William Walton

Sir William Turner Walton OM (29 March 1902 – 8 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include Façade, the cantata Belshazzar's Feast, the Viola Concerto, the First Symphony, and the British coronation marches Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre.

Born in Oldham, Lancashire, the son of a musician, Walton was a chorister and then an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford. On leaving the university, he was taken up by the literary Sitwell siblings, who provided him with a home and a cultural education. His earliest work of note was a collaboration with Edith Sitwell, Façade, which at first brought him notoriety as a modernist, but later became a popular ballet score.

In middle age, Walton left Britain and set up home with his young wife Susana on the Italian island of Ischia. By this time, he had ceased to be regarded as a modernist, and some of his compositions of the 1950s were criticised as old-fashioned. His only full-length opera, Troilus and Cressida, was among the works to be so labelled and has made little impact in opera houses. In his last years, his works came back into critical fashion; his later compositions, dismissed by critics at the time of their premieres, were revalued and regarded alongside his earlier works.

Walton was a slow worker, painstakingly perfectionist, and his complete body of work across his long career is not large. His most popular compositions continue to be frequently performed in the 21st century, and by 2010 almost all his works had been released on CD.

## Biography

### Early years

Walton was born into a musical family in Oldham, Lancashire, the second son in a family of three boys and a girl. His father, Charles Alexander Walton, was a musician who had trained at the Royal Manchester College of Music under Charles Hallé, and made a living as a singing teacher and church organist. Charles's wife, Louisa Maria (née Turner), had been a singer before their marriage. William Walton's musical talents were spotted when he was still a young boy, and he took piano and violin lessons, though he never mastered either instrument. He was more successful as a singer: he and his elder brother sang in their father's choir, taking part in performances of large-scale works by Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn and others.

Walton was sent to a local school, but in 1912 his father saw a newspaper advertisement for probationer choristers at Christ Church Cathedral School in Oxford and applied for William to be admitted. The boy and his mother missed their intended train from Manchester to Oxford because Walton's father had spent the money for the fare in a local public house. Louisa Walton had to borrow the fares from a greengrocer. Although they arrived in Oxford after the entrance trials were over, Mrs Walton successfully pleaded for her son to be heard, and he was accepted.

He remained at the choir school for the next six years. The Dean of Christ Church, Dr Thomas Strong, noted the young Walton's musical potential and was encouraged in this view by Sir Hubert Parry, who saw the manuscripts of some of Walton's early compositions and said to Strong, "There's a lot in this chap; you must keep your eye on him."

At the age of sixteen Walton became an undergraduate of Christ Church. It is sometimes said that he was Oxford's youngest undergraduate since Henry VIII, and though this is probably not correct, he was nonetheless among the youngest. He came under the influence of Hugh Allen, the dominant figure in Oxford's musical life. Allen introduced Walton to modern music, including Stravinsky's Petrushka, and enthused him with "the mysteries of the orchestra". Walton spent much time in the university library, studying scores by Stravinsky, Debussy, Sibelius, Roussel and others. He neglected his non-musical studies, and though he passed the musical examinations with ease, he failed the Greek and algebra examinations required for graduation.

Little survives from Walton's juvenilia, but the choral anthem A Litany, written when he was fifteen, anticipates his mature style.

At Oxford Walton befriended several poets including Roy Campbell, Siegfried Sassoon and, most importantly for his future, Sacheverell Sitwell. Walton was sent down from Oxford in 1920 without a degree or any firm plans. Sitwell invited him to lodge in London with him and his literary brother and sister, Osbert and Edith. Walton took up residence in the attic of their house in Chelsea, later recalling, "I went for a few weeks and stayed about fifteen years".

### First successes

The Sitwells looked after their protégé both materially and culturally, giving him not only a home but a stimulating cultural education. He took music lessons with Ernest Ansermet, Ferruccio Busoni and Edward J. Dent. He attended the Russian ballet, met Stravinsky and Gershwin, heard the Savoy Orpheans at the Savoy Hotel and wrote an experimental string quartet heavily influenced by the Second Viennese School that was performed at a festival of new music at Salzburg in 1923. Alban Berg heard the performance and was impressed enough to take Walton to meet Arnold Schoenberg, Berg's teacher and the founder of the Second Viennese School.

In 1923, in collaboration with Edith Sitwell, Walton had his first great success, though at first it was a succès de scandale. Façade was first performed in public at the Aeolian Hall, London, on 12 June. The work consisted of Edith's verses, which she recited through a megaphone from behind a screen, while Walton conducted an ensemble of six players in his accompanying music. The press was generally condemnatory. Walton's biographer Michael Kennedy cites as typical a contemporary headline: "Drivel That They Paid to Hear". The Daily Express loathed the work, but admitted that it was naggingly memorable. The Manchester Guardian wrote of "relentless cacophony". The Observer condemned the verses and dismissed Walton's music as "harmless". In The Illustrated London News, Dent was much more appreciative: "The audience was at first inclined to treat the whole thing as an absurd joke, but there is always a surprisingly serious element in Miss Sitwell's poetry and Mr Walton's music ... which soon induced the audience to listen with breathless attention." In The Sunday Times, Ernest Newman said of Walton, "as a musical joker he is a jewel of the first water".

Among the audience were Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Woolf and Noël Coward. The last was so outraged by the avant-garde nature of Sitwell's verses and the staging, that he marched out ostentatiously during the performance. The players did not like the music: the clarinettist, Charles Draper asked the composer, "Mr Walton, has a clarinet player ever done you an injury?" Nevertheless, the work soon became accepted, and within a decade Walton's music was used for the popular Façade ballet, choreographed by Frederick Ashton.

Walton's works of the 1920s, while he was living in the Sitwells' attic, include the overture Portsmouth Point, dedicated to Sassoon and inspired by the well-known painting of the same name by Thomas Rowlandson. It was first heard as an entr'acte at a performance in Diaghilev's 1926 ballet season, where The Times complained, "It is a little difficult to make much of new music when it is heard through the hum of conversation." Sir Henry Wood programmed the work at the Proms the following year, where it made more of an impression. The composer conducted this performance; he did not enjoy conducting, but he had firm views on how his works should be interpreted, and orchestral players appreciated his "easy nonchalance" and "complete absence of fuss." Walton's other works of the 1920s included a short orchestral piece, Siesta (1926) and a Sinfonia Concertante for piano and orchestra (1928), which was well-received at its premiere at a Royal Philharmonic Society concert, but has not entered the regular repertory.

The Viola Concerto (1929) brought Walton to the forefront of British classical music. It was written at the suggestion of Sir Thomas Beecham for the viola virtuoso Lionel Tertis. When Tertis received the manuscript, he rejected it immediately. The composer and violist Paul Hindemith stepped into the breach and gave the first performance. The work was greeted with enthusiasm. In The Manchester Guardian, Eric Blom wrote, "This young composer is a born genius" and said that it was tempting to call the concerto the best thing in recent music of any nationality. Tertis soon changed his mind and took the work up. A performance by him at a Three Choirs Festival concert in Worcester in 1932 was the only occasion on which Walton met Elgar, whom he greatly admired. Elgar did not share the general enthusiasm for Walton's concerto.

Walton's next major composition was the massive choral cantata Belshazzar's Feast (1931). It began as a work on a modest scale; the BBC commissioned a piece for a small chorus, orchestra of no more than fifteen players, and soloist. Osbert Sitwell constructed a text, selecting verses from several books of the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation. As Walton worked on it, he found that his music required far larger forces than the BBC proposed to allow, and Beecham rescued him by programming the work for the 1931 Leeds Festival, to be conducted by Malcolm Sargent. Walton later recalled Beecham as saying, "As you'll never hear the work again, my boy, why not throw in a couple of brass bands?" During early rehearsals, the Leeds chorus members found Walton's music difficult to master, and it was falsely rumoured in London musical circles that Beecham had been obliged to send Sargent to Leeds to quell a revolt. The first performance was a triumph for the composer, conductor and performers. A contemporary critic wrote, "Those who experienced the tremendous impact of its first performance had full justification for feeling that a great composer had arisen in our land, a composer to whose potentialities it was impossible to set any limits." The work has remained a staple of the choral repertoire.

