| 1940-1946 | 100th Infantry Battalion |
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| October 15, 1940 | 298th and 299th Infantry Regiments of the Hawaii National Guard are activated and integrated into the U.S. Army. In the 12 months preceding the attack on Pearl Harbor, approximately half of the 3,000 men in Hawaii who are either drafted or volunteer for service in the U.S. Army are Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJA). Most are assigned to the 298th or 299th with some assigned to engineer units. Basic training is at Schofield Barracks on Oahu. |
| December 7, 1941 | Japan launches a surprise attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base, home of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Members of the 2nd Battalion of the 298th guard the windward coastline of Oahu, while the 1st Battalion is stationed at Schofield Barracks. Martial law is declared.
In the morning after the attack begins, Territorial Governor Joseph Poindexter creates the Hawaii Territorial Guard (HTG) since the Hawaii Guard units had been federalized. Under the authority of the governor, the HTG becomes the military force charged with the defense of Hawaii. |
| December 8, 1941 | United States declares war on Japan. FBI agents and police begin arresting Japanese community leaders in Hawaii, eventually detaining about 1,400 individuals who are classified as “dangerous enemy aliens.” |
| December 11, 1941 | United States declares war on Germany and Italy. |
| January 5, 1942 | War Department classifies AJA men of draft age 4-C, “enemy aliens,” ineligible for military service. |
| January 19, 1942 | 317 AJA reservists with the Hawaii Territorial Guard – many of whom are members of the ROTC at the University of Hawaii – are classified 4-C and discharged without explanation. |
| February 9, 1942 | War Department orders General Delos C. Emmons, Commanding General of the Army Air Force in Hawaii, to suspend employment of all ethnic Japanese civilians in the Army. |
| February 19, 1942 | President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, leading to the incarceration of more than 110,000 residents of Japanese ancestry in internment camps throughout the U.S. |
| February 23, 1942 | Having been discharged from the Hawaii Territorial Guard, AJA men band together to form the Varsity Victory Volunteers (VVV), a labor unit under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. |
| May 28, 1942 | General George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, establishes the Hawaiian Provisional Infantry Battalion, to be made up of AJA from the Hawaii National Guard’s 298th and 299th Infantry and other units.
1,432 men gather at Schofield Barracks to join the new battalion. The unit is led by Lieutenant Colonel Farrant Turner; second in command is executive officer James Lovell. |
| June 5, 1942 | Hawaiian Provisional Infantry Battalion boards the transport ship, S.S. Maui, and departs Honolulu. |
| June 12, 1942 | Battalion arrives in Oakland and is officially activated as the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate). The “Separate” status indicates the battalion is not assigned to a parent unit. Soldiers start calling their battalion One Puka Puka (Hawaiian word meaning hole). |
| June 16, 1942 | 100th arrives at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, where they undergo training until the end of December. The battalion quickly earns a reputation for superior performance in the field. |
| June 26, 1942 | Army Chief of Staff recommends the formation of a Board of Military Utilization of U.S. Citizens of Japanese Ancestry to determine whether a Japanese American unit should be sent to fight in Europe. |
| October 2, 1942 | Elmer Davis, Director of the Office of War Information, recommends to President Roosevelt that Japanese Americans be allowed to enlist for military service. |
| November 3, 1942 | Twenty-five men from the 100th (Company B, Third Platoon) plus three officers and a cook depart Camp McCoy for Ship and Cat Islands off the Mississippi Gulf Coast where they will be used to train dogs to recognize and attack Japanese soldiers based on their supposedly unique scent. |
| November – December 1942 | Sixty-seven men from the 100th are recruited for the Military Intelligence Service because they had gone to school in Japan or were familiar with the Japanese language. They are sent to Camp Savage, Minnesota, for training. |
| January 6, 1943 | 100th leaves Camp McCoy for further training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. Four months later, the battalion will continue field maneuvers at Camp Claiborne in Louisiana until June. |
