When U.S. Army recruiters came to talk to then-18-year-old Yoshio “Yosh” Nakamura about joining the Army in World War II, he had no compelling reason to sign up.

Although Nakamura and his family members were born in the United States, Nakamura and his family had been taken from their El Monte farm and put into an internment camp in Gila River, Arizona, just because of their ancestry.

“In today’s climate, I think most people would say, ‘Hell no, I won’t go,’” he said. “But I felt the great need to show we were loyal. I answered yes.”

The now-Whittier resident then joined — a year after its formation — what would become the all-Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat team, which was the more decorated unit for its size and length of service, in U.S. military history.

Yoshio Nakamura, who is one of the last survivors of the famous all-Japanese-American 442nd Army combat team that fought in World War II, shows the Bronze Star he rceived for his service at his home in Whittier on Monday June 18, 2018. (Photo by Keith Durflinger for SCNG)

Yoshio Nakamura, who is one of the last survivors of the famous all-Japanese-American 442nd Army combat team that fought in World War II, shows the Bronze Star certificate he rceived for his service at his home in Whittier on Monday June 18, 2018. (Photo by Keith Durflinger for SCNG)

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Yoshio Nakamura, who is one of the last survivors of the famous all-Japanese-American 442nd Army combat team that fought in World War II, shows the Bronze Star certificate he rceived for his service at his home in Whittier on Monday June 18, 2018. (Photo by Keith Durflinger for SCNG)

Yoshio Nakamura, who is one of the last survivors of the famous all-Japanese-American 442nd Army combat team that fought in World War II, tells of his service at his home in Whittier on Monday June 18, 2018. (Photo by Keith Durflinger for SCNG)



In total, about 18,000 men served, ultimately earning 9,486 Purple Hearts, 21 Medals of Honor and seven Presidential Unit Citations, according to information supplied by the Go For Broke National Education Center, an organization dedicated to honoring and remembering the contributions of Japanese-American WWII veterans.

Nakamura would survive, graduate from USC, become an art teacher at Whittier High School and later be the first professor hired by Rio Hondo College. He later became a vice president at Rio Hondo and he and his late wife, Grace, would become community icons in Whittier, known for their art and community activism.

But now Nakamura will be one of eight members of his Army unit that will be honored by the state Senate on Monday for its 75th anniversary.

“What made this unit so special was that it was made up of Japanese-Americans,” said Gavin Do, senior archivist for the Go For Broke National Education Center. “Go for broke” was the combat team’s slogan.

“The history of Japanese-Americans in the United States, especially in the context of of World War II is a story of redemption and of up and downs,” Do said.

These men were treated as second-class citizens, forcibly removed from their homes and sent to internment camps, he said.

“They then volunteered for the military for a country that had denied them their rights and became the most decorated unit in the United States history,” Do said.

“They went on to become politicians, members of government, business and community leaders and one (U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii) was third in line to become president,” he said. “In another way, they granted future generations the ability not to face the reality of the glass ceiling.”

For Nakamura, now 92, life began in Rosemead. His mother died of cancer before he was age 6 and the family moved to El Monte.

In 1941, life changed when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Nakamura remembers his high school history teacher telling him he would be fine, the U.S. Constitution would protect him and his family.

The teacher was wrong.

Instead, his father, two brothers and a sister were sent to Tulare, where they stayed at a race track.

“The camp was enclosed with barbed wire and search lights,” he said. “It reminded me when I was in Europe, of when we captured a German solider of where we put them.”

His family later was sent to the Gila River camp in Arizona.

Life changed again when he said he would enter the Army. He didn’t immediately go — the first group left in 1943 — but Nakamura was called up in June 1944 as a replacement. He initially dispatched to southern France, but his most serious combat came in Italy.

Nakamura was in a mortar company where he was an ammunition carrier. They were assigned to break the Gothic Line, the German defensive line of the Italian campaign, to climb steep Mount Folgorito by night.

“There was no talking,” Nakamura recalled. “It was a torturous climb. By day break, we surprised the German outpost and started advancing. We were supposed to be a diversionary force, but we were way ahead of the other troops. That push knocked out the German outpost.”

Nakamura called it a “horrific” experience.

“I promised myself and my God that I’ll try to be a decent guy if I made it through, ” he said. “For a while I thought I never would make it back. We were being shelled.”

The bombardment would cause partial loss of his hearing of both ears. Nakamura would stay in the Army until Nov. 22, 1946, when he as discharged with the rank of staff sergeant.

He next went to Nebraska where his brother, Todd, had a farm, but eventually used the G.I. bill to enroll in USC, where he received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in art. He decided to become a teacher and was hired in 1952 at Whittier High School.

“I couldn’t get jobs at a lot of school districts,” Nakamura said. “School boards were afraid (the public) would not look kindly at someone with Japanese ancestry.”

However, the Whittier Union High School District superintendent was a trustee of Redlands University, from which Nakamura’s wife graduated, and hired him, he said.

The Nakamuras met in 1948 at the Union Church service in Los Angeles and were married two years later. Grace, a longtime community activist, artist and educator, including teaching in the El Rancho, Pasadena and Rowland unified school districts, died in 2017.

The Nakamuras initially lived in South Pasadena but moved to Whittier in the mid-1950s.

In 1963, he became the first professor hired by Rio Hondo College, later becoming vice president and retiring in 1992.

Nakamura also pursued his art practice, specializing in water colors. He is represented in more than 175 private, corporate and public collections.

Whittier Mayor Joe Vinatieri called Nakamura — the families have known each other for years — as a “Whittier icon.”

Vinatieri would have understood easily had Nakamaura become bitter following the war. “(But) Yosh and others said, ‘No, this is our country,’” he said. “‘We’re under attack, and we’re going to fight for our country.’ That tells you a lot about Yosh Nakamura.”