Sexo

Male

Birth date

1915-5-2

Local de nascimento

Elk Grove CA, United States

Inducted

1941-10-10, Fort MacArthur CA

Tipo de alistamento

Volunteer

Ramo das Forças Armadas

Army

Tipo de serviço

War

Tipo de Unidade

Combat

Unidades onde serviu

232nd Combat Engineers, 442nd Regimental Combat Team

Military specialty

Mine Sweeper - Clearing roads for military vehicles

Stationed

USA: Ft. Lewis, WA, Ft. Harrison, IN, Camp Shelby, MS
Other Countries: Italy, France

Separated

Fort Devens MA

Unit responsibility

Combat Engineers: Clear mines, clear and repair roads, build temporary bridges, clear road blocks, make muddy roads passable

Personal responsibility

All of the above and serve as rifleman.

Major battles (if served in a war zone)

Rome-Arno Campaign
North Apennines Campaign
Rhineland Campaign
Po Valley Campaign
Lost Battalion at Bruyeres

Awards, medals, citations (individual or unit)

Purple Heart
Good Conduct Medal
American Defense Medal
44 Victory Medal
American Theater Campaign Ribbon
Distinguished Unit Badge

Living conditions

Slept in pup tents, vacant farm homes, shelled out homes with large holes in the wall, and on soggy ground. People of Bruyeres were very nice to us.

Bathed in running cold streams. In rest area engineers had cold showers.

Engrs. were lucky with meals. We had a mess truck so we had hot meals most of the time. After Lost Battalion, engrs. were called to infantry duty due to heavy casualties to the infantry and as infantry we had K rations.

For entertainment we played cards, checkers, chess, and shot craps. Occasional movies in the open.

Most vivid memory of military experience

After Lost Battalion fight, and heavy losses, the engineers were recruited to serve as riflemen. On the first night, after joining the 442nd, 5 members of the second squad of the 1st platoon, which I was in, were asked to go on patrol and contact 'G' Company, about a mile away in the wooded mountains at a farmhouse. We made the contact around midnight on a rainy dark night. The country road had fallen trees for road blocks and was heavily mined. After having bouillon soup (very good) we returned.

On our return, I was the second man behind Sgt. Imori. He stepped over a fallen tree and as I tried to step over the same place, I saw a blue blast, shoulder high about 3 feet away. I thought we were getting a mortar barrage. I hit the ground, a ditch full of rain water. I felt warm blood on my back. Every one of the 5 in the group were wounded. I told Imori I got hit. Nearby was a farm barn. We ran to the barn and luckily, in the barn were 442nd medics. They treated us and we waited for morning to be taken to the medic HQ by litter carrier.

I was told it was a defective 'S' mine or 'Bouncing Betty' that had exploded. Such mines were known to have wiped out whole platoons (about 45 men).

Life is luck - it just wasn't time for me to go. I still have a piece of metal in my back. They never removed it.

Missed most whilst in the military

Just being back home - but there was no home to go to. My parents were in Jerome, Arkansas not Elk Grove, California.

Sleeping in comfort.

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

Freedom - Being Japanese American you feel you have rights wherever you go - Proud.

If your country ask you to serve be proud and serve.

The friends I made from the 232nd Engineers. They are in Hawaii, Washington, Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland and Oregon. I have friends in every island in Hawaii. Even Molokai has one of my best friends, Art Manabu Kikkawa, who was in the same squad and wounded at the same time.

Additional information

To read an article written by Thelma Chang, a Honolulu writer, author of 'I Can Never Forget: Men of the 100th/442nd' appearing in the The Honolulu Advertiser, October 28, 1994, chronicling the rescue of the 'Lost Battalion', please ask the Research Center librarian.