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TITLE Japanese American soldier next to poster of Roosevelt speech DESCRIPTION Japanese American soldier seated next to poster of Roosevelt speech Original caption: "Denver, Colorado. S/Sgt. Henry ____ served 10 months in the Burma-India theatre attached to Army Combat Intelligence with General Frank Merrill's Marauders until April, 1945, at which time he returned to the United States and is now convalescing at Denver General Hospital preparatory to being given a medical discharge. He volunteered for duty in November 1942 while living at the Minidoka Center and [left] for the ..... in August 1943. His was the first unit to be .... from Camp Savage, which left the United States in June 1943. He wears the Presidential Citation, Bronze Star, the Pacific Ribbon with three ____ stars, the Combat Infantry Badge, and the shoulder patch of Merrill's Marauders. General Merrill said to his Nisei outfit, "I don't know how we would get along without you boys." Sgt. ____ was affectionately nicknamed "Horizontal Hank" because he hit the ground so much he wore it out. The doctors had declared him to be flat-footed and not physically qualified for combat. Despite these handicaps he wore out four pairs of shoes in walking 1030 miles and contracted malaria 7 times in addition to other tropical diseases. Prior to evacuation to Minidoka, his parents operated a drug store in Seattle." CONTEXT "No loyal citizen of the United States shold be denied the democratic right to exercise the responsibilities of his citizenship, regardless of his ancestry. The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry. A good American is one who is loyal to this country and to our creed of liberty and democracy. Every loyal American citizen should be given the opportunity to serve this country wherever his skills will make the greatest contribution -- whether it be in the ranks of the armed forces, war production, agriculture, government service, or other work essential to the war effort." President Franklin D. Roosevelt, February 1, 1943 CREDIT Hikaru Iwasaki Courtesy of National Archives DATE April 25, 1945 |
