Gender

Male

Birth date

1916-9-22

Place of birth

Lihue HI, U.S.A.

Inducted

1941-6-27, Lihue HI

Enlistment type

Draftee

Service branch

Army

Service type

War

Unit type

Combat

Units served

Co. B Schofield Barracks Reception Center; Co. D & HQ Co., 298th Inf. Regt.; Special Duty Co. C Prov. Bn.; Co. B, 370th Engrs.; Co. B, 442nd Inf. Regt.; Co. B, 171st Inf. Regt.; Co. B, 100th Bat., 442 RCT

Military specialty

First Sergeant

Stationed

USA, Italy

Separated

Fort Dix NJ

Unit responsibility

Military training while with 298th Inf. Regt.; Labor battalion with Provisional Battalion and 370th Engrs., Schofield barracks; Military training with 442nd Inf. Regt. and 171st Inf. Bn., Camp Shelby, Miss.; Guard German POWs in Italy and later, prepare for demobilization.

Personal responsibility

Assign duties to soldiers; Care for them and keep them out of trouble. I was the oyabun of my company.

Major battles (if served in a war zone)

Central Pacific; GO33 WD 45 as amended; Italy.

Awards, medals, citations (individual or unit)

Victory Medal; American Defense Service Medal with Foreign Service; Asiatic-Pacific Service Medal; European-African-Middle Eastern Service Medal; Good Conduct Medal.

Most vivid memory of military experience

Waiting for the street light signal to change before crossing the street in front of the Supreme Court Building in Wash. D.C. one late Nov. day in 1943, one of two matronly women turned to me and said: 'I'm curious. What nationality are you?' I was in an Army uniform, wearing the first sergeant's stripes on my jacket. Knowing what she meant, I replied, 'I'm an American of Japanese ancestry.' 'I don't believe it,' she said so I pulled out my wallet and produced my Honolulu driver's license and showed it to her. She then said, 'My goodness, my son is fighting the Japanese in the South Pacific!'

I accompanied my wife to the Coachella Bank, Coachella Valley, in Jan. 1946, for her to make her first social call on the bank's president/owner and family friend since evacuation to Poston. While I waited in the lobby, I saw a Mexican (I knew of no Mexican in HI) smiling broadly and walking straight for me. 'Arigato, arigato,' he began saying. 'you saved my life, you saved my life!' He explained that the 442nd soldiers rescued his Texas unit in France, in Oct., 1944, when his unit was running out of ammunition, food, and water, completely surrounded by the Germans and about to be annihilated. I said I wasn't in France at the time, but, pointing to my 442nd Liberty Torch shoulder patch on my jacket, he said, 'Never mind, you Japanese soldiers saved my life. Thank you, thank you!' I regret very much that I did not get his name and address.

Missed most whilst in the military

Ko-ko and rice; Civilian life

Most important thing, personally, to come from military experience?

Left Hawaii and traveled to the mainland and Italy at Uncle Sam's expense.

Must appreciate the USA.

Although I had an easy job in the labor battalion at Schofield Barracks, I volunteered to join the newly activated fighting unit, the 442nd RCT.