Densho Digital Archive - Larry "Shorty" Kazumura Interview (denshovh-klarry-01-0013)

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PM: I want to go back to, back to Italy. One of your close friends there was Captain Lawrence Byrne.

LK: My close friend?

PM: Yeah, close friend. He was 6 feet, 3 inches, and you looked after each other in combat.

LK: Oh, you mean Terumi Kato? Terumi, T-E-R-U-M-I, Kato. Anyway, he's the only guy that, after service, he always invites me to Honolulu, so I always go. So I was mad when I visit Honolulu and then they invited me for dinner, they didn't invite him. And now, you see, now, I'm hit on the head, huh, I don't remember I had a dinner. And you know Ken Okuma, he's that invited me, he's mad because I never thank him for the dinner. Now, how can I thank him because I don't remember? All these years, I never remember.

PM: I wanted to talk, I wanted to ask you about Lieutenant Byrne, Lawrence Byrne, your lieutenant, captain.

LK: Captain Byrne?

PM: Captain Byrne, he was a close friend of yours at Camp Shelby and through the war. Could you tell me about him?

LK: Yeah. So, you know what? After he died, then when I got married, my wife said, "You know, you should remember something what he did." And I said -- I didn't know that -- and I said, "Yeah, I should." So when we got married, she said, "You know, Larry, take his name, take his name." I said, "Why?" Said, "That's the legacy that always remind you what a person he was." So, see, now, his name was Lawrence, now, and mine is Kazumura. Now, they are too long, so she said, "Why don't you cut it short?" And that's how my name Larry came out. So when we got married, that came our history, so it came Larry.

PM: How did you and Captain Byrne become such close friends?

LK: Well, that's how we worked together. See, any time when we go to new area, he always picked me. [Laughs] Not me, now, he'd pick me. So I always, amazingly, he always picked me, so we'd go together. That's any new area that we never been, now, he and I go. Captain Graham never say anything. Captain Byrne, at the time was lieutenant, Lieutenant Byrne, but he always picked me. I don't know why, but he always picked me. I guess he depended on me, I don't know what. But anyway, he trusted me, and I trusted him. But it killed me, every time I look at him, and he's so tall, I thought, "Gee, how can the German miss us," but I don't know, we always get through.