| January 28, 1943 | Impressed by the outstanding performance of the 100th, the War Department announces plans to organize an all-Japanese American combat unit. The call goes out for 1,500 volunteers from Hawaii; nearly 10,000 respond. A quota of 3,000 is established on the mainland, but the response is 1,200. Most of these men enlist from internment camps. |
| January 31, 1943 | Varsity Victory Volunteers in Hawaii request the deactivation of their unit so its members can enlist in the new 442nd Regimental Combat Team. |
| February 1, 1943 | 442nd Regimental Combat Team is activated by President Roosevelt. |
| March 28, 1943 | Honolulu Chamber of Commerce sponsors a farewell ceremony at Iolani Palace for the initial 2,686 AJA volunteers of the 442nd RCT. |
| May 1943 | 442nd RCT begins training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, where they will meet up with the 100th for the first time in June after the 100th returns from maneuvers in Louisiana. |
| July 20, 1943 | 100th receives its battalion colors and motto, “Remember Pearl Harbor,” as requested by the unit. The battalion leaves Camp Shelby on August 11 by train for Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. From there, it goes to Staten Island and boards the SS James Parker, departing on August 21. |
| September 2, 1943 | Battalion lands at Oran, Algeria in North Africa. Fifth Army command wants the 100th to guard supply trains, but Colonel Turner insists they be committed to combat duty. The 100th is assigned to 34th “Red Bull” Division, which has more battle experience than any other American Army unit at that time. |
| September 19, 1943 | 100th ships out with the 133rd Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division. |
| September 22, 1943 | Regiment lands on the beaches at Salerno, Italy. |
| September 29, 1943 | On the first day of combat, Shigeo “Joe” Takata is the first member of the 100th to be killed in action and the first to receive the Distinguished Service Cross. |
| October – November 1943 | 133rd Infantry Regiment, including 100th, fights a series of battles in several Italian towns and launches attacks on German forces, crossing the Volturno River three times. |
| October 29, 1943 | Major James L. Gillespie replaces Lt. Col. Turner. |
| Mid January 1944 | Battle of Monte Cassino begins. It takes four major assaults and four months to defeat German forces. By some estimates, the battle leaves 250,000 people dead or wounded. The 100th fights in the first two assaults before it is relieved on February 15. Having suffered heavy casualties during its months in combat, the unit becomes known as “The Purple Heart Battalion.” After Cassino, the first group of officers and enlisted men from the 442nd arrives to replenish the depleted battalion. |
| January 29, 1944 | Major James Lovell assumes command of the battalion after being released from the hospital, replacing Major Caspar Clough. He is soon badly wounded and does not return to combat. By the end of war, the 100th has 13 changes of battalion commanders. |
| March 26, 1944 | 100th lands at Anzio, the second front between the German’s Gustav Line of defense and Rome and is assigned a section in the Anzio beachhead in April. |
| May 1, 1944 | 442nd RCT leaves Hampton Roads, Virginia for Europe. |
| May 11, 1944 | British, French and American forces push forward to Rome. |
| June 2, 1944 | 100th participates in the breakout to Rome by attacking and capturing Lanuvio. Rome falls three days later. |
| June 11, 1944 | 100th meets up with 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Civitavecchia, northwest of Rome. At this time, the Regiment consists of the 3rd Battalion, 522nd Field Artillery Battalion and 232nd Engineer Company. The 2nd Battalion will arrive six days later. The 1st Battalion, which has been depleted from sending replacements to the 100th, is left at Camp Shelby to train new arrivals. |
| June 22, 1944 | President Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemembers’ Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill of Rights. By the time the original G.I. Bill ends in July 1956, 7.8 million World War II veterans will have participated in an education or training program and 2.4 million veterans will have home loans backed by the Veterans Administration. |
| June 26, 1944 | 442nd RCT is assigned to the Fifth Army and, in turn, is attached to the 34th “Red Bull” Division. The battle-tested 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) is attached to the 442nd RCT, becoming the 1st Battalion of 442nd, but retains its name, 100th Infantry Battalion, because of its outstanding combat record. By this time, the battalion of 1,300 has suffered more than 900 casualties. The 100th/442nd RCT goes into combat near Belvedere, Italy. |
| July 7, 1944 | 100th/442nd RCT takes Hill 140 in Italy after a bitter battle. |
| July 9, 1944 | 100th occupies Leghorn (Livorno) and is directly under the command of Fifth Army in Rome. |
