[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 110 (Thursday, June 24, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E691]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GO FOR BROKE STAMP

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. ED CASE

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 24, 2021

  Mr. CASE. Madam Speaker, I rise today with my colleagues to recognize 
and honor . . . a stamp.
  A stamp just issued by the U.S. Postal Service that, with stunning 
simplicity, remembers, recognizes and honors one of the most remarkable 
and inspirational stories in the whole of our country's history.
  A story of tragedy, perseverance and triumph that is so 
quintessentially American, that goes so deeply to our essence, that 
offers the most fundamental lessons that we must never forget.
  And that is the point of this stamp: that we never forget the story 
of the Japanese American soldiers of World War Two and their famous 
motto which is its own lesson: Go For Broke.
  For many of us, the story is well known and has instructed and 
inspired our own lives. But for a growing number of our fellow citizens 
of our country and world it is not, and so permit me a brief retelling.
  The story originates in Japan in the late 1800s when largely rural 
poverty and lack of opportunity drove emigration to the United States, 
mainly Hawaii and the West Coast, until the Exclusion Act of 1924 ended 
any substantial further immigration. This first generation, or lssei, 
were excluded by reason of their race and origin from citizenship, yet 
they worked and sacrificed and persevered to provide a better life for 
their children, the second generation, or Nisei, born American 
citizens.
  As World War Two loomed, Americans of Japanese Ancestry were 
beginning their third generation, or Sansei, in substantial 
communities, yet they remained largely marginalized because of race. In 
my Hawaii, they constituted over one third of our population, yet 
largely still labored on plantations or worked in small businesses. The 
same was true on the West Coast, from Washington through Oregon to San 
Diego. Some Nisei saw war with Japan coming and sought to enlist in our 
armed services, but they were largely denied out of race and suspicion 
and sought to prove themselves through service in the guard or, in 
Hawaii, the Varsity Victory Volunteers.
  Pearl Harbor changed everything. Infamously, over one hundred 
thousand Japanese were interned for their race, an indelible stain on 
our national fabric. And after years of Japanese Americans pushing to 
be allowed to prove their loyalty by enlisting and fighting, the 
military finally relented with the 100th Infantry Battalion (the One-
Puka-Puka), the 442nd regimental Combat Team (``Go For Broke''), the 
Military Intelligence Service and the 1399th Engineer Construction 
Battalion.
  The rest, as they say, is legend. The 100th and 442nd, after enduring 
great discrimination and great kindness in mainland training camps 
where Jim Crow was still very much alive, and even as their parents and 
brothers and sisters were incarcerated by their government, shipped out 
and fought their way with the U.S. Army from Africa up through Sicily 
and Italy and the Rhone and into France and the famous Battles of the 
Yosges and the Bulge and then into German itself where they liberated 
the concentration camps of the Third Reich. When it was all over, they 
had lost so many comrades and had become the most decorated unit for 
its size and length of service in our nation's history.
  But it was not just for their wartime service that they are 
remembered, but their faith in and dedication to their country upon 
their return, itself marked even after all that by racism and 
discrimination. Many of them went on to careers in public service, like 
U.S. Senator and Medal Of Honor winner Daniel Inouye and U.S. Senator 
Spark Matsunaga, and many more in other professions and careers and 
back in their communities where they quietly fought for the principle 
that the American dream belonged to all Americans.
  What an American story, and for all this we honored them in 2010 with 
our Congressional Gold Medal. But was that enough; would it all be 
remembered?
  Three Japanese American women in California who themselves had been 
incarcerated--Fusa Takahashi, Chiz Ohira and Aiko King--thought not, 
and in 2005 they launched Stamp Our Story to convince the U.S. Postal 
Service to issue a stamp in honor and remembrance of the Japanese 
American soldiers of World War Two. Sixteen long years later, through 
continued advocacy led in Congress by my Congressional Asian Pacific 
American Caucus and my colleagues here now and before--especially U.S. 
Congressman Mark Takai, himself a Japanese American veteran of 
Operation Iraqi Freedom, tragically lost to us--this beautiful and 
moving stamp, impeccably designed by Antonio Alcala, was issued just 
weeks ago.
  The design is taken from a 1944 photograph in the field of 442nd 
Private First Class Shiroku `Whitey' Yamamoto, a Nisei born and raise 
in the plantation village of Ninole on the Hamakua Coast of my home 
island of Hawaii. His service included the famous rescue of the Texas 
Lost Battalion in the Vosges, when the 442nd's casualties far exceeded 
the number of their mostly white comrades rescued. Legend has it that 
the motto ``Go For Broke''--or in our pidgin go fo broke--originated in 
Hawaii gambling slang for going big against all odds. The soldier's 
face speaks of fatigue, of questions, but above all of Gaman, of 
perseverance through great adversity to a better place. Such a fitting 
tribute, so appropriate. And made possible by so many, including 
colleagues who are here with me today to contribute their own thoughts.
  Mdam Speaker, we are all grateful for the opportunity to remember and 
retell the American story of the Japanese American soldiers of World 
War II and to celebrate the lessons of their service and lives through 
their stamp.
  To close, I'd like to recite the 442nd's special song:

       Four Forty Second Infantry
       We are the boys of Hawai`i nei
       We will fight for you
       And the red, white and blue
       And will go to the front
       And back to Honolulu-lu-lu
       Fighting for dear old Uncle Sam
       Go for broke we don't give a damn!
       We will round up the huns
       At the point of a gun
       And the victory will be ours!
       Go for broke! Four Four Two!
       Go for broke! Four Four Two!
       And victory will be ours.
       Mahalo.

                          ____________________