Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Daniel Inouye Interview
Narrator: Sen. Daniel Inouye
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary), Beverly Kashino (secondary)
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Date: June 30, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-idaniel-01-0013

<Begin Segment 13>

TI: And for you, how were those first few days? Were you thinking similar things?

DI: All of us were afraid. In fact, we would kid ourselves. I remember the first bombardment. We were walking along this roadway and all of a sudden artillery shells came pouring in. This is something we had never experienced. Over here, boom. And so the men just hit the ground on the road and here I am looking around and you would see here and there puddles of water. They're urinating 'cause of fear. Sphincter muscles get loose, it's a natural reaction. And I remember, couple of them were rather embarrassed. I said, "Nothing to be embarrassed about. This is natural." And after a while you learn to control fear, but to say that no one is afraid, that person must be insane. Every battle I went into, I was afraid.

TI: In those early days, those early battle days, how did death of a comrade effect the men in these early days?

DI: Well, blood was not a commonplace occurrence. You saw blood when you gashed yourself or you stepped on a nail or something like that, but to see the gore and the ripped out bodies and half a face gone, that's a new experience unless you got involved in some terrible automobile accident. And so to see that was devastating for some of us. It took us a little while to get over it, but once you get to see death... becomes commonplace. And you don't forget them, but we'll move on to the next day. I lost many friends.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.