| July 27, 1944 | General Mark Clark presents the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor in the Army for a military unit, to the 100th at Vada, Italy, for action at Belvedere. By this time, soldiers of the battalion have been awarded 9 Distinguished Service Crosses, 44 Silver Stars, 31 Bronze Stars, 3 Legion of Merits, 15 battlefield commissions, and more than 1,000 Purple Hearts. |
| August 14, 1944 | 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) is redesignated as 100th Battalion 442nd Infantry |
| August 31, 1944 | 442nd, minus the 100th, reaches the Arno River near Florence, Italy. The 100th spearheads the crossing of the Arno River and capture of Pisa. |
| September 1944 | While the 100th waits in Naples for the movement into France, representatives from each company meet to approve a set of bylaws for Club 100. They elect Katsumi “Doc” Kometani as president, Sakae Takahashi as vice president, Andrew Okamura as secretary, and Hideo Yamashita as treasurer. Leslie Deacon, Joseph Farrington, and Charles Hemenway are named honorary members. |
| September 27, 1944 | 100th/442nd RCT leaves Naples for France. |
| September 30, 1944 | 100th/442nd RCT is attached to the 36th Division, also known as the Texas Division, of the Seventh Army. |
| October 15, 1944 | 100th/442nd RCT enters the battle of Bruyeres in the Vosges Mountains, located in northeast France. After three days of fighting, the 100th takes Hill A and the 2nd Battalion takes Hill B and enters the town. Two days later, the 100th captures Hill C. |
| October 25, 1944 | 100th/442nd RCT captures Biffontaine. |
| October 26 – 31, 1944 | After five days of fighting, the100th/442nd RCT rescues 211 members of the Texas “Lost Battalion,” 141st Regiment, 36th Infantry Division, which was cut off and surrounded by Germans. The100th/442nd suffers more than 800 casualties, including 184 killed in action. 100th earns it second Presidential Unit Citation for actions at Biffontaine and Lost Battalion rescue. Presidential Unit Citations are also awarded to the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, the 232nd Engineer Combat Company, and F and L Companies of the 442nd. |
| November 13, 1944 – March 1945 | Soldiers of the 100th/442nd RCT head south to the French Riviera. The 100th/442nd has lost so many men that it can’t be used as a regiment-sized force. Nearly 2,000 are wounded and in hospitals in Italy, France, England and the United States. The unit guards a 12-mile stretch of the French-Italian border. The men call this time “the Champagne Campaign.” |
| March 20, 1945 | The 100th /442nd RCT, minus the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, leaves to join the African-American 92nd Infantry Division. |
| April 5 – 6 1945 | 100th/442nd RCT makes a surprise attack on Nazi mountainside positions in Italy, breaking through the German Gothic Line in one day. The regiment receives the Presidential Unit Citation. |
| April 6 – 30, 1945 | 100th/442nd RCT drives the enemy up the Italian coast to Genoa and Turin. |
| May 2, 1945 | German army surrenders. The war in Italy is over. Six days later, on May 8, with Germany’s unconditional surrender, the war is Europe is officially over. |
| August 6, 1945 | U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, an atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. |
| August 15, 1945 | Victory in Japan (VJ) Day, signaling the end of WWII. |
| September 2, 1945 | Japan signs the formal Instrument of Surrender. |
| July 4, 1946 | Members of the 100th /442nd RCT sail into New York Harbor aboard the SS Wilson Victory and are greeted by cheering crowds. |
| July 15, 1946 | A parade and review is held in Washington, D.C. President Harry Truman pins the Presidential Unit Citation on the 100th/442nd RCT colors. “You fought not only the enemy,” he says, “but you fought prejudice – and you have won.” |
| August 15, 1946 | The colors of the 100th Infantry Battalion are officially turned over to the Territory of Hawaii during a ceremony in Honolulu for returning war veterans. With that act, the battalion is deactivated. |
| 1946-1952 | Club 100 |
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| June 1946 | Site of a former Japanese language school on Nuuanu Avenue in Honolulu is purchased by Club 100, using dues ($2/month) collected by the soldiers starting from training at Camp McCoy and continuing throughout the war. This is the location of the club headquarters until the property is sold for a permanent location. |
| April 1950 | Club 100 purchases land at 520 Kamoku Street, the site of the current clubhouse. |
| July 1952 | Clubhouse is completed on the 10th anniversary of Club 100, which was conceived while the 100th was stationed at Camp McCoy. |