After high school, Frank Wada moved to San Diego where he worked on his sister's farm in Chula Vista. The morning after the Pearl Harbor attack, he tried to enlist in the U.S. Army, but like other Nisei, was turned down because he was considered an "enemy alien."
Three months later, his family was ordered to internment. In mid-1942, his family ended up at a camp in Poston, Arizona, where he met his future wife, Jean Ito of San Jose, California.
In 1942, Japanese American men serving in the National Guard in Hawaii were ordered to form the first Nisei unit, the 100th Infantry Battalion. Their discipline and success in training were so impressive that it was decided to enlist a second group, which became the 442nd. Hawaiian Nisei along with Nisei in internment camps were called for this unit.
Frank Wada was one of the first Poston camp to volunteer. This did not sit well with many of the other internees. But his sister had told him that his joining might be the only thing that could get them out of the camp.
Before leaving for training at Camp Shelby in Mississippi, he married Jean at the camp and their marriage lasted for 69 years until she died in 2012.
--GreGen
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