'Roy Maeda'
Roy Maeda had spent
two years locked up with his family in the
Minidoka internment camp in Idaho, before he was allowed to leave camp to
study watchmaking at an Illinois jewelry school. In early 1945, he joined up
with the 442nd as an infantryman during the combat team's final push against
the Germans' defensive line in northern Italy. The enemy fired a mortar
barrage that sent shrapnel flying into Maeda's right ankle and left thigh. In July 1946, Maeda stood at the attention on the White House grounds and
listened as President Harry S. Truman welcomed the 442nd home from war. 'He
told us, 'You had to fight prejudice here and over there,'' Maeda said, ''and
you won.''
