About Us

HISTORY

“Go For Broke” was the motto of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an Army unit composed of Japanese Americans from Hawai’i and the mainland United States. For high-rolling gamblers in Hawai’i in the 1940s, it was slang for “shooting the works,” or risking everything for the big win. For the Nisei soldiers, “go for broke” meant that they would put everything on the line to win the war against the Germans in Europe and the war against racial prejudice at home.

OUR MISSION

To educate and inspire character and equality through the virtue and valor of our World War II American veterans of Japanese ancestry.

WHAT WE DO

Go For Broke National Education Center preserves the legacy of the Japanese American WWII veterans through in-person and virtual educational programming, maintaining the Go For Broke Monument, Defining Courage exhibition and managing the Hanashi Oral History and Special Collections.