"I think each time I went out in no man’s land was an event." (Memoir, page 9)

Yeiichi Kelly Kuwayama

Yeiichi Kelly Kuwayama, 1944. War: World War II, 1939-1946 Branch: Army Unit: Company E, 442nd Infantry Regiment Service Location: European Theater; United States Rank: Technician Four Place of Birth: New York, NY

For over a year after Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were not allowed to enlist in the military. But Yeiichi Kelly Kuwayama had been drafted long before December 7, 1941, so he was in a kind of limbo: part of the armed forces but not allowed to fight. Once President Roosevelt lifted the ban, the 442nd Regiment, composed of Japanese Americans from both the mainland and Hawaii, was formed, and Kuwayama became a battlefield medic with them. He witnessed brutal battles in Italy and France, including the famed rescue of the so-called Lost Battalion and the fight in which future Senator Daniel Inouye was severely wounded.