National Education Center
Awards & Decorations Stats
About 33,000 Japanese Americans served in the US Armed Forces during World War II, and approximately 800 of these individuals were killed or missing in action.
This Hall of Honor lists just some of the formal individual and unit awards and citations conferred upon the Nisei soldiers of World War II by the United States.*
The awards are arranged according to their order of precedence in the US Army.+ The Congressional Gold Medal, a civilian award, is listed separately.
| The 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team | |
|---|---|
| Number of men who served: | ~18,000 |
| Combat casualty rate: | 314% |
| Individual Awards | # |
|---|---|
| Medal of Honor | 21 |
| Distinguished Service Cross | 29 |
| Silver Star Medal | 560 |
| Silver Star Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster (in lieu of second Silver Star) | 28 |
| Legion of Merit Medal | 22 |
| Soldier’s Medal | 15 |
| Bronze Star Medal | 4,000 |
| Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster (in lieu of second Bronze Star) | 1,200 |
| Purple Heart | 9,486 |
| Army Commendation Medal | 36 |
| Division Commendation | 87 |
| Unit Awards | # |
|---|---|
| Presidential Unit Citation | 7 |
| Meritorious Service Unit Commendation | 2 |
Congressional Gold Medal awarded to the members of the 100th (Separate) and 442nd on November 2, 2011.
Note: These are the combined counts of awards, honors, and statistics for the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) and the 442nd RCT (including the 100th Battalion).
| Military Intelligence Service | |
|---|---|
| Number of men who served: | ~6,000 |
| Individual Awards | # |
|---|---|
| Distinguished Service Cross | 1 |
| Distinguished Service Medal | 3 |
| Silver Star Medal | 37 |
| Legion of Merit Medal | 32 |
| Navy Cross | 1 |
| Soldier’s Medal | 14 |
| Bronze Star Medal | 388 |
| Purple Heart | 50 |
| Air Medal | 8 |
| Combat Infantryman’s Badge | 121 |
| Letter of Commendation | 204 |
| Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame Inductee | 11 |
| US Army Ranger Hall of Fame Inductee | 3 |
| Unit Awards | # |
|---|---|
| Presidential Unit Citation | 1 |
| Presidential Unit Citation (awarded to individuals working in cited units) | 57 |
Congressional Gold Medal awarded to the members of the MIS on November 2, 2011.
Note: Many of the statistics for the Military Intelligence Service are understated, since MIS personnel were attached to different units throughout the entire Pacific Theater, as linguists in small teams. The MIS had no central organization to collect comprehensive awards information across all of these units, and the total numbers are augmented as new cases come to light.
For a detailed description of each award, please click here.
* The awards listed do not include those given by foreign governments.
+Actual numbers of individual awards, honors, and personnel counts are disputed. Statistics vary depending on the source, and many of these statistics are still being updated.
Footnotes
1This list reflects the most accurate statistics that we could find, based on substantial research and comparison between existing sources. The following sources were consulted in the compilation of this list: US Department of Defense; US Army; Congressional Records, US Government; Orville C. Shirey, Americans, The Story of the 442nd Combat Team (1946); Dr. James McNaughton; Densho Encyclopedia; National Veterans Network; Santa Cruz Public Libraries; Lyn Crost, Honor by Fire (1997); Chester Tanaka, Go for Broke: A Pictorial History of the Japanese-American 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442d Regimental Combat Team (1997); Historian Eric Saul; Historian Jim Yamashita; Seiki Oshiro, Japanese American Veterans’ Association; Go For Broke National Education Center website, www.goforbroke.org