<Begin Segment 6>

ME: At, at one point, you were reunited with your good friend, Matt Tanaka?

BY: Yeah.

ME: When you reunited with the 100th. What did you guys talk about? 'Cause he had actually seen --

BY: Yeah, combat.

ME: Some combat, right?

BY: Yeah. He advised us not to do this, not to do that. He, he, he came to meet us at a staging area, PM Civitavecchia. And he would tell us to, not to be too brave. Just -- and he told us not to volunteer for too many things. Just do your duty. And we would accept what he say. And then we didn't see him no more.

ME: That was it?

BY: Yeah.

ME: That was the last time you saw him?

BY: Yeah.

ME: What happened?

BY: He, he went on a patrol. And he -- but he, he got shot, I think, by a sniper, and was killed.

ME: When he was giving you that advice and telling you what combat was like, what, what was going through your mind at that time? What were you thinking?

BY: I was thinking, gee, how rough things gonna be. He said -- he was telling us about tree bursts, and getting hit while, while going to the water hole, and this and that. He said, and he used to tell us, don't volunteer for too many things. And we all thought that he gave us some really good advice.

ME: Well, shortly thereafter you saw your first combat experience.

BY: Yeah.

ME: Where was that, and what was that like?

BY: That was in Suvereto, Italy. And, it was, it was a -- well, to me at that time, it was hectic because we went on the line, and we were pinned down the first day. And we couldn't move. They all tanks came to support us. They got knocked out. And we, we tried to, to advance, but the enemy, they were on the hill. They wouldn't, they wouldn't give in. So our mortars and, our heavy weapons fired on them. And later the, the 100th Infantry went, surrounded them. And then they got, they, they, they did a lotta damage to the German troops then. We were able to go on.

ME: So, so Bruno, what were your specific duties on the, on the battlefield?

BY: I was a mortar man. Mortar --

ME: Mortar platoon?

BY: Mortar assisting, kinda.

ME: Okay. So what, what did you have to do, then?

BY: Well, we stayed, we actually in the back of the riflemen. They're in the front, and we in the back. And we helped them out with, when, whenever they got attacked, we lob some shells over.

ME: Okay.

BY: Yeah. My sergeant was a pretty good sergeant. He, he went, he went up to the edge of the hill and just poured some shells into them and, I guess it helped to make us penetrate the, their lines.

ME: What was your sergeant's name?

BY: Harold Watase.

ME: So not being right in the front, then, was that not as dangerous as being on the front lines?

BY: Well, to me every place was dangerous but, yeah, I think we had a little bit more cover than those people on the front line.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.