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Wars never occur in isolation from the people and the

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cultures that fight them. Shocker, right? That means World War II wasn't just a [Tank drives in front of people lying on a beach]

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series of battles and military strategies; it was a massive, whole-scale event that

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interacted with every single facet of the Rubik's Cube of American culture. And

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here's another shocker: one of the biggest issues in American society was

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race. By the 1940s, African Americans and other people of color were still [Picture of 'Colored Waiting Room' sign]

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confronted with every kind of discrimination, segregation, oppression,

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and straight-up racism that 20th century America could invent. And then World War II

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came and crashed the racism party. Take, for instance, the Tuskegee Airmen.

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This very first African American aviator team not only fought the Axis powers; by

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doing so, they fought for civil rights. In a time when the American military was [Black American fighter pilot pulls off 'No Colored Allowed' sign from the wall with a plane]

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still segregated, these guys piloted planes over Sicily, North Africa, and the

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Mediterranean. So while the Tuskegee Airmen made a big impact in the skies,

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they also made an impact back home. Their efforts were a big part of why President

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Truman desegregated the military in 1948. But African Americans weren't the only

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people of color who did their part during the war. American Indians also

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stepped up to the plate by using their language to help transmit coded military

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messages. These guys were called the Navajo code talkers, and they were no [Radio operator at a transmitter]

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joke. The sweet thing about the Navajo language was that hardly anybody spoke it,

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except the Navajo. It was even way different from other Native American

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languages, so it was insanely perfect for creating the kinds of code that no enemy

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could break. And let us not forget the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up of

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Japanese Americans. For one, they were good at making up nicknames. Soldiers

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from Hawai'i called themselves "buddaheads" and called mainland soldiers "katonks." [Pig dressed up as a solider headbutts Japanese American soldier]

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Anyway, the 442nd also saved tons of mainland American soldiers' butts. For

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example, there was the lost battalion, a Texas-based unit that was rescued. Later

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on, when it came time for Congress to vote on admitting Hawai'i as a state, the

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Texan representatives in Congress were majorly influential and [Congressman at a lectern holds up a pistol]

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swung the vote in Hawaii's direction. Why? Well, turns out our Texan congressman

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hadn't forgotten what the 442nd rescue of the lost battalion did for him in

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World War II. Yes, we should all thank the 442nd for every vacation we've had

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in the beautiful state of Hawaii. So here's hoping the 442nd will come rescue us and

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take us to their home state. [Soldiers carry worker from an office to Hawaii]

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