In spite of having their loyalties questioned after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and with more than 110,000 people of Japanese descent incarcerated in camps in the western U.S, Japanese Americans served in the U.S. armed forces in disproportionate numbers. Most served in the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service.

This photo shows members of the 442nd Regiment sitting together around a chess board in the Fort Lawton sunroom. All of the men were decorated for their service, and Rodney Fukui, a Medic-Co. Tec/5, sitting third from left, earned a Bronze Star for heroism as a medical corpsman. In the center Pfc. Norman Hiraoka gestures with a chess piece as he and the other Nisei soldiers discuss the stares which greet them on Seattle streets. Seattle-area Japanese businesses were shuttered and about 9000 Seattle-area residents of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated in camps after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Caption information sources:"Japanese Americans in military during World War II" and "442nd Regimental Combat Team" at Densho website, densho.org.
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.