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A number of Nisei left the barbed wire confines to volunteer for the Army. A sizeable number volunteered out of desire to prove their loyalty and in response to the urgings of the Army and the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL).
Several thousand volunteers served in the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT). Together with the 100th Infantry Battalion, composed of many Japanese Americans from Hawaii, they fought brilliantly overseas in Europe and suffered tremendous casualties.
For its size and length of service, the 100th Infantry Battalion / 442nd Regimental Combat Team became the most highly decorated unit in U.S. history.
Many also served on the front lines as translators and interpreters in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) in the Pacific war. Nisei women also served in the Women's Auxiliary Corps (WAC's).
Nisei soldiers set a distinguished military record.
General Charles Willoughby, General Douglas MacArthur's chief intelligence officer, remarked that the work of the Nisei MIS shortened the Pacific war by two years.
More than 26,000 Nisei and Kibei (American-born, educated in Japan) served in the armed forces, 6,000 in the Pacific theater.
 End of Exclusion
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