Japanese-Americans' role in WWII almost erased from history
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Digital posts referencing Pacific Islanders, Native Hawaiians and Asian-Americans serving in the armed forces have been scrubbed from military websites, dragged into the Pentagon’s purge of diversity-related content.
Previously published articles related to the ethnic groups in the Pacific have been deleted from military websites since March 5 in compliance with the Department of Defense’s “digital content refresh” memo, which corresponded to President Donald Trump's dismantling of the diversity, equity and inclusion regime.
Rep. Ed Case, however, cautioned against deleting historical content from the digital sphere.
“Erasing history one website at a time is no different than the tragic practices of the authoritarian regimes throughout history that so many of our own have sacrificed to oppose,” the Hawaiian lawmaker said in a March 14 letter to Daniel P. Driscoll, secretary of the Army.
The letter was prompted by the removal of information about the 442nd Regimental
Combat Team – which comprised first-generation Japanese-Americans who were deployed to the European Theater during WWII— from the U.S. Army's website. The page was immediately reinstated the next day.
“Members of these two units played influential roles in Hawai'i and elsewhere in our country after the war, becoming community, business and government leaders to include the late U. S. Sens. Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga,” Case said.
“Any attempt to eliminate the memory of this
truly bittersweet chapter of our nation’s history would be a direct rejection of the sacrifice and memory of these brave servicemembers and their families and a deep stain on our county,” he added.
The “digital content refresh” memo applied to “information that promotes that
programs, concepts, or materials about critical race theory, gender ideology and preferential treatment or quotas based upon sex, race or ethnicity, or other DEI-related matters.”
The memo also bans heritage awareness months.
Search for "Pacific Islanders in the U.S. military" on military websites fetches a 404 notification.
Case criticized the Army for deleting website feeds “based solely on race without any consideration of or respect for historical context.”
“While the Army still maintains some websites covering the history of the 442nd/100th RCT and other Nisei units, a simple search of the Army’s homepage reveals that countless webpages dealing with Asian Americans, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders have been removed.” Case said.
He said erasing historical information also erases "the sacrifices and contributions of these American heroes from the digital archive of our nation’s military legacy."
U.S. territories and allied countries in the Pacific have long-standing military traditions. Guam, American Samoa, Hawaii and the Federated States of Micronesia have the highest enlistment rates per capita.
"We must maintain all of our nation’s history to understand the present
and future, learn from past mistakes and foster a sense of identity and belonging, both individually and as a society,” he added.
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