<Begin Segment 15>

TI: So any other memories while you're in Italy or Europe that you want to share?

TO: Well, when the 442nd prepared to come home to parade up Pennsylvania Avenue for President Truman. And so we all headed to go and do what we call the close order drills, you know, to march properly and all that. And if I recall, they wanted as many men as possible to do that. So they had the doctors and dentists and those guys, they never took any basic training, and they had a heck of a time keeping stiff and all that. But I had some hopes of coming home, but no, the colors came home, but we didn't. There was quite a number of us that just were late replacements, we didn't have enough points to come home, so we were left in Italy.

TI: Oh, so that's unfortunate. So you didn't get to march in front of President Truman.

TO: No, no. But then I was reassigned to what they call the 88th, 88th Division, and they shipped me up to Northern Italy. I think there was probably another dozen Nisei that was assigned to this particular company, and we were doing guard duty up there between the, seemed to be the piece of ground between Italy and Yugoslavia, and each country claimed it and they were fighting, so we were supposed to keep peace up there. And that was -- by then, I was no longer infantryman, they saw that I had trained as a mechanic, so they put me in the motorpool. And so that's what I ended up doing.

TI: And as you went to these different areas like the 88th Division, were people aware of the 442?

TO: Oh, yes. Definitely, oh, yeah.

TI: And how did you know? What would be an example of them letting you know about, that they knew about the 442?

TO: Well, I think like the, you know, the merchants, the only people you really got in contact with was merchants, buying something or something like that. But they all made a comment, "Thank you," or whatever. Somehow you got the feeling that they really were thankful and respected what we did, yeah.

TI: Now, did you retain the 442 insignia?

TO: No.

TI: Okay, so you're now 88th, and so you have...

TO: Yeah, right.

TI: Got it. So any other memories of...

TO: Well, we were near a town called Trieste, Italy, and we were close enough to go on a three-day pass to... oh, what's that town that's out in the water? I should --

TI: Venice?

TO: Venice, yeah. We spent three-day pass there, that was wonderful, really, really great. By then, the restaurants, the food was getting, getting better and so we ate pretty good there. The army had taken the resort town called Lido Beach, I think, very famous resort area and we stayed there. Of course, it was the wintertime, so we didn't enjoy the beach. But yeah, that was good, wonderful. I took my wife there later, but it wasn't the same. [Laughs] But it was okay.

TI: That was probably a lot more expensive when you went back. [Laughs]

TO: Yeah.

TI: Okay. So anything else Europe?

TO: That was, that's pretty much about it. And I don't, I think we were shipped back to (Naples), I think we got on the ship in Leghorn and we came back to New York, New York City. And when I got back to New York City, I was discharged, in Fort, I think it was Fort Dix. And the very interesting thing at Fort Dix, when you're on your discharge process, this officer, I think he was a captain, he asked me if I would like to stay in the army and go to the OCS to become an officer. I almost had to laugh. I says, "I'm only a PFC." Why would they want, there was lots of guys that had a lot, combat experience and that. And anyway, I said, "No," I said I had enough of the army, "I don't want to do that." Anyway, I got to thinking later, why would they do anything like that? And I found out later that a lot of the Nisei were asked that because the 442nd, their record was so highly respected that they wanted more of the Nisei to stay in the army and become officers. But at that time, I thought was a joke. I'm only a private first-class, why would they ever want me to be an officer? I had nothing, I have nothing here, I could have done anything at all. But I found out later that that was, that was what it was. They wanted some Nisei to stay in the army. That was one of the real... I don't know how to best put it, but respect that the 442nd and the 100th had earned in the army.

TI: That's a good story.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.