Eventually, their abilities as well as ongoing lobbying efforts convinced the War Department to order them into combat. They received more training at Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and in Louisiana. While at Camp McCoy, members of the 100th Infantry demonstrated extraordinary discipline and skill in basic training. They would ultimately become the first group of Nisei to see combat in the European Theater during World War II. When they landed in San Francisco after a week’s voyage, the unit was re-designated the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate), with six infantry companies. On June 5, 1942, during the Battle of Midway, the 1,432 Nisei solders of the Hawaiian Provisional Infantry Battalion were shipped via the SS Maui for training at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin. With concerns that the AJA soldiers might pose security problems in the event of a Japanese invasion, General George Marshall transferred them into a newly created unit that was named the Hawaiian Provisional Infantry Battalion and prepared to remove them to the mainland. In May 1942, US Military Intelligence determined that a major Japanese naval armada was headed toward Midway, an atoll located northwest of Hawaii. Through savage battles and amazing feats the 442nd - combined with the 100th Infantry Battalion - became the most decorated unit of its size in US military history. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the AJAs of the 298th and 299th were used primarily in construction tasks preparing defense installations for defense of the islands, with suspicions hovering about whether they would be loyal to the United States. About 1,500 Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJAs) became members of the 298th and 299th Regiments of the Hawaii National Guard after initiation of the first peacetime draft in October 1940.
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