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2025-04-25
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The Japanese American Nisei who fought in World War II are among the most celebrated soldiers in American history. Typically, they are portrayed as selfless patriots eager to fight and die for the United States despite incarceration. In actuality, incarcerated Japanese Americans reacted to military service with widespread protest and resistance. Among the incarcerated, service in the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team was mostly the result of conscription rather than a voluntary exercise undertaken to display loyalty or patriotism.
The popular portrayal of Nisei service presenting Japanese American soldiers as selfless patriots began to emerge as wartime propaganda. In the postwar period, some Japanese Americans used this simplistic image of Nisei soldiers in service of political aspirations and self-fashioning as the Model Minority. This approach helped achieve many sociopolitical victories for Japanese Americans, but obscured other experiences of incarceration, sanitizing the history of Japanese Americans during World War II.
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History