

and joins the push for
Hawaiian statehood in 1959,

eventually serving
as a state senator.

- Hawaii's
half-century-old request

for statehood is granted.

- Daniel
Inouye becomes

the first Japanese
American in Congress

and the second-longest-serving
senator in history.

- I think it's fair to
say that Danny Inouye

was perhaps my earliest
political inspiration.

- We are an imperfect nation.

The Nisei soldiers who
fought, died, and bled,

their families who persevered
in those horrible camps,

they, in a sense, redeemed us.

- You volunteered
because you wanted to prove

that Americanism is a matter
of the mind and the heart.

- There's been a rising
tide of outright violence

directed at Asians and Asian
Americans in this country.

And I think it's
vitally important

that Americans more
broadly begin to understand

the contributions that all
these different groups have made

to the fabric of this society.

- The story of the Nisei
soldiers of World War II

is a story that belongs
to all Americans.

It's not just a great
Japanese American story,

it's a great American story.

It's the story of
sons of immigrants

who came and who made this
their nation beyond dispute.

And it is a reminder
of the very best

of what America can produce,
regardless of one's background.