The Armenian American community during World War II: Patriotism amid anxieties

Editor’s note: This article appeared in the Armenian Weekly’s March 2026 special magazine issue, “America at 250: An Armenian American Retrospective,” guest edited by former Weekly editor Dr. Khatchig Mouradian and dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Declaration of Independence and the history of Armenian American life. 

World War II profoundly impacted American society as millions of young people from all backgrounds either enlisted in the U.S. armed forces or were drafted to fight America’s enemies. A great patriotic wave swept through the country, and this sentiment similarly impacted the small Armenian American community at the time (numbering about 200,000), of which about 18,000 were to serve in the military. Young men (and some young women) from this community were eager to demonstrate their patriotism toward the United States by serving in the armed forces and perhaps to erase the “foreigner” stigma that was sometimes directed at them as well as other young ethnics, like Italian Americans, even though most of them were born in the United States.