### 1930s

In the 1930s, Walton's relationship with the Sitwells became less close. He had love affairs and new friendships that drew him out of their orbit. His first long affair was with Imma von Doernberg, the young widow of a German baron. She and Walton met in the late 1920s and they were together until 1934, when she left him. His later affair with Alice, Viscountess Wimborne (born 1880), which lasted from 1934 until her death in April 1948, caused a wider breach between Walton and the Sitwells, as she disliked them as much as they disliked her. By the 1930s, Walton was earning enough from composing to allow him financial independence for the first time. A legacy from a musical benefactress in 1931 further enhanced his finances, and in 1934 he left the Sitwells' house and bought a house in Belgravia.

Walton's first major composition after Belshazzar's Feast was his First Symphony. It was not written to a commission, and Walton worked slowly on the score from late 1931 until he completed it in 1935. He had composed the first three of the four movements by the end of 1933 and promised the premiere to the conductor Hamilton Harty. Walton then found himself unable to complete the work. The end of his affair with Imma von Doernberg coincided with, and may have contributed to, a sudden and persistent writer's block. Harty persuaded Walton to let him perform the three existing movements, which he premiered in December 1934 with the London Symphony Orchestra. During 1934 Walton interrupted work on the symphony to compose his first film music, for Paul Czinner's Escape Me Never (1934), for which he was paid £300.

After a break of eight months, Walton resumed work on the symphony and completed it in 1935. Harty and the BBC Symphony Orchestra gave the premiere of the completed piece in November of that year. The symphony aroused international interest. The leading continental conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler and Willem Mengelberg sent for copies of the score, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered the work in the US under Harty, Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra gave the New York premiere, and the young George Szell conducted the symphony in Australia.

Elgar having died in 1934, the authorities turned to Walton to compose a march in the Elgarian tradition for the coronation of George VI in 1937. His Crown Imperial was an immediate success with the public, but disappointed those of Walton's admirers who thought of him as an avant-garde composer. Among Walton's other works from this decade are more film scores, including the first of his incidental music for Shakespeare adaptations, As You Like It (1936); a short ballet for a West End revue (1936); and a choral piece, In Honour of the City of London (1937). His most important work of the 1930s, alongside the symphony, was the Violin Concerto (1939), commissioned by Jascha Heifetz. The concerto, Walton later revealed, expressed his love for Alice Wimborne. Its strong romantic style caused some critics to label it retrogressive, and Walton said in a newspaper interview, "Today's white hope is tomorrow's black sheep. These days it is very sad for a composer to grow old ... I seriously advise all sensitive composers to die at the age of 37. I know: I've gone through the first halcyon period and am just about ripe for my critical damnation."

In the late 1930s Walton became aware of a younger English composer whose fame was shortly to overtake his, Benjamin Britten. After their first meeting, Britten wrote in his diary, "[...] to lunch with William Walton at Sloane Square. He is charming, but I feel always the school relationship with him – he is so obviously the head prefect of English music, whereas I'm the promising new boy." They remained on friendly terms for the rest of Britten's life; Walton admired many of Britten's works, and considered him a genius; Britten did not admire all of Walton's works but was grateful for his support at difficult times in his life.

### Second World War

During the Second World War Walton was exempted from military service on the understanding that he would compose music for wartime propaganda films. In addition to driving ambulances (extremely badly, he said), he was attached to the Army Film Unit as music adviser. He wrote scores for six films during the war – some that he thought "rather boring" and some that have become classics such as The First of the Few (1942) and Laurence Olivier's adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry V (1944).

Walton was at first dismissive of his film scores, regarding them as professional but of no intrinsic worth; he resisted attempts to arrange them into concert suites, saying, "Film music is not good film music if it can be used for any other purpose." He later relented to the extent of allowing concert suites to be arranged from The First of the Few and the Olivier Shakespeare films. For the BBC, Walton composed the music for a large-scale radio drama about Christopher Columbus, written by Louis MacNeice and starring Olivier. As with his film music, the composer was inclined to dismiss the musical importance of his work on the programme.

Apart from these commissions, Walton's wartime works of any magnitude comprised incidental music for John Gielgud's 1942 production of Macbeth; two scores for the Sadler's Wells Ballet, The Wise Virgins, based on the music of J. S. Bach transcribed by Walton, and The Quest, with a plot loosely based on Spenser's The Faerie Queene; and, for the concert hall, a suite of orchestral miniatures, Music for Children, and a comedy overture, Scapino, composed for the fiftieth anniversary of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Walton's house in London was destroyed by German bombing in May 1941, after which he spent much of his time at Alice Wimborne's family house at Ashby St Ledgers in the countryside of Northamptonshire in the middle of England. While there, Walton worked on projects that had been in his mind for some time. In 1939 he had been planning a substantial chamber work, a string quartet, but he set it aside while composing his wartime film scores. In early 1945 he turned again to the quartet. Walton was conscious that Britten, with Les Illuminations (1940), the Sinfonia da Requiem (1942), and Peter Grimes in 1945, had produced a series of substantial works, while Walton had produced no major composition since the Violin Concerto in 1939. Among English critics and audiences, the Violin Concerto was not at first rated one of Walton's finest works. Because Heifetz had bought the exclusive rights to play the concerto for two years, it was not heard in Britain until 1941. The London premiere, with a less famous soloist, and in the unflattering acoustics of the Royal Albert Hall, did not immediately reveal the work as a masterpiece. The String Quartet in A minor, premiered in May 1947, was Walton's most substantial work of the 1940s. Kennedy calls it one of his finest achievements and "a sure sign that he had thrown off the trammels of his cinema style and rediscovered his true voice."

### Postwar

In 1947, Walton was presented with the Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal. In the same year he accepted an invitation from the BBC to compose his first opera. He decided to base it on Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, but his preliminary work came to a halt in April 1948 when Alice Wimborne died. To take Walton's mind off his grief, the music publisher Leslie Boosey persuaded him to be a British delegate to a conference on copyright in Buenos Aires later that year. While there, Walton met Susana Gil Passo (1926–2010), daughter of an Argentine lawyer. At 22 she was 24 years younger than Walton (Alice Wimborne had been 22 years his senior), and at first she ridiculed his romantic interest in her. He persisted, and she eventually accepted his proposal of marriage. The wedding was held in Buenos Aires in December 1948. From the start of their marriage, the couple spent half the year on the Italian island of Ischia, and by the mid-1950s they lived there permanently.

Walton's last work of the 1940s was his music for Olivier's film of Hamlet (1948). After that, he focused his attentions on his opera Troilus and Cressida. On the advice of the BBC, he invited Christopher Hassall to write the libretto. This did not help Walton's relations with the Sitwells, each of whom thought he or she should have been asked to be his librettist. Work continued slowly over the next few years, with many breaks while Walton turned to other things. In 1950 he and Heifetz recorded the Violin Concerto for EMI. In 1951 Walton was knighted. In the same year, he prepared an authorised version of Façade, which had undergone many revisions since its premiere. In 1953, following the accession of Elizabeth II he was again called on to write a coronation march, Orb and Sceptre; he was also commissioned to write a choral setting of the Te Deum for the occasion.

Troilus and Cressida was presented at Covent Garden on 3 December 1954. Its preparation was dogged by misfortunes. Olivier, originally scheduled to direct it, backed out, as did Henry Moore who had agreed to design the production; Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, for whom the role of Cressida had been written, refused to perform it; her replacement, Magda László, had difficulty mastering the English words; and Sargent, the conductor, "did not seem well acquainted with the score". The premiere had a friendly reception, but there was a general feeling that Hassall and Walton had written an old-fashioned opera in an outmoded tradition. The piece was subsequently staged in San Francisco, New York and Milan during the next year, but failed to make a positive impression, and did not enter the regular operatic repertory.

