About This Stamp
With this commemorative stamp issuance, the U.S. Postal Service recognizes the contributions of Japanese American soldiers, some 33,000 altogether, who served in the U.S. Army during World War II.
For a time, these second-generation Japanese Americans, known as Nisei, were denied the opportunity to fight despite being American citizens. Many were forcibly removed to incarceration camps for fear their loyalty lay with the country of their parents rather than the country in which they were born and raised.
They were, however, eventually formed into what became one of the most distinguished American fighting units of World War II: the all-Japanese American 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Thousands of other Nisei served as translators, interpreters, and interrogators in the Pacific Theater for the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), nearly a thousand served in the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion, and more than 100 Nisei women joined the Women's Army Corp.
The stamp art is based on a photograph of a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, whose motto was “Go for Broke.” The photograph was taken in 1944 at a railroad station in France. The stamp was printed in the intaglio print method. The color scheme of the stamp is patriotic, and the type runs up the side in a manner suggestive of the vertical style in which Japanese text was traditionally written.
The stamp was designed by art director Antonio Alcalá.
The Go for Broke: Japanese American Soldiers of World War II* stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
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*The Japanese Americans who served in World War II prefer not to use a hyphenation in the term “Japanese American,” even when it modifies a noun.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Antonio Alcalá
Antonio Alcalá served on the Postmaster General’s Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 2010 until 2011, when he left to become an art director for the U.S. Postal Service's stamp development program.
He is founder and co-owner of Studio A, a design practice working with museums and arts institutions. His clients include: the National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Phillips Collection, and Smithsonian Institution. He also lectures at colleges including the Corcoran College of Art + Design, SVA, Pratt, and MICA.
In 2008, his work and contributions to the field of graphic design were recognized with his selection as an AIGA Fellow. He has judged international competitions for the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, AIGA, and Graphis. Alcalá also serves on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and Poster House Museum’s advisory councils. His designs are represented in the AIGA Design Archives, the National Postal Museum, and the Library of Congress Permanent Collection of Graphic Design.
Alcalá graduated from Yale University with a BA in history and from the Yale School of Art with an MFA in graphic design. He lives with his wife in Alexandria, Virginia.