"Good things come from horse manure," is a lesson Sam Mitsui learned as a prisoner of war.

In 1942, Mitsui's family was forced into an American internment camp, where some families slept in racetrack horse stalls. But it was among the cramped and squalid conditions of the camp, where prisoners would be shot on sight for trying to escape, that Mitsui found the strength to prove his loyalty to his country and volunteer for the U.S Army.

Mitsui, a member of the Nisei Veterans Committee, spoke about his experiences during the Lakewood Historical Society's annual meeting Nov. 9 at the Lakewood Little Church on the Prairie. Becky Huber, society president, said it's important to get history from primary sources and firsthand accounts like Mitsui's.

Mitsui's presentation honored Pfc. Tom Haji, a childhood friend and member of the segregated 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team who was killed in action in 1945. Mitsui recounted his childhood and the affect the bombing of Pearl Harbor had on his life as a second-generation Japanese American (or Nisei) growing up in Skykomish, Wash.

"I always thought I was an American. That is, until Dec. 7, 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor," Mitsui said. After the attack, curfews were placed on the Japanese, friends would no longer speak to his family, and stores displayed signs that read "No Japs Allowed."

"This was the only country that I knew and cared about, so why was everyone treating us like the enemy?" he asked.

In 1942, after President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps, Mitsui and his family were forced to board a train to Tule Lake in Northern California. "In spite of the injustices committed, the primary thought in our minds was to prove our loyalty by serving in the U.S. military," he said, "even though we were still imprisoned in these concentration camps surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers with machine guns pointed inward."

The U.S. War Department created the segregated Nisei 100th Infantry Battalion in 1942 and 442nd RCT in 1943. With families left behind in the camps, 4,500 Nisei volunteered, with 3,000 serving in combat. The 100th/442nd proved its loyalty in combat in battlefields throughout Europe and Northern Africa, including the "Rescue of the Lost Battalion." Nisei also served in military intelligence roles in the Pacific front, where resembling the enemy they could lead to friendly fire. Mitsui was among the volunteering Nisei and served in the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps during the war.

Allan Emmons, who attended the Lakewood Historical Society's presentation, knows firsthand the accomplishments of 442nd RCT.  A society member and WWII vet, Emmons served in Italy during the war and remembered fighting alongside members of the 442nd. "I have the utmost respect for the 442nd," he said. "When things got tough, they called in the 442nd."

Today, Mitsui is dedicated to honoring the sacrifices made by the men of the 442nd and ensuring that history will not repeat. "We must remain united so that what happened to us will not happen to any other group, especially to the Muslim Americans after Sept. 11."