The 442nd Veterans Club of Honolulu was organized in 1946 by veterans of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team [RCT], a Japanese American military unit that fought in Europe during World War II.

This community has been set up to provide a home for materials digitized from the physical collection of records [pdf] donated by the Veterans Club to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa [UHM] Library. To begin with, it contains scans from the series “National Archives Documents,” photocopies of original items held at the National Archives and Records Administration [NARA] in Washington, D.C. Those photocopies were originally collected in the 1980s and 1990s by volunteers from the 442nd Veterans Club and from the Japanese American Veterans Association [JAVA] who copied records relating to the 442nd RCT and other groups of Japanese Americans who served in the Armed Forces of the United States and/or were held in internment camps during World War II.

Acknowledgements:
This project would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of numerous volunteers from the Sons and Daughters of the 442nd RCT, who scanned the paper photocopies, ran the scans through optical character recognition [OCR] software to embed transcripts within the files, corrected the OCR—in some cases entirely re-typing the documents—and then created descriptive metadata about the documents so that each could be identified in the database.

Note for Readers:
Use of the Search function or Browse function is suggested to assist you in finding specific documents in a digital Collection (a Record Group or a Box of documents in a Record Group). The Search function allows searches for terms in the Titles, Authors and Keywords fields of a collection. The Browse function is useful for a term search in the following single fields: Date, Author, Title and Subject. Lastly, the Discover selections at the bottom of this page are pre-selected sets of documents organized by the displayed Author, Subject and Date Issued values.

Related Materials:

The eVols repository also contains a community with materials relating to the 100th Infantry Battalion. Documents include the Puka-Puka Parade newsletter and items from the Chaplain Israel Yost Papers.
UHM Library holds a wide variety of archival materials relating to the Second World War and to the Japanese Americans who served in it. Information on these materials can be found in the pages describing the Hawaiʻi War Records Depository and the Japanese American Veterans Collection.
JAVA has its own collection of scans of NARA Documents available online, as well as a number of other helpful resources, such as an extensive database of Japanese Americans and others who served in the 442nd RCT, 100th Infantry Battalion, and the Military Intelligence Service [MIS].
While there are certain similarities between the UH scans and JAVA scans, the collections are not identical: each contains documents that the other doesn’t. Additionally, JAVA’s scans are much higher visual quality than the ones found here, as they were made from the original documents instead of from black and white photocopies. However, as noted above, UHM’s scans all have transcripts embedded within them. Researchers who wish to search within each pdf file, or who use assistive technologies such as screen readers, may find it easier to use this collection rather than JAVA’s.
Similarly, Peter Wakamatsu also has a collection of scans from NARA on his website honoring the 442nd RCT. This third set of scanned documents also includes some record groups that are not found here, and omits some that are. (And, also like the JAVA collection, the same pattern repeats at smaller scales, e.g. at the box level within a record group.) For the fullest set of documents, researchers may wish to consult all three collections.
Alternatively, those in the Washington, D.C. area may wish to visit NARA itself. It should be noted, however, that in the 1990s and 2000s NARA conducted various reorganizations of many of the Record Groups that had been consulted by the 442nd Veterans Club and JAVA. One of the most notable of these was a project to reallocate much of Record Group 338, which had contained the records of various U.S. Army Commands, to other Record Groups. (The landing page of NARA’s finding aid for RG 338 indicates where materials have since been reallocated.)

Contents / Sub-communities:

Series 1: General
- (Not yet part of digitization project, please contact us for on-site access)
Series 2: Go For Broke Bulletin
- (Not yet part of digitization project, please contact us for on-site access)
Series 3: National Archives Documents

