Article Source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/01/us/veterans-in-focus-susumu-ito/index.html?hpt=us_c1
Article Date: November 1, 2011
On Wednesday, members of the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, during World War II are being honored on Capitol Hill with a Congressional Gold Medal, the country's highest civilian award. Among the recipients is Japanese-American Susumu Ito, who served in the army as a forward artillery observer before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. After the kamikaze attack, Ito, along with many other Japanese-American soldiers, were disarmed and reassigned to non-combat positions. Over 110,000 Japanese-Americans on Pacific Coast were sent to internment camps. Ito's own family was sent to Rohwer Relocation Center in southeast Arkansas. However, still wanting to demonstrate his allegiance to the United States, Ito joined the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team after its creation in 1943 and fought in the 522nd Field Artillery Unit, which liberated prisoners from a concentration camp in Dachau, Germany. Ignoring military regulations, Ito brought his camera and was thus able to capture many rare photographs. Ito is now 92 years old and a retired Harvard emeritus professor of medicine.