In 1956 Walton sold his London house and took up full-time residence on Ischia. He built a hilltop house at Forio and called it La Mortella. Susana Walton created a magnificent garden there. Walton's other works of the 1950s include the music for a fourth Shakespeare film, Olivier's Richard III, and the Cello Concerto (1956), written for Gregor Piatigorsky, who gave the premiere in January 1957 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the conductor Charles Munch. Some critics felt that the concerto was old-fashioned; Peter Heyworth wrote that there was little in the work that would have startled an audience in the year the met its iceberg (1912). It has nevertheless entered the regular repertoire, performed by Paul Tortelier, Yo-Yo Ma, Lynn Harrell and Pierre Fournier among others.

In 1966 Walton successfully underwent surgery for lung cancer. Until then he had been an inveterate pipe-smoker, but after the operation he never smoked again. While he was convalescing, he worked on a one-act comic opera, The Bear, which was premiered at Britten's Aldeburgh Festival, in June 1966, and enthusiastically received. Walton had become so used to being written off by music critics that he felt "there must be something wrong when the worms turned on some praise." Walton received the Order of Merit in 1967, the fourth composer to be so honoured, after Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Britten.

Walton's orchestral works of the 1960s include his Second Symphony (1960), Variations on a Theme by Hindemith (1963), Capriccio burlesco (1968), and Improvisations on an Impromptu of Benjamin Britten (1969). His song cycles from this period were composed for Peter Pears (Anon. in Love, 1960) and Schwarzkopf (A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table, 1962). He was commissioned to compose a score for the 1969 film Battle of Britain, but the film company rejected most of his score, replacing it with music by Ron Goodwin. A concert suite of Walton's score was published and recorded after Walton's death. After his experience over Battle of Britain, Walton declared that he would write no more film music, but he was persuaded by Olivier to compose the score for a film of Chekhov's Three Sisters in 1969.

### Last years

Walton was never a facile or quick composer, and in his final decade, he found composition increasingly difficult. He repeatedly tried to compose a third symphony for André Previn, but eventually abandoned it. Many of his final works are re-orchestrations or revisions of earlier music. He orchestrated his song cycle Anon. in Love (originally for tenor and guitar), and at the request of Neville Marriner adapted his A minor String Quartet as a Sonata for Strings. One original work from this period was his Jubilate Deo, premiered as one of several events to celebrate his seventieth birthday. The British prime minister, Edward Heath, gave a birthday dinner for Walton at 10 Downing Street, attended by royalty and Walton's most eminent colleagues; Britten presented a Walton evening at Aldeburgh and Previn conducted an all-Walton concert at the Royal Festival Hall.

Walton revised the score of Troilus and Cressida, and the opera was staged at Covent Garden in 1976. Once again it was plagued by misfortune while in preparation. Walton was in poor health; Previn, who was to conduct, also fell ill; and the tenor chosen for Troilus pulled out. As in 1954, the critics were generally tepid. Some of Walton's final artistic endeavours were in collaboration with the film-maker Tony Palmer. Walton took part in Palmer's profile of him, At the Haunted End of the Day, in 1981, and in 1982 Walton and his wife played the cameo roles of King Frederick Augustus and Queen Maria of Saxony in Palmer's nine-hour film Wagner. In March 1982 there were concerts marking Walton's eightieth birthday, at the Barbican and Royal Festival halls. The audience's response to the performance of Belshazzar's Feast, at the latter, conducted by Previn, moved the composer to tears.

Walton died at La Mortella on 8 March 1983, at the age of 80. His ashes were buried on Ischia, and a memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey, where a commemorative stone to Walton was unveiled near those to Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Britten.

### Legacy

In 1944, it was said of Walton that he summed up the recent past of English music and augured its future. Later writers have concluded that Walton had little influence on the next generation of composers. In his later years, Walton formed friendships with younger composers including Hans Werner Henze and Malcolm Arnold, but although he admired their work, he did not influence their compositional styles. Throughout his life, Walton held no posts at music conservatoires; he had no pupils, gave no lectures and wrote no essays. After his death, the Walton Trust, inspired by Susana Walton, has run arts education projects, promoted British music and held annual summer masterclasses on Ischia for gifted young musicians.

Two Walton pieces, Crown Imperial and Te Deum, as commissioned for the 1937 and 1953 coronations of George VI and Elizabeth II respectively, were featured again in the 2023 Coronation of Charles III.

## Music

Walton was a slow worker. Both during composition and afterwards he would continually revise his music; he said, "Without an india-rubber I was absolutely sunk." Consequently, his total body of work from his sixty-year career as a composer is not large. Between the first performance of Façade in 1923, for example, and that of the Sinfonia Concertante in 1928, he averaged only one small piece a year. Of his work as a whole, Byron Adams in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians writes:

> Walton's music has often been too neatly dismissed by a few descriptive tags: "bittersweet", "nostalgic" and, after World War II, "same as before". Such convenient categorizations ignore the expressive variety of his music and slight his determination to deepen his technical and expressive resources as he grew older. His early discovery of the basic elements of his style allowed him to assimilate successfully an astonishing number of disparate and apparently contradictory influences, such as Anglican anthems, jazz, and the music of Stravinsky, Sibelius, Ravel and Elgar.

The writer adds that Walton's allegiance to his basic style never wavered and that this loyalty to his own vision, together with his rhythmic vitality, sensuous melancholy, sly charm and orchestral flair, gives Walton's finest music "an imperishable glamour". Another biographer of Walton, Neil Tierney, writes that although contemporary critics felt that the post-war music did not match Walton's pre-war compositions, it has become clear that the later works are "if emotionally less direct, more profound."

### Orchestral music

#### Overtures and short orchestral pieces

Walton's first work for full orchestra, Portsmouth Point (1925), inspired by a Rowlandson print of the same name, depicts a rumbustious dockside scene (in Kennedy's phrase, "the sailors of H.M.S. Pinafore have had a night on the tiles") in a fast moving score full of syncopation and cross-rhythm that for years proved hazardous for conductors and orchestras alike. Throughout his career, Walton wrote works in this pattern, such as the lively Comedy Overture Scapino, a virtuoso piece commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, described by The Musical Times as "an ingenious blending of fragments in exhilarating profusion." Walton's post-war works in this genre are the Johannesburg Festival Overture (1956), the "diverting but hard-edged Capriccio burlesco" (1968), and the longer Partita (1957), written for the Cleveland Orchestra, described by Grove as "an impressively concentrated score with a high-spirited finale [with] steely counterpoint and orchestral virtuosity". Walton's shorter pieces also include two tributes to musical colleagues, Variations on a Theme by Hindemith (1963) and the Improvisations on an Impromptu of Benjamin Britten (1969), in both of which the source material is gradually transformed as Walton's own voice becomes more prominent. The critic Hugh Ottaway commented that in both pieces "the interaction of two musical personalities is ... fascinating".

#### Concertos and symphonies

Walton's first successful large-scale concert work, the Viola Concerto (1929) is in marked contrast to the raucous Portsmouth Point; despite the common influence of jazz and of the music of Hindemith and Ravel, in its structure and romantic longing it owes much to the Elgar Cello Concerto. In this work, wrote Edward Sackville-West and Desmond Shawe-Taylor in The Record Guide, "the lyric poet in Walton, who had so far been hidden under a mask of irony, fully emerged." Walton followed this pattern in his two subsequent concertos, for Violin (1937) and for Cello (1956). Each opens reflectively, is in three movements, and contrasts agitated and jagged passages with warmer romantic sections. The Cello Concerto is more introspective than the two earlier concertos, with a ticking rhythm throughout the work suggesting the inexorable passage of time.

The two symphonies are strongly contrasted with one another. The First is on a large scale, reminiscent at times of Sibelius. Grove says of the work that its "orgiastic power, coruscating malice, sensuous desolation and extroverted swagger" make the symphony a tribute to Walton's tenacity and inventive facility. Critics have always differed on whether the finale lives up to the rest of the work. In comparison with the First, the Second Symphony struck many reviewers as lightweight, and, as with many of Walton's works of the 1950s, it was regarded as old-fashioned. It is a very different kind of work from the First Symphony. David Cox describes it as "more a divertimento than a symphony ... highly personal, unmistakably Walton throughout", and Kennedy calls it "somewhat enigmatic in mood, and a superb example of Walton's more mature, concise, and mellow post-1945 style."

