By Richard Bammer
Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman coined the phrase “War is hell.”
And perhaps life has resembled it in some ways for many veterans of 20th-century American wars and many Japanese-Americans interned during World War II, when time and circumstance put an end to their high school education.
During the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, thousands of young men and women left high school and their homes to
serve in the U.S. armed forces. Additionally, during World War II many Japanese-American citizens were forced into relocation camps across the United States. Some young Japanese-American men, rather than stay in the camps, were later permitted to enlist in the U.S. armed forces. Notably the 442nd Infantry Regiment, composed mostly of Japanese-American men, became the most decorated unit of its size in U.S. military history. After these wars — besides World War II, they include the Korean and Vietnam wars — many were unable to finish high school and receive a diploma.