National Education Center
Our Mission
To educate and inspire character and equality through the virtue and valor of our World War II American veterans of Japanese ancestry.
OUR NAME
“Go For Broke” was the motto of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an Army unit comprised of Japanese Americans from Hawaii and the mainland United States.
For high-rolling gamblers in Hawaii in the 1940s, it was slang for “shooting the works,” or risking everything for the big win. For the Nisei soldiers, “go for broke” meant that they would put everything on the line to win the war against the Germans in Europe and the war against racial prejudice at home.
Courtesy of the Bureau of Public Relations, US War Department.
Courtesy of the Bureau of Public Relations, US War Department.
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.