100th Infantry Battalion  The 100th Infantry Battalion,
initially made up almost entirely of Japanese Americans from
Hawai'i already in the army prior to World War II, represented
the first group of Japanese Americans to see combat during World
War II. Their highly publicized exploits in basic training and
combat in Italy helped change the minds of military and
political leaders who had banned the enlistment and drafting of
Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor, paving the
way for large scale participation in the war effort by Japanese
American soldiers. The 100th eventually became a part of the
famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team.   After the United States
reinstituted the draft in October 1940, several thousand men
became members of the 298th and 299th Regiments of the Hawaii
National Guard. Over 1,400 of them, approximately one-half of
the total, were Americans of Japanese descent. At the time, the
Japanese American community included nearly 160,000 individuals,
comprising nearly 40% of the Te