Note: Eventually, the digital collection will contain scans of all the materials in the paper files, listed below. The first batch of records, however, includes only documents from RG 80 and the beginning of RG 107.
- RG 80: General Records of the Department of the Navy, 1798-1947
  Includes materials from the Frank Knox files, such as the Pearl Harbor Report, and information on martial law in Hawaiʻi. Also includes correspondence and items regarding the enlistment of Japanese Americans into the Armed Forces and other issues related to the treatment of Japanese Americans.
- RG 107: Records of the Office of the Secretary of War, 1791-1947
  Includes correspondence and materials from the Assistant Secretary of War and the Western Defense Command regarding exclusion orders, reports, permits, Japanese students and other related matters. Also included are correspondence, reports, and other materials from the Assistant Secretary of War concerning Japanese American enlistment, volunteers, selective service, training, martial law in Hawaiʻi, inspection trips, the organization and training of the 442nd RCT and the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate), comments from Japanese Americans, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), the Japanese-American loyalty questionnaire, publicity, and other issues related to Japanese Americans.
- RG 112:Records of the Office of the Surgeon General (Army), 1775-1987 (bulk 1818-1987)
  Includes a 100th Infantry Battalion unit history and narrative.
- RG 165: Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs [WDGS/WDSS], 1860-1952 (bulk 1888-1948)
  Includes correspondence, reports, memos, and other documents regarding Japanese American volunteers and training, the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) and MIS Language Schools (MISLS), language training, the disposition of MISLS graduates, and MIS linguists in Okinawa. Materials from the Operations Division document publicity, training, status, and military assignments of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd RCT, infantry unit strengths, troop movement projections, replacements, the evacuation of Japanese from Hawaiʻi, and other issues regarding Japanese American soldiers.
- RG 208: Records of the Office of War Information [OWI], 1926-1951 (bulk 1941-1946)
  Includes correspondence, public relations materials, and other records from the Director of the Office of War Information regarding the enlistment of Japanese Americans, overseas broadcasts, censorship, discrimination, and other issues related to Japanese Americans.
- RG 247: Records of the Office of the Chief of Chaplains, 1902-1975
  Includes records documenting the military service of Chaplain George Aki, Chaplain Hiro Higuchi, Chaplain Masao Yamada, and Chaplain Israel Yost.
- RG 319: Records of the Army Staff, 1903-1996 (bulk 1948-1978)
  Includes narratives, interviews, writings, maps, and other records documenting the history and training of the MISLS, the activities of the Counter Intelligence Corps in the Pacific, the 34th Infantry Division, and military campaigns in Italy.
- RG 331: Records of Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, World War II, 1907-1966 (bulk 1942-1954)
  Includes records of the 6th Army Group, such as battle participation awards and unit citation awards for the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd RCT.
- RG 338: Records of the US Army Operational, Tactical, and Support Organizations (World War II and Thereafter), 1917-1993 (bulk 1940-1970)
  Includes general orders, correspondence, memos, reports, materials from the reading file of General Delos C. Emmons, and other items documenting Japanese organizations in the US, public opinion towards Japanese Americans, loyalty investigations, internment camps and relocation, martial law in Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiʻi Territorial Guard, 5th and 7th Army awards, and unit citations and award recommendations for members of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd RCT.
- RG 389: Records of the Office of the Provost Marshal General, 1941-,1920-1975, 1991-1992 (bulk 1941-1975)
  Includes correspondence, reports, memos, press releases, and other materials concerning the induction of Japanese Americans into the military, the organization of the 442nd RCT, the return of Japanese Americans to areas within the Western Defense Command, the employment of Japanese Americans, Japanese aliens from Hawaiʻi, loyalty investigations, Japanese organizations in the US and Hawaiʻi, the Japanese American Branch, selective service, exclusion orders, the MISLS, and other issues relating to the treatment of Japanese American civilians and soldiers.
- RG 407: Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1917-[AGO], 1905-1981 (bulk 1917-1958)
  Includes reports, general orders, correspondence, memos, and other documents relating to unit citations and individual awards for members of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd RCT, as well as historical narratives, operational reports, and general orders for the 34th, 36th, 44th, and 92nd Infantry divisions, and historical narratives, operational reports, and journals for the 442nd RCT.
Series 4: Photographs
- (Not yet part of digitization project, please contact us for on-site access)
Series 5: Memorabilia
- (Not yet part of digitization project, please contact us for on-site access)

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