#### Music for ballets, plays and films

Although generally a slow and perfectionist composer, Walton was capable of working quickly when necessary. Some of his stage and screen music was written to tight deadlines. He regarded his ballet and incidental music as of less importance than his concert works and was generally dismissive of what he produced.

Of his ballets for Sadler's Wells, The Wise Virgins (1940) is an arrangement of eight extracts from choral and instrumental music by Bach. The Quest (1943), written in great haste, is, according to Grove, oddly reminiscent of Vaughan Williams. Neither of these works established itself in the regular repertoire, unlike the ballet score Walton arranged from the music of Façade, the music for which was expanded for full orchestra, still retaining the jazz influences and the iconoclastic wit of the original. Music from The Quest and the whole of the Viola Concerto were used for another Sadler's Wells ballet, O.W., in 1972.

Walton wrote little incidental music for the theatre, his music for Macbeth (1942) being one of his most notable contributions to the genre.

Between 1934 and 1969 he wrote the music for 13 films. He arranged the Spitfire Prelude and Fugue from his own score for The First of the Few (1942). He allowed suites to be arranged from his Shakespeare film scores of the 1940s and 1950s; in these films, he mixed Elizabethan pastiche with wholly characteristic Waltonian music. Kennedy singles out for praise the Agincourt battle sequence in Henry V, where the music makes the charge of the French knights "fearsomely real." Despite Walton's view that film music is ineffective when performed out of context, suites from several more of his filmscores have been assembled since his death.

### Opera

Walton worked for many years on his only full-length opera, Troilus and Cressida, both before its premiere and afterwards. It has never been regarded as a success. The libretto is generally considered weak, and Walton's music, despite many passages that have won critical praise, is not dramatic enough to sustain interest. Grove calls the work a partially successful attempt to revivify the traditions of nineteenth-century Italian opera in a post-war era wary of heroic Romanticism.

Walton's only other opera, The Bear, based on a comic vaudeville by Chekhov, is judged by critics as much more successful. It is, however, a one-act piece, a genre not regularly staged at most opera houses, and so is infrequently seen. Operabase records four productions of the piece worldwide between 2013 and 2015.

### Chamber and solo works

Apart from an early experiment in atonalism in his String Quartet (1919–22), which he later described as "full of undigested Bartók and Schoenberg", Walton's major essays in chamber music are his String Quartet in A Minor (1945–46) and the Sonata for Violin and Piano (1947–49). In the opinion of Adams in Grove's Dictionary, the quartet is one of Walton's supreme achievements. Earlier critics did not always share this view. In 1956 The Record Guide said, "[T]he material is not first class and the composition as a whole seems laboured."

The String Quartet in A Minor exists also in its later expanded form as the Sonata for String Orchestra (1971), which, the critic Trevor Harvey wrote, combines Walton in his most energetically rhythmic mood with a "vein of lyrical tenderness which is equally characteristic and is so rewarding to listen to".. Malcolm Arnold undertook some of the transcription involved in this expansion of forces. The work was premiered by Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in March 1972 at the Perth Festival in Australia.

The Violin Sonata is in two closely related movements, with strong thematic material in common. The first movement is nostalgically lyrical, the second a set of variations, each one a semitone higher than its predecessor. Walton briefly refers back to Schoenberg with a dodecaphonic passage in the second movement, but otherwise the sonata is firmly tonal.

The Five Bagatelles for Guitar were written for, and edited by, the guitarist Julian Bream and dedicated to Arnold.

### Choral and other vocal music

Walton's liturgical compositions include the Coronation Te Deum (1952), Missa brevis (1966), Jubilate Deo (1972), and Magnificat and Nunc dimittis (1974), and the anthems A Litany (1916) and Set me as a seal upon thy heart (1938).

One of the best-known and most frequently performed of Walton's works is the cantata Belshazzar's Feast. Written for large orchestra, chorus and baritone soloist, it intersperses a choral and orchestral depiction of Babylonian excess and depravity, barbaric jazzy outbursts, and the lamentations and finally the rejoicing of the Jewish captives. The "couple of brass bands" added at Beecham's suggestion to an already large orchestra each consist of three trumpets, three trombones and a tuba. Many critics judged it the most important English choral work since Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius in 1900. None of Walton's later choral works have matched its popularity. They include In Honour of the City of London (1937) and a Gloria (1960–61) composed for the 125th anniversary of the Huddersfield Choral Society.

### Recordings

From the days of 78 rpm discs, when relatively little modern music was being put on record, Walton was favoured by the record companies. In 1929 the small, new Decca company recorded eleven movements from Façade, with the composer conducting a chamber ensemble, with the speakers Edith Sitwell and Walton's friend and colleague Constant Lambert. In the 1930s, Walton also had two of his major orchestral works on disc, both on Decca, the First Symphony recorded by Harty and the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Viola Concerto with Frederick Riddle and the LSO conducted by the composer. In the 1940s Walton moved from Decca to its older, larger rival, EMI. The EMI producer Walter Legge arranged a series of recordings of Walton's major works and many minor ones over the next twenty years; a rival composer expressed the view that if Walton had an attack of flatulence (he used an earthier expression), Walter Legge would record it.

Walton himself, although a reluctant conductor, conducted many of the EMI recordings, and some for other labels. He made studio recordings of the First Symphony, the Viola Concerto, the Violin Concerto, the Sinfonia Concertante, the Façade Suites, the Partita, Belshazzar's Feast, and suites from his film scores for Shakespeare plays and The First of the Few. Some live performances conducted by Walton were recorded and have been released on compact disc, including the Cello Concerto and the Coronation Te Deum.

Almost all Walton's works have been recorded for commercial release. EMI published a "Walton Edition" of his major works on CD in the 1990s, and the recording of the Chandos Records "Walton Edition" of his works was completed in 2010. His best-known works have been recorded by performers from many countries. Among the frequently recorded are Belshazzar's Feast, the Viola and Violin Concertos and the First Symphony, which has had more than twenty recordings since Harty's 1936 set.

## Notes, references and sources

English composer (1902–1983)

Musicians from the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham

People educated at Christ Church Cathedral School

Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists


Military history of Asian Americans

Asian Americans, who are Americans of Asian descent, have fought and served on behalf of the United States since the American Revolutionary War. During the American Civil War Asian Americans fought for both the Union and the Confederacy. Afterwards Asian Americans served primarily in the U.S. Navy until the Philippine–American War.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Asian Americans began to attend U.S. military academies, and the first Asian Americans were awarded the Medal of Honor. World War I saw Asian Americans serving as "non-whites" in the National Army. After World War I, Asian American service fell into obscurity until World War II when significant contributions by Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Korean Americans were documented.

With the desegregation of the U.S. military in 1948, segregated Asian American units ceased to exist, and Asian Americans served in integrated armed forces. Asian American combatants in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts were awarded the Medal of Honor, and Asian Americans have continued to serve into the present day.

## 18th century

### American Revolutionary War

Historian Daniel Sieh states that Asian-Americans during the American Revolutionary War, while few, were fairly widespread throughout the colonies, numbering at least a hundred during the 1770s and 1780s. Asian Americans during the Revolution largely served as "sailors, servants, and enslaved people." In the diaries of American naval captain John Paul Jones, Malays were listed as one of the ethnicities who were part of the crew of the USS Bonhomme Richard during the Battle of Flamborough Head in 1779.

Another four Asian-Americans, who are well-documented, are also known to have fought in the American Revolution (two serving with the American Continentals and two with the British).

## 19th century

### War of 1812

During the War of 1812, General Andrew Jackson recorded that "Manilamen" had fought under his general command in defense of New Orleans, under the direct command of Jean Baptiste Lafitte. Following the war, at least one Filipino American, Augustin Feliciano, continued to serve in the U.S. Navy. From the end of the War of 1812 to the beginning of the American Civil War, Asian Americans were not recorded in the annals of U.S. military history.

