JAPANESE AMERICAN VETERANS ASSOCIATION

                     1749 Old Meadow Road, Suite 500, McLean, VA 22102 (Bob Nakamoto, President)

CONTACT:  Eric Saul, 304-906-1292; VisasForLife@cs.com

                              Terry Shima 301-987-6746; ttshima@comcast.net

 PHOTO:  Photo accompanies this press release.                                                                                      

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GO FOR BROKE EXHIBIT SCHEDULED TO OPEN AT ELLIS ISLAND MUSEUM ON JULY 5.  EXHIBIT WLL MARK 125^TH ANNIVERSARY OF JAPANESE SETTLERS IN AMERICA AND 65^TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF WORLD WAR II.  RARE PHOTOGRAPHS WILL BE SHOWN FOR THE FIRST TIME.

New York City.   The long awaited exhibit, "Go For Broke: Japanese American Soldiers Fighting on Two Fronts," will open to the public on Monday, July 5, 2010, at the Ellis Island National Historic Site museum, New York.  The commencement of the museum display coincides with the 125th anniversary celebration of arrival of Japanese settlers in America.

This historical presentation chronicles the history of the Japanese American soldier in World War II.  It includes the story of the courageous Nisei soldiers of the famous 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Italy, France and Germany and of the Nisei who served in the Military Intelligence Service in the Asia Pacific theater.

The exhibit is comprised of 150 rare photographs collected from a number of prominent government agency archives and private collections from Hawaii and the mainland America.  Many of these photographs are being exhibited for the first time.  The exhibit includes photographs from the collections of the National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS), the Hawaii State Archives, the National Archives and Records Center, the Library of Congress, the Club 100 Archives and 442 Club Archives from Hawaii.  Some of the prominent photographers whose work is featured include Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Clem Albers, Toyo Miyatake and others.  Many private photographs of the Nisei taken during the war are also featured.

The exhibit will also feature the history of early Japanese immigration in postwar photographs and documents.  The exhibit will be shown to a wide general audience at the Ellis Island museum.  More than 7,000 visitors are expected to view the exhibit daily at the Ellis Island museum.  It is particularly important that this exhibit be shown at the museum that documents immigration to America.  Many of the visitors will be attending from all parts of the world.

The exhibit is being created by the Japanese American Wartime History Project.  The curator of the exhibit is Eric Saul, former director of the Presidio Army Museum, who created the original "Go For Broke" exhibit in 1980.  Saul said, "This is a wonderful tribute to the veterans on the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II.  Their history is one of the great stories in American history." 

Ranger Grant Hirabayashi, a Merrill’s Marauders veteran and inductee of the US Army Ranger Hall of Fame, said “the exhibit will describe the lives of five generations of persons of Japanese ancestry in America and should have great educational value to adults and children alike.  The Japanese American community is grateful to Mr. Saul, prominent historian, for creating this project.  I am impressed that 7,000 people will see this exhibit daily.”

The exhibit will be open seven days a week throughout the entire summer.  Commemorative ceremonies and educational programs with prominent Japanese Americans and veterans are planned for August.

The exhibit is being scheduled to travel to numerous locations after its showing at Ellis Island is completed at the end of the summer.

For information or to schedule a visit, call the National Park Service at 212 363-3200 or visit their website at http://www.ellisisland.org/genealogy/ellis_island_visiting.asp.  The Ellis Island museum is accessible by ferry from both New York and New Jersey.  For ferry tickets, call 877.523.9849 or book online at http://www.statuecruises.com/.  For viewing the exhibit only, disembark from the ferry from New York at the second stop.  Boats leave from Battery Park in New York City every 20 minutes beginning at 8:30 am; boats leave from Liberty Park in New Jersey every 40 minutes beginning at 8:30 am.