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AI: Just to place this in the time and the location a little bit more. I just wanted to mention about -- that, I understand that the 442 left for Europe in May of 1944 and --

TY: May.

AI: -- and arrived in Europe and was assigned to General Mark Clark's 5th Army --

TY: Yes, okay.

AI: -- that was already there.

TY: In Italy. Yeah.

AI: In Italy. And so that's why you were saying -- so in Italy you landed at Naples.

TY: Yeah.

AI: And then that was shortly before the 5th Army was going to enter Rome, I believe.

TY: Yeah, that was, yeah.

AI: Early June, I understand.

TY: Yeah, right. Yeah. And then we joined, we went to front lines just shortly after they went into Rome. We just bypassed Rome and we -- I think were close to Florence area, I think, and we had our first bivouac area where we, there again too, we used to get all our supplies and things, before went into the front line.

TI: It was about this time that the 100th was also attached to the 442.

TY: At that time, yes. When we went overseas, we left our 1st Battalion in Camp Shelby and they were to be cadre for a replacement for us and when we went overseas just the first and, the 2nd and 3rd Battalion went overseas. And once we got over there, the 100th Battalion became our 1st Battalion, and it became part of the combat team. That was right after Rome was liberated. And I think I told you before that the 100th --

TI: The 100th were prevented from...

TY: 100th were prevented from going into Rome.

TI: But the 100th by this time had seen quite a bit of action.

TY: Yes.

TI: And so they were an experienced unit.

TY: Yeah, real -- they had a lot of casualty during Cassino, battle in Cassino and beyond that, they really, they been in -- when did they first go into line? Do you remember? Do you have a record of when 100th went into the line first?

TI: Oh, I --

TY: I think they were there about six months already when we joined them. I think. They might of been there longer, I don't know.

TI: Yeah, I think they might have been in there a little longer.

TY: Maybe almost a year. But they suffered quite a high casualty.

TI: So describe what it was like when you, when the 100th was attached to the 442, when you met either the medics or the other soldiers from the 100th. Was there anything that you can remember?

TY: It was very strange. I was -- in fact yesterday, day before yesterday after I got home, night before last and last night, I got back some of the 442 historical book that I have and tried to review some of that and I, I was wondering about when 100th -- the day that the 100th -- that day that we, the 100th joined us and I do remember that I had some friends in the 100th and meeting up with them and I was so glad to see they were still alive because I heard so much about, they suffering such heavy casualty that I thought that some of the friends that I knew were probably not there anymore. But I was happy to see them. And I guess story, I've heard story of guys asked them how it was and they say, "Oh, it wasn't so bad." [Laughs] But of course it was something else. And I think most of the guys in 442 kinda looked up to them because they been at it for much longer than they have and they are really experienced soldiers by then. And they had a lot of stories to tell and I think they did lot of listening and other than, they didn't do much talking themselves. I think they listened a lot.

TI: The 100th guys listened a lot?

TY: No, no the 442.

TI: The 442 guys listened a lot to the 100th.

TY: Yeah.

TI: How about on the --

TY: And then they were about, mostly Hawaiians, too, so the Hawaiian fellows were obviously very happy to see them. And I guess most of them looked up to them as maybe like an older brother, really.

TI: Yeah, I interviewed some other vets and they talked about how the 100th would explain certain things to the 442 guys in terms of combat.

TY: Uh-huh.

TI: I was wondering, in a similar way, did any of the 100th medical team people talk to the 442 people in terms of what to expect or how to --

TY: That's the other thing I was looking up to see. The, how the medical group was organized in the 100th because I really didn't know anybody from the 100th, the medical detachment. They had their own detachment. They call it medical detachment. And I was a medical detachment with the 442. They were medical detachment for the 100th Battalion. So I think they were organized a little bit differently than ours but they were pretty, they were quite independent from our detachment. And even --

TI: So they had their own separate headquarters?

TY: Apparently, apparently. I really -- because I kinda, found it kinda strange that there was not much communication between the two groups. Because I don't know any of the 100th during the war. I didn't, any medic. I've met some of them after. And when I went to the 50th reunion in Hawaii I met one Dr. Harada who was a medic with -- he's a dentist and he was a medic with the 100th Battalion. But he was explaining to me some of the set up that they had and it was completely foreign to me. I really -- and I didn't know -- he's the only one, the 100th medic that I met and that was after the war. And I have taken the responsibility -- we have a medical, the 442 Club in Hawaii has a medic section and president of that group is a Hawaiian fellow. And I took up a responsibility of making a directory of the ex-medics in the 442. And it must be about fifty of 'em that I have, and not one of 'em are100th, from the 100th detachment. So we don't know anybody from the 100th.

TI: That's interesting.

TY: It's kinda strange. I found that, I found that very strange when I thought about it afterwards that we just don't know. In fact, we have no contact with people, 100th Battalion. They were for some reason just entirely different unit.

TI: I'm gonna have to do more research on that. Now I'm curious about that. I'm not sure why it's like that.

TY: Yeah, well, I felt the same thing last night when I was trying to -- that's how I was trying to get some information in some of the books that I have and I couldn't find any and I -- so I plan to go back to the 60th reunion in Hawaii next year and I think I'm going to see if I can get hold of some of the medic that was in the 100th and find out what -- or talk to (Ted) Matsuo, who's the president of the medic of the 442. Ask him why they don't have any contact with the medic in the 100th. Because ranks are kind of thinning out, now, you know and -- I thought the very same thing last night. I thought maybe I'll, in fact I made a note to myself to do that when I go over there.

TI: I'd be curious if you find out anything. I'm curious about that.

TY: I'll give you...

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.