May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, so let's share the story of a soldier named Shigeyuki Doi who served at Rockford's Camp Grant in World War II. Shigeyuki Doi (Shig) was born in 1920 near Sacremento, CA . His parents, Japanese immigrants, were barred by federal law from becoming U.S. citizens. These laws would not change until 1952. As their parents were ineligible to purchase land, Shig’s American-born older brother bought an orchard for the family to work. Anti-Japanese discrimination was rampant in the community. In 1942, Shig joined the Army. He would be one of 30,000 Japanese Americans who served with distinction during World War II. Doi was sent to Camp Grant for basic training. He was not the only Japanese American at Camp Grant, but they were in integrated units. While at Camp Grant Doi worked in the dental clinic, attended football games, and joked around with friends. His scrapbook photos don’t reveal any other Asian Americans in the dental clinic. When on furlough Shig couldn’t go back to California, but instead visited his parents in their internment camp. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had issued Executive Order 9066 authorizing military commanders to exclude civilians from military areas. This led swiftly to the relocation and detention of Japanese-American West Coast residents. Approximately 122,000 men, women, and children — more than half American citizens — were forcibly moved to guarded internment camps in the Southwest. Doi’s parents and siblings were interred at Lake Tule and then Amanche in Colorado. Shig was sent to Camp Blanding, Florida where the army gathered a unit of 1,000 Japanese Americans to be used for replacements in Italy. From there he was sent through Camp Shelby and Fort Meade. “Shig served in (I) Company, 3rd Battalion of the 442nd. In fall 1944, they were sent on a suicide mission to rescue “The Lost Battalion” along with other battles in and around the areas of Bruyeres, Epinal, and Biffontaine in the Vosges Mountains in France, and onto Italy, to the Gothic Line. Few of their members survived. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team is the highest decorated combat unit of its size in American history and received seven Presidential Unit Citations”. Around November 1944 his parents were freed from the internment camps. They came back to their farm which they had rented out in their absence. Local residents set their shed on fire and fired shotguns at the house. Shig remembered, "See, I was getting shot at from the enemy, and then at home in my own country, people were shooting at my dad. I was risking my life for this country, and my government was not protecting my folks. And they come home from camp with nothing." Shig celebrated his 103rd birthday in March 2023. #AsianAmericanPacificIslanderHeritageMonth (fb)

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