<Begin Segment 29>

TI: So let's, let's go. So from Naples, where did you go?

VW: Into Rome.

TI: Into Rome. We headed for Rome. And the short time before we got there, the 100th, which was the 1st Battalion of the 442nd, the 100th had been in, fighting already. They were a veteran outfit almost. And they were so good that, but then they had a lot of people who were wounded, lot of soldiers that were wounded. And so the other outfit started calling 'em the Purple Heart Battalion, and rightfully so. And they were the best fighters. And Mark Clark was asked by General George Marshall, who was the big general at the time, he said, "Let me know how they do," when he first, when Clark first got the 100th and put 'em in. And they were just, they were flabbergasted the way they were, the way the 100th was moving ahead and moving the Germans out of it and pushing 'em back. And Mark Clark says, "Send me all you've got." And at first, there were generals that didn't want anything to do with the 442nd or the Japanese Americans in any way, shape or form, but it didn't take 'em long to change their mind once they found out what kind of fighters they were. And they were American of Japanese descent.

TI: And one of the stories I heard about going into Rome, so the 100th was actually leading the march into Rome.

VW: Yeah.

TI: And what happened with that?

VW: Well, what happened was -- and this is not publicized -- but they were asked to step aside, not go into Rome, but step aside. Rome was off limits; you couldn't bomb or fight in Rome. In the Vatican area, they wanted to save all that area. And so when the 100th got in, they were getting ready to go right into Rome, and the generals pulled 'em aside and moved 'em over and let the, another outfit go in. It should never have happened. They should have let the 100th go in. But they said something about, they wanted the 100th to rest or something like that, which was a poor excuse, I thought. But there were some thoughts of, from the 100th soldiers that they were pulled aside because of political reason. When, you know, the freeing of Rome was a big thing then, really, because you know, here the soldiers were, and there were just the Caucasian Americans, not the Japanese Americans. Propaganda all the way. It didn't hit very well with the 442nd. We seemed to be people who didn't complain a lot about anything when it came to the war.

TI: But to the 442 and the 100th, it felt like a slight because it would have been an honor for them to have been the first unit to March into Rome.

VW: Would have been, yeah. Yeah, would have been. The 100th was basically, yeah, 'cause they fought their way right up there.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.