Densho Digital Archive - Terry Aratani - Fred Matsumura - Kenneth Okuma - Henry Bruno Yamada Interview (denshovh-aterry

<Begin Segment 12>

ME: Any other combat stories you can tell us?

TA: Well, going back to what my vivid memories, I guess the first day always come back to me because I remember the first day when we went to combat, and I guess we were the front point platoon going out, as soon as we start going down the hill, point -- Henry Nakada was scouts out, and here comes the -- you can hear the muzzle blasts of the artillery, boom. The next thing we know, we can hear the shell going over, peeu, we hit. We all hit the ground, shaking like crazy. Thing going to come on out. But it might have landed one mile back of us. Shortly after that, when we went to the village, then we heard that Fred Kameda got killed. He was the first one from Company I got killed. But we, all of a sudden that, before we can get into the, across the open field, and we got, open up the machine gun fire from the hilltop. And was a very hot day. And the only thing you can do is that, take cover behind the stone wall. And I think we must have stayed back there for couple of hours, and we couldn't even move at that time.

And then next thing we know, there's some tank coming up to support us. And soon as the tank made the turn, the anti-tank gun got it, and the thing just burst in flames. So we can see the crew trying to get out from the bottom of the tank. And at that time, we didn't have no idea what to do the first day. Then after that, when things to clear up, we going around the bend, walking along the road, we see the German anti-tank crew shot, all dead on the weapon carrier. We see tank blown up on the side of the hill, people lying all over the place. What happened was that the 100 Battalion, knewing that we were pinned down the front, made a force march around the thing, then went clear back up the, the enemies were against us, and they knocked everything back there.

And that -- but the funny thing is that, after we were in combat for a while, then you can kind of feel that no -- you can, you know whether the guy is firing directly or you not, just by the noise of the -- for instance, later on, if it's the sound of peeum, peeum, peeum, you can walk around freely. You know that he's, he not gonna be near you. But when you hear the sound, pack, pack, then you know he's aiming at you, then you take cover. So the first day, if we knew that, I'm that we could have, the machine gun fire, we could've jumped all over