### American Civil War

Many more Asian Americans served in the forces of both sides of the Civil War, being born in various places including Amoy, Batavia, Bombay, Borneo, Burma, Calcutta, Canton, Changchow, Ceylon, China, East Indies, Goa, Kingdom of Hawaii, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Java, Lahore, Manila, Malaya, Mauritius, Moulmein, the Philippines, Siam, Singapore, and Sumatra.

Indian-American Charles J. Simons was the first Asian-American Medal of Honor for his actions during the American Civil War in the Battle of the Crater in 1864.

Below is listed in alphabetical order.

#### Burmese Americans

William C. Lutter, born in Moulmein, Burma in c. 1840, enlisted in New York for one year as a United States Navy sailor in September 1862. He served onboard the USS Mohican.

#### Chinese Americans

In 1861, a Chinese American by the name of John Tomney joined the New York Infantry, eventually dying of wounds received at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

Joseph Pierce (his chosen name) was brought to the U.S. from China by his adoptive father, Connecticut ship Captain and Far East trader Amos Peck. Pierce enlisted on 26 July 1862 and was mustered into the Fourteenth Regiment, Company F of the Connecticut Volunteer Infantry that became part of the Second Brigade of the Third Division, Second Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac. From 1862 to 1865, Pierce fought in pivotal battles of the war, fighting in major campaigns from Antietam to Gettysburg to Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House. Pierce achieved the highest rank of any Chinese American to serve in the Union Army, reaching the rank of corporal. Pierce's picture hangs in the Gettysburg Museum. In 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring the actions of Pierce and other Asian-Pacific Islander soldiers of the Civil War.

Edward Day Cohota was born in Shanghai, China, and was "adopted" by the captain of the merchant ship Cohota, Sargent S. Day. He served in the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry during the American Civil War. After the war, he rejoined the Army and served for 30 years. Cohota believed he was a U.S. citizen by virtue of having served in the Union Army, but his service had not automatically conferred citizenship upon him, and the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 kept him from becoming a naturalized citizen.

William Ah Hang, a Chinese American, became one of the first Asian Americans to enlist in the U.S. Navy in 1863. In total more than 50 Chinese Americans fought, on both sides, in the Civil War. Of those who served, only a handful received recognition of their service in the form of pension, benefits, or citizenship. An exception was Ching Lee, who took the alias Thomas Sylvanus and served in the 81st Pennsylvania Regiment.

#### Filipino Americans

Filipino American, Felix Cornelius Balderry, served in the Union's Michigan 11th Infantry. Other Filipino Americans served in the U.S. Navy aboard the Little Ada, the Conemaugh, and other ships.

There are accounts of Filipino Americans serving in Louisiana with the Confederacy during the Civil War; one served aboard the C.S.S. Alabama, and some served in the Louisiana Zouaves.

More than a hundred documented Native Hawaiians also served in the Civil War, however due to poor record keeping of non-white combatants, the origin of some participants like Prince Romerson have been claimed by both the Filipino and Native Hawaiian communities as many are listed under anglicised names such as "John Boy" with no other information other than as being from “The Sandwich Islands” with dark eyes, hair and complexion.

#### Indian Americans

A number of individuals from India and the Indian subcontinent served during the American Civil War.

Anthony F. Gomez, who was born in Lahore in 1837 as Conjee Rustumjee Cohoujee Bey to an aristocratic Parsi family, joined the United States Navy in 1863 after settling in Brooklyn, New York and converting to Christianity, serving during the Civil War. After the Civil War, he moved to San Francisco in 1867, married a local woman, and worked for the Navy until his death in 1911 from pneumonia.

Charles J. Simons, born in Bombay, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of the Crater. He enlisted as a sergeant in 1861 and was assigned to Company A, 9th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment in 1862. He was promoted to Second Lieutenant in 1864 and First Lieutenant in early 1865. He died in 1914 in Chicago, Illinois.

#### Indonesian Americans

A number of individuals from Indonesia served during the American Civil War.

John Brown, a 27 year old from Java enlisted three years with Company F, 40th New York Infantry Regiment in 1861. He was discharged for disability in April 1862.

#### Thai Americans

The famous "Siamese Twins", Chang and Eng Bunker, owned slaves and a farm in Mount Airy, N.C. Their oldest sons — cousins Christopher Wren Bunker and Stephen Decatur Bunker, born to Chang and Eng, respectively — joined the 37th Virginia Cavalry Battalion. In 1864, Christopher Bunker was captured and imprisoned at Camp Chase, where he caught smallpox. After the war, both Christopher and Stephen settled in Mount Airy.

George Dupont migrated to the US from Siam in 1860 and served in Company B, 13th New Jersey Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. He saw action at the Battles of Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Sherman's March to the Sea. He became a naturalized American citizen after the war and moved back to Thailand to become a drill master for the then newly-created Royal Siamese Army. He received a pension for an injury he received post-war. He died in 1900 in Siam and was buried in the Bangkok Protestant Cemetery in Bangkok, Thailand.

Antone Henry served in the United States Navy as an ordinary seaman from 1864 for three years. He was born in 1844 in either Roto (near Guam) or Siam. He served on the USS Ohio and the USS Colorado.

### 19th century Asian American military academy graduates

In the late 1860s, Asians were accepted into the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. Matsumura Junzo was the first to graduate in 1873. Matsumura was a foreign national, and like the other Asian graduates who attended around this time who went on to serve their own nations' militaries, upon graduation he served in the Imperial Japanese Navy, eventually reaching the rank of captain. Nearly forty years passed before the first Asian American U.S. nationals followed in the footsteps of these foreign nationals and were accepted into the various U.S. military academies.

### Spanish–American War

Another lull in recordings of Asian American service followed the end of the Civil War until the Spanish–American War. When the USS Maine sank in Havana Harbor, seven of the casualties were Japanese Americans and one was a Chinese American. Later in the war it was recorded that Japanese Americans served aboard U.S. warships in the Battle of Manila Bay; the Philippine–American War, previously known as the Philippine Insurrection, followed.

## 20th century

### Philippine–American War and Moro Rebellion

In 1901, the Philippine Constabulary and Philippine Scouts were initially founded to assist the U.S. against the forces of the First Philippine Republic and the insurgency that followed after its collapse. That same year President William McKinley signed an executive order to allow 500 Filipinos to enlist in the U.S. Navy. From these routes of enlistment came the first Asian American recipients of the Medal of Honor. Private Jose Nisperos, a Philippine Scout, protected his party from Moros; for this action, he received the Medal of Honor in 1911. In 1915, Fireman Second Class Telesforo Trinidad, along with Ensign Robert Webster Cary, was awarded the Medal of Honor for saving fellow crewmembers when the boiler of the USS San Diego exploded. As of 2011, Trinidad has been the only Asian American recipient of the naval version of the Medal of Honor. During the Presidency of William Howard Taft, Filipino Stewards began to serve in the White House, a practice that would continue into the end of the 20th Century, to include during the Presidency of Bill Clinton.

### 20th century Asian American military academy graduates

Vicente Lim was one of the first Asian Americans to graduate. A Filipino American and U.S. national from the Philippines, Lim graduated from West Point in the class of 1914 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Philippine Scouts. He was the first of a handful of Filipinos accepted into West Point under a quota system that required one Filipino to be appointed in each class, with no more than four being enrolled at any one time.

In 1916, Filipinos Americans began to be accepted into Annapolis; the first batch would enroll in 1919. The graduates lost their status as U.S. nationals in 1935, and many went on to serve in the fledgling Armed Forces of the Philippines.

### Mexican Expedition

In the early 20th century, while the rest of the world was engulfed in the depths of World War I, the U.S. was looking to its south. Mexico had been embroiled in a civil war since 1910, and in 1916 the violence spilt north over the border when Pancho Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico, killing 16 Americans. This culminated with a U.S. response, officially known as the Mexican Expedition, led by Major General John Pershing. A large number Chinese Mexicans assisted U.S. forces in Mexico during the expedition and upon its completion in early 1917, they were threatened with hanging by Villa. Despite the provisions of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Pershing sought permission for these people to be allowed to resettle in the U.S. A total of 527 eventually entered the country, settling mostly in San Antonio, and they later became known as "Pershing's Chinese".

