…ombat, everyone soon looks like bums. 2. I convinced Clarence Johnson, the Company Commander, that we should conduct special advanced small unit training. Thus, the B Company men ran over seven hours per day in the high humid summer heat of Mississippi. They also learned the jobs of their leaders two levels above their own. They did not like this one single bit. All of this was quickly forgotten when we were in combat. In combat, I expected to be…

…, “OK Jap, show me the yellow stripe running down your back!” Gen. DeWitt, Comdr. of the Western Defense Command, said, “A Jap is a Jap, citizen or not, they will never change and cannot be trusted!” This was very disturbing to me. This was the only country that I knew and cared about, so why was everyone treating us like the enemy? When we were kids, we used to say, “Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.” Because of…

…year. Most of our conversation during the last 3 days centered around our combat experience with the 34th Div., starting from Salerno through Benevento, up through Naples, the Volturno River Crossings, Cassino, Anzio, Rome, Belvedere, the Arno River, Leghorn, to France and Biffontaine. Then the champagne campaign in Southern France–magical names like Menton, Beausoleil, Monte Carlo, Monaco, Nice and Cannes. Then for those who survived the champag…

…he regiment. The 100th Battalion was subsequently merged with the 442nd, becoming the combat team’s 1st Battalion, although it was allowed to retain its name. Chaplain Yost, who by then had developed a bond with the men, realized that he might be transferred out of the 100th, so he requested, and was granted, special permission to remain with the 100th. When the war ended, Yost returned to his family in Pennsylvania and put the war behind him, see…

…ard Yamasaki, recalled that “Chappie” — as he referred to Yamada — “was an experienced minister who knew just how to talk to the boys,” many of whom, like Yamada, had come from rural plantations and spoke Pidgin English. It was something Yamada would be called upon to do with increasing frequency as the number of killed and wounded continued to climb. On September 1, 1944, Yamada was seriously injured while crossing the Arno River in a jeep to pic…

…tell, like the one-linked to the shelling of the WEST NORTUS. Why did the German submarine commander choose to shell instead of torpedo the ship? One can only speculate, but consider the fact that after the crew had taken to the lifeboats, the sub came alongside one and handed its occupants a bottle of Perrier mineral water and a piece of paper with directions on how to get to Cape Hatteras, written in English. As much as chivalry in wartime is r…

…nded village. The men fought their way through a powerful concentration of German artillery fire and had what they called “duck soup,” clearing mazes of machine gun nests which the Germans always leave behind when they are forced to abandon a position. Every one of the enlisted men is from the Hawaiian Islands. They average five-feet-four but their officers declare they can outmarch and outwork most ordinary troops. Only a few of their junior offi…

…leg with shrapnel fragments. This was his third Purple Heart. Suddenly, a German machine gun opened up on our left and raked the ditch behind us. Corporal Ed Yoshihara Yoshida, C Company’s first Silver Star Medal Winner groaned and his head slumped against his chest as he sat in the ditch. The head wound proved fatal and he died shortly after, despite our frantic efforts to apply first aid in the darkness. There was a mine field of unknown depth…