American wars and the Minorities who fought in them...

[edaw1982]

I know Blacks and Japanese-Americans in earlier conflicts had Black/Japanese/Etcetera only units during WWII for example, and Blacks did fight on both sides during the Civil War/War of North Aggression.

But did other races fight in those wars? Were there Chinese combatants fighting the 'dreaded Rebs/Bluebellies?' Where there Latin-American Battalions fighting in WWII?

Did Hawaiian-only (with the obligatory white Commander) Companies fight in Korea?

[Spoonist]

Did you get inspiration from G Lucas?

http://wn.com/American_Minority_Groups_in_World_War_II

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_M ... [quote]One Million Negro Inductions

Negroes were an important source of manpower for the armed forces in World War II as is shown by the fact that a total of 1,056,841 Negro registrants were inducted into the armed forces through Selective Service as of December 31, 1945. Of these,
1. 885,945 went into the Army,
2. 153,224 into the Navy,
3. 016,005 into the Marine Corps, and
4. 001,667 into the Coast Guard.
[/quote]

Inductions of Other Minority Groups

Inductions into the Army of Selective Service registrants from other racial and nationality groups up to December 31, 1945, included:
1. 13,311 Chinese,
2. 20,080 Japanese,
3. 01,320 Hawaiians,
4. 19,567 American Indians,
5. 11,506 Filipinos, and
6. 51,438 Puerto Ricans.

Counting enlistments and those in the Enlisted Reserve Corps, a total of 24,085 Japanese-Americans had either enlisted or been inducted into the Army by December 31, 1945. Similar statistics are not available for the naval services. Also by June 30, 1945, a total of 125,880 aliens of various nationalities had enlisted or been inducted into the Army and Navy. The increased proportion of inductions of Japanese-Americans during the two 6-months periods from July 1, 1944, to June 30, 1945 is indicated in the first table. Beginning January 14, 1944, registrants who were natural-born United States citizens of Japanese extraction or parentage were subject to induction in the Army after the War Department had determined in each case that the registrant was acceptable.

[CaptHawkeye]

It looks like those listed Phillipinos were direct enlistees of the US Military. They're not a count of Armies directly under America's colonial governments.

[lord Martiya]

I know that in the American Civil War there were Italian units on both sides. For example, a company of the 39th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment was recruited among Italians and caused the whole regiment to be named Garibaldi Guard (and Garibaldi himself volunteering to join the Union army on condition that the objective of the war was declared to be the abolition of slavery), and the Confederate had the Sixth Regiment European Brigade recruited among Italian exiles who were veterans of the Two Sicilies Army (and whose regiment was initially named Garibaldi Guards - Italian battalion Louisiana Militia. Three guesses for why the unit was renamed).

[DrMckay]

Massachusetts 54th regiment (Black soldiers in the US Civil War depicted in the movie Glory)

the "Buffalo Soldiers," black soldiers on the frontier and Spanish American War,

Harlem Hellfighters (All-black infantry regiment in WWI)

many black sailors in the Royal navy, some in the US Navy from the first days of the nation.

[Elheru Aran]

There was also a Japanese-American regiment in WWII; they fought with distinction in Italy, IIRC.

This is just my guess but I think it's safe enough, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though: I don't think there were enough people of Asiatic descent to have made an noticeable impact in wars before WWII. If they'd have been allowed to join in the first place-- it was hard enough to get blacks in the Army in the Civil War, and after that they were largely marginalized until WWII. Other non-whites would've had a much more difficult time of it, with the exception of colonial units and possibly Hispanics in units from the Southwestern states.

[xthetenth]

The US Navy was functionally integrated for a long time, I'm not sure blacks were ever barred, they just plain needed the manpower.

If you're talking about minorities, especially marginalized ones, the Irish bear mention, especially around the era leading in to the Mexican-American War. They were treated terribly in large part due to the immigration surge and resulting nativist panic, and they comprised a very large fraction of the enlisted ranks. There's a reason the San Patricios existed, the Irish were one of the few groups marginalized enough that being a soldier made a lot of sense except during recessions and they were treated horribly and finally asked to fight fellow Catholics. Interestingly enough, there were higher ranking Irish officers who were either from families already established in the US or who had made a reputation in earlier fighting who were pretty much accepted.