### World War I

In April 1917, the U.S. entered World War I on the side of the Allies. The U.S. Insular Government of the Philippine Islands created its own national guard units to join the effort, but did not see combat. The units were demobilized at Camp Thomas Claudio in 1918. Within the United States, a draft was started, and alongside Hispanic and Native Americans, Asian Americans were drafted as "non-whites" filling out the "white quota" in the National Army. The majority of Asian Americans did not see combat. Indian American Bhagat Singh Thind served in the U.S. Army and was stationed at Camp Lewis, Washington in 1918. Thind a Sikh was the first U.S. serviceman to be allowed for religious reasons to wear a turban as part of their military uniform. A few saw combat. Private Tomas Mateo Claudio, who had studied at the University of Nevada and became the first, and only, Filipino American to die during the war, being killed at Château-Thierry in 1918; Private Henry Chinn who was killed in action in the Argonne Forest while serving in the "Lost Battalion"; Sergeant Sing Kee, another member of the Lost Battalion, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross; and Sergeant Major Tokutaro Nishimura Slocum who served in the 328th Infantry Regiment, 82d Infantry Division. In the Navy, the number of enlisted Filipinos peaked at more than 5,700 by the end of the war. Several thousand Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Filipinos eventually served in the U.S. military during World War I.

Many Asian American military veterans were allowed to become naturalized citizens. For instance, some Filipino participants were allowed to become naturalized citizens. but others had to overcome numerous legal obstacles. For example, although many Japanese aliens in America volunteered during World War I under the belief that they would be eligible for naturalization, 400 Japanese immigrant veterans in Hawaii who were initially allowed to be naturalized in 1919 had their citizenship rescinded in 1922. Notably, Hidemitsu Toyota, who had served in the US Army for seven years, had his petition for naturalization brought before the US Supreme Court, but in 1925 the court ruled in Hidemitsu Toyota v. United States that "a person of the Japanese race may not be naturalized". It was not until 1935, with the passage of the Nye-Lea Act, that the 400 Japanese immigrant veterans who had had their citizenship revoked, along with 100 other Asian immigrants, were successfully naturalized. Another example, Cesario Agudo Buensuceso (a Filipino American who resided in Chicago after the war), initially attempted to naturalize after serving during World War I, but was denied in 1924; it was not until after World War II that he was able to naturalize.

### Interwar period

During the interwar period, U.S. forces were involved in several minor actions, including the Russian Civil War and multiple events in the Caribbean that have since become known as the Banana Wars; also, the Yangtze Patrol was directly and indirectly affected by the Second Sino-Japanese War and other events. Between 1918 and 1933, at least 3,900 Filipino Americans served in the U.S. Navy at any given time as mess stewards, having largely replaced African Americans in that rating. Up to World War I, Filipino sailors were able to serve in a range of occupations in the U.S. Navy; however, after World War I, a rule restricted Filipinos to the ratings of officer's steward and mess attendant. These restrictions did not extend to the Insular Force, which was limited to 500 individuals from Guam or the Philippines.

In 1934, Gordon Pai'ea Chung-Hoon became the first Asian American U.S. citizen to graduate from the Naval Academy, and the first Asian American West Point graduate, Wing Fook Jung, graduated in 1940. In 1940, Japanese Americans were the largest ethnicity of Asian Americans, followed by (in order of population) Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Hindu Americans, and Korean Americans.

In 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War began. A Chinese American, Arthur Chin, had gone to China in 1934 and joined the Republic of China Air Force, and flew as a fighter pilot. During the war Chin becoming the first American flying ace of World War II, with eight victories. He was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Air Medal.

In September 1939, war broke out in Europe following the German invasion of Poland. The U.S. officially remained neutral, but Americans became involved in combat while serving in other countries' militaries in units such as the Flying Tigers in China and the Eagle Squadrons that served with the Royal Air Force shortly after the Battle of Britain; U.S. forces also provided logistic support through the cash and carry program, and by undertaking convoy escort duties in the Atlantic. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U.S. officially declared war, and from that point on Asian Americans were on the front lines as U.S. civilians. Asian Americans from Oahu, including Japanese Americans, assisted with aid efforts following the attack. On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Philippine Commonwealth forces, under U.S. command since July 1941, prepared for an attack that would come nine hours later.

### World War II

#### Japanese Americans

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans in the Hawaii National Guard activated and began to guard the beaches, clear rubble, donate blood and aid the wounded but three days later, they were disarmed because of their ancestry. The next day, however, they were authorized to rearm, but an uneasy tension lasted until 5 June 1942. At the same time, Japanese Americans who had been undertaking the ROTC program at the University of Hawaii, and who had been activated in the Hawaii Territorial Guard, were discharged on 19 January 1942. Many of these discharged soldiers formed a Corps of Engineers auxiliary, known as the "Varsity Victory Volunteers", in February 1942. On 5 June 1942, 1,400 Nisei of the Hawaii National Guard shipped out from Hawaii bound for Oakland and on 12 June, after docking, they were formed into the 100th Infantry Battalion. Afterwards, all Japanese American men, not already in the military, were classified as enemy aliens; this policy was reversed in 1943.

Eight months later the decision was made to raise an all-Nisei regiment, known as the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Progress was slow at first, and another four months passed before the 442nd began training; two months after that, though, the 100th shipped out to Europe. Initially, the notion of employing Japanese American soldiers was rejected by General Dwight D. Eisenhower's staff at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, but they were eventually accepted by Lieutenant General Mark Clark's Fifth Army. While the 442nd was training in the U.S., the 100th sustained heavy losses, eventually earning the title the "Purple Heart Battalion." On 26 June 1944, two weeks after the 442nd arrived in Europe, the two Nisei units combined to form one single unit, but those who had been a part of the 100th wanted to keep their numerical designation, so they replaced the regiment's 1st Battalion. Keeping with the policy at the time, the unit was segregated, and large number of the other members of the 442nd RCT were previously interned Japanese Americans from the continental United States, commanded by mostly white officers. The combat chronicle of the regiment became a highly storied one, resulting in it becoming one of the most decorated units in the European Theater, taking part in numerous actions in Italy, France and Germany, including the liberation of Dachau concentration camp.

The 442nd Regiment was the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of American warfare. The 4,000 men who initially made up the unit in April 1943 had to be replaced nearly 2.5 times. In total, about 14,000 men served, earning 9,486 Purple Hearts. The unit was awarded eight Presidential Unit Citations (five earned in one month).

Additionally, Japanese Americans also contributed to the war effort in the Pacific Front serving in the Military Intelligence Service, helping with the decoding of Japanese intelligence and the rebuilding of occupied Japan; the first Asian American women to enter the U.S. military served within this unit through the Women's Army Corps. More than a dozen volunteers from the 442nd were selected to join the Office of Strategic Services and were selected for service in India and Burma, where they conducted covert operations, translation, interrogation, and signal intelligence. Over 33,000 Japanese Americans served in the military during World War II. Upon returning home, Japanese American service members found old prejudices remained.

In 1946, one of the 442nd's soldiers, PFC Sadao Munemori, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the regiment's service in Italy. His award was one of two made to Asian Americans during, or in the immediate aftermath of, the war, and the only one made to a Japanese American. However, in 2000, after a review of other medals awarded to the 442nd, 21 were elevated to Medals of Honor. One of those 21 was presented to Hawaiʻi Senator, and former Captain, Daniel K. Inouye. On 5 October 2010, Congress created the Congressional Gold Medal recognizing the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion, as well as the 6,000 Japanese Americans who served in the Military Intelligence Service during the war.

#### Chinese Americans

It has been estimated that between 12,000 and 20,000 Chinese American men, representing up to 22 percent of the men in their portion of the U.S. population, served during World War II. Of those serving about 40 percent were not citizens, and unlike Japanese and Filipino Americans, 75 percent served in non-segregated units. Chinese Americans distinguished themselves from Japanese Americans, and suffered less discrimination. A quarter of those would serve in the U.S. Army Air Forces, some of which were sent to the Chinese-Burma-India theater for service with the 14th Air Service Group and the Chinese-American Composite Wing. Another 70 percent would go on to serve in the U.S. Army in various units, including the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 32nd and 77th Infantry Divisions. Prior to the war, the U.S. Navy had recruited Chinese Americans but they had been restricted to serve only as stewards; this continued until May 1942, when restrictions ceased and they were allowed to serve in other ratings. In 1943, Chinese American women were accepted into the Women's Army Corps in the Military Intelligence Service. They were also recruited for service in the Army Air Force, with a few later becoming civilian Women Airforce Service Pilots.

Captain Francis Wai of the 34th Infantry was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for actions on the island of Leyte in late 1944; this awarding was later elevated to a Medal of Honor in the 2000 review. Wilbur Carl Sze became the first Chinese American officer commissioned in the Marine Corps.

#### Filipino Americans

From the beginning, the Philippines was on the front lines of the new war, as it was attacked shortly after Pearl Harbor. Under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, initially plans were made to defend all of the islands, but following the Japanese landings on Luzon, the US reinstated War Plan Orange and a hasty withdrawal to the Bataan Peninsula followed, denying Japan the use of Manila Bay. In March 1942, under orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, MacArthur departed the Philippines. In April 1942, Major General Edward P. King surrendered his force as they could no longer keep up a sustainable defense. Of the 75,000 that surrendered, about 63,000 were Filipinos, and a thousand were Chinese Filipinos. Forced to march to San Fernando, Pampanga, in what later came to be called the Bataan Death March, between 5,000 and 10,000 Filipinos died along the way. A smaller force held out at Fort Mills; however, after an assault, Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright surrendered the USAFFE forces that remained in the Philippines in May 1942. Of those who surrendered, 23 were Filipino officers who had graduated from West Point; Japanese forces executed six of these Filipino prisoners of war, including Vicente Lim, who had by then reached the rank of brigadier general.

In the U.S., Filipinos were initially blocked from enlisting, until the laws were revised a day before Japan had begun its invasion back in the Philippines. Of the Filipinos who lived in California, two-fifths, or sixteen thousand Filipinos, attempted to enlist into the U.S. Army. Some would serve in non-segregated units, yet a segregated infantry battalion was established, which continued to grow and at its peak was split into two units known as the 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments. These soldiers were subjected to discrimination during their time training at Camp Beale and Fort Ord, sometimes being mistaken for Japanese Americans when off base. Nevertheless, these units would serve with distinction similar to that of the 442d Infantry Regiment, although their deeds were not as well documented or widely known. By the end of the war, a total of 50,000 decorations, awards, medals, ribbons, certificates, commendations and citations had been awarded to personnel assigned to these two regiments for their service in the New Guinea and Philippines campaigns.

Back in the Philippines, some individual service members and units refused to heed orders to surrender. They began a guerilla campaign to resist the Japanese occupation and were later joined by paroled Filipino USAFFE soldiers, as well as Filipino civilians, and other Allied forces that had been inserted into the islands. Allied forces returned to the Philippines in significant numbers during the Battle of Leyte. These included the Filipino infantry units which had been reduced in size from their peak. Later that year the Philippine Division was reconstituted, and in 1945 those members who elected to remain in the Philippines at the end of the war were transferred to the PC AUS. In all approximately 142,000 Filipinos served during World War II. When recognized guerrillas are taken into account, the number of Filipinos who served increases to over 250,000, and possibly up to over 400,000. This number though is smaller than that recognized for serving in World War II by the Philippines.

Sergeant Jose Calugas became the third Asian American ever and first Asian American during World War II, to receive the Medal of Honor; he would not receive the medal until after the occupation had ended. Later, in the 2000 review of medals awarded to Asian Americans, First Lieutenant Rudolph Davila's Distinguished Service Cross was elevated to a Medal of Honor. While in New Guinea, Lieutenant Colonel Leon Punsalang became the first Asian American to command white troops in combat. For their actions in aiding Allied prisoners of war during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines, Josefina Guerrero and Florence Finch were both awarded the Medal of Freedom; Finch later enlisted in the Coast Guard Women's Reserve after being liberated from the Philippines and taken to New York.

#### Korean Americans

After a treaty was signed in 1882, Koreans had begun migrating to the U.S. This came to an end when Japan annexed Korea in 1910. When the war began, Korean Americans were treated as enemy aliens, although this changed in 1943, when they were exempted from enemy alien status. About 100 enlisted in the U.S. Army over the course of the war, some of whom served as translators. Over a hundred joined the California State Guard in Los Angeles alone and formed a unit that became known as the "Tiger Brigade". Young-Oak Kim, who had initially been rejected by the Army before being drafted, served as an enlisted soldier in the engineers until he was selected for commissioning in 1943. He went on to serve in the mainly Japanese American 442nd Infantry Regiment, and he was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions at the Battle of Anzio. The only Korean American to be awarded that medal during the war, he also received a Silver Star and Purple Heart for actions earlier in the campaign. Fred Ohr, who initially enlisted as a trooper in the 116th Cavalry in 1938, became the only Korean American fighter ace of World War II, shooting down a total of six enemy aircraft and eventually rising to command the 52nd Fighter Group's 2d Fighter Squadron in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. As of 8 March 2012, he is the only Korean American to achieve the status of ace, and for his actions, Ohr received several medals including the Silver Star with one bronze oak leaf cluster.

#### Famous military units in World War II

Fita-Fita Guard – native Samoans recruited into the US Naval Reserve to help maintain law and order in Samoan Islands from 1900 to 1952 Philippine Scouts – an integral part of the US Army made up of native Filipinos; first organized in 1901, they also fought on the Bataan Peninsula during WWII 442nd Infantry Regiment – later known as the 100th Battalion; an Army unit made of mostly Japanese Americans that fought in the Europe during WWII; one of the most highly decorated regiments with 21 Medal of Honor recipients; among the troops that liberated concentration camps near Dachau 14th Air Force Chinese American Composite Wing – the ‘Flying Tigers’; created during WWII as a bomber and fighter group; consisted of pilots from both the US and China; deployed to the Pacific Theater Korean Augmentation to the US Army (KATUSA) – the severe shortage of front-line soldiers led to the formation of KATUSA during the Korean War; they were Korean stragglers who joined US Army units in the battlefield, primarily for rations; some also acted as interpreters and enhanced US combat readiness.

### Cold War

#### Post World War II

After the surrender of Japan, World War II came to an end, and the U.S. military began to demobilize. Millions of service-members were transported home, including the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. In 1946, the regiment was reviewed by President Truman who awarded them their seventh Distinguished Unit Citation. They were subsequently deactivated, but they were reorganized a year later as part of the U.S. Army Reserve. That same year, Truman signed the Rescission Act of 1946, which denied Filipinos who served during World War II in the Commonwealth military and guerrillas, benefits that were afforded to other veterans. With the consent of the Philippine government, 50,000 Philippine Scouts were authorized by Congress, retained, and recruited. As part of the Philippine Division, this force undertook occupation duty on Okinawa until 1947, when the Philippine Scouts were disbanded by presidential order after Truman came to view them as a mercenary organization. In 1947, the signing of the U.S.-Philippine Military Bases Agreement formalized Filipino enlistment in the U.S. Navy without immigrant credentials. In 1948, Truman ordered the desegregation of the U.S. military.

#### Korean War

Following Truman's order for the integration of the U.S. military, the majority of segregated Asian American units were disbanded by 1951. Many individuals continued to serve in integrated units following desegregation, although the exact number of Asian Americans who served during the Korean War has not been determined. Despite the official acceptance of the desegregation policy, some units, including the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry Regiment, and the 5th Regimental Combat Team, retained strong racial ties, with a predominant number of Asian Americans serving in these units. Of the 36,572 who died during the Korean War, 241 were Asian Americans.

One Asian American received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Korean War. This went to Japanese American Corporal Hiroshi Miyamura of the 7th Infantry Regiment; the awarding of the medal was initially made in secret, as at the time Miyamura was being held by North Koreans as a prisoner of war. Three brothers, Kurt Chew-Een Lee (the first Chinese American Marine officer), Chew-Mon Lee (an army infantry officer), and Chew-Fan Lee (an army medical service officer), all served in different units during the conflict and were awarded the Navy Cross, Distinguished Service Cross, and Bronze Star Medal respectively. Young-Oak Kim, having reenlisted and promoted to major, became the first ethnic minority to command a regular combat battalion, the 1st of the 31st Infantry. Walter Tsukamoto, who was first commissioned in 1927 and entered active duty in 1943, was sent from occupation duty in Japan to Korea in 1950 and was promoted to lieutenant colonel, the first Asian American to achieve that rank in the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, served as the senior ranking judge advocate for X Corps and was awarded two Bronze Star Medals for his service in Korea.

#### Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War 35,000 Asian Americans served as part of the more than eight million U.S. service personnel that were deployed to South Vietnam, in fully integrated units. Three of them were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, including Corporal Terry Kawamura who was, as of March 2014, the last Asian American to receive that medal. During the conflict, in addition to the Asian American personnel who served in conventional units, the Army also formed a special forces team of Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, and Native American Rangers called Team Hawaii, as they could pass for Vietnamese and conduct long range reconnaissance. Discrimination and racism continued to be experienced by Asian Americans who served during the conflict. Their loyalty was questioned, and during basic training they were sometimes described as being similar to Viet Cong. In country, some were fired upon when mistaken for Viet Cong, and some had medical care delayed after being mistaken for North Vietnamese. Additionally, the Viet Cong especially targeted Asian American service members, sometimes putting a price on their heads. Proportionally, Asian Americans suffered fewer casualties compared to other ethnic groups in Vietnam, with a total of 139 Asian American servicemen dying during the conflict.

Many other then-future Asian Americans serve the military out of its normal ranks during the conflict. These included groups such as the Hmong and Laotians who fought alongside American service members in the Laotian Civil War, Vietnamese Americans who fought as members of the South Vietnam's armed forces, and Montagnard (also known as Degar) who assisted American forces.

Throughout the war, Filipino American sailors remained restricted to the rating of steward, with 80% of the almost seventeen thousand Filipino American sailors being stewards. In 1970, there were more Filipinos serving in the U.S. Navy than there were in the Philippine Navy; that same year, the number of Filipinos recruited into the United States Navy was reduced from the thousands per year down to 35 a month, while Filipinos re-enlistment rates were 95% (which made them eligible for naturalization). The rating restriction ended in 1973, after the U.S. Senate investigated civil rights issues in the U.S. Navy and opened all ratings to Filipino Americans. In the White House, Filipinos Navy stewards continued to serve as valets after the restriction was lifted, as late as into the 1990s. A few years later, in 1976, there were over seventeen thousand Filipino Americans in the U.S. Navy, including just under a hundred officers. By 1989, Asian Americans made up approximately 2.3 percent of the total armed services, slightly greater than their proportion of the total U.S. population at that time (1.6 percent).

### Persian Gulf War

During the Persian Gulf War, many Asian Americans served in the U.S. military, with some filling senior officer positions, including Major General John Fugh who was promoted to the position of Army Judge Advocate General during the conflict. One Asian American service member died during the conflict.

In 1992, the U.S. Navy stopped recruiting Filipino nationals due to the end of the 1947 Military Bases Agreement.

## 21st century

Recent trends show that Asian Americans, particularly those from California, are enlisting at rates greater than their proportion of population; they are more likely to take up non-combat jobs. In 2009, the Army had Asian Americans serving as 4.4 percent of its commissioned officers, and 3.5 percent of its enlisted personnel. In 2008, Filipinos made up the largest immigrant population servicing in the U.S. Military, with Korean immigrants also serving in significant numbers. In 2010, Asian Americans made up 3.7 percent of active duty service members, mostly in the Army and Navy, and 3.9 percent of the officers. In 2012, there were about 65,000 immigrants serving in the U.S. armed forces; of those, about 23 percent were from the Philippines. Due to the numerous Filipinos serving in the Navy, when seen together, they've been described as the "Filipino Mafia". As of 2018, Filipinos made up the largest immigrant population serving in the U.S. Military. That same year, it was found that Asian Americans are over represented in the military compared to their proportion of the total population, and were increasingly choosing to become commissioned officers over choosing to enlist. Yet in 2013, it was found that Asian Americans are under represented in the Marine Corps, leading to a targeted effort to recruit more Asian Americans into the Corps.

### War on Terrorism

As of April 2017, out of the 2,346 deaths that have occurred in Operation Enduring Freedom, 62 have been Asian Americans (47 Soldiers, 8 Marines, 6 Sailors, and 1 Airman). As of September 2018, an additional 390 Asian American service-members have been wounded (307 Soldiers, 58 Marines, 18 Sailors, and 7 Airmen).

### Afghanistan War

Asian American Marines were part of the first conventional units to enter into Afghanistan in late 2001; including Pakistani American marine Lieutenant Colonel Asad A. Khan. Khan would return to Afghanistan in command of 1st Battalion 6th Marines in 2004; only to be later relieved of command. In 2011, Private Danny Chen and Lance Corporal Harry Lew both committed suicide in Afghanistan following hazing; prosecution of several of their unit members followed. Also in 2011, Petty Officer third class Jonathan Kong, as a corpsman risked his life to save Corporal Michael Dawers who had been shot in a battle near the village of Kotozay; in 2014, Kong was awarded a Silver Star for his actions in 2011.

### Iraq War

Hundreds of Asian Americans have deployed to Iraq out of the 59,000 plus that are serving in active duty as of May 2009, with one study stating that 2.6 percent have been Asian American. The 100th Infantry Battalion (USAR) was activated in 2004 for its first deployment in Iraq, their first activation since the Vietnam War. At the end of that deployment the unit was authorized to wear the 442nd's sleeve insignia on the right shoulder, the first time this had occurred since World War II. The 100th Infantry Battalion was activated, and deployed to Iraq, for second time from 2008 to 2009. With Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn having ended, 78 Asian American service members died during the conflict.

## Leadership

The first Asian American general was Brigadier General Albert Lyman, who was part Chinese and Hawaiian American. He was followed by Rear Admiral Gordon Chung-Hoon, the first Asian American flag officer. The highest ranked is former Secretary of Veteran Affairs Eric Shinseki, who was a four-star general, and Army Chief of Staff.

In recent years, Asian Americans have been represented well at the military academies compared to their share of the national population. Although Asian/Pacific Islander Americans are 3.49% of the national population aged 18–24, they are about 9–10% of the classes of 2014 at West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy.

## In popular culture

The following television shows, movies, songs, and operas have depicted events that relate to this article:

- American Pastime
- An American Soldier
- Apocalypse Meow
- Bataan
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- Go for Broke!
- M\*A\*S\*H episode:"Goodbye, Cruel World"
- Mr. Sunshine (South Korean TV series)
- Only the Brave
- The Great Raid
- The Karate Kid
- The Next Karate Kid
- The Steel Helmet
- The War
- We Were Soldiers
- Medal of Honor (TV series) episode: "Hiroshi 'Hershey' Miyamura"

## See also

- History of Asian Americans
- List of Asian American Medal of Honor recipients
- List of Asian American servicemembers
- Hawaii and the American Civil War
- Military history of the United States
- Military history of Pakistani Americans
- Military history of Sikh Americans
- Vietnamese American Armed Forces Association

### Minority military history

- Military history of African Americans
- Military history of Hispanic and Latino Americans
- Military history of Jewish Americans
- Native Americans in the American Civil War
- Native Americans and World War II

### Asian American military units

- 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment
- 442nd RCT
- Military Intelligence Service
- Alamo Scouts
- Philippine Scouts
- USS Rizal

Aspect of United States military history

American military personnel of Asian descent

History of racial segregation in the United States

Military history of the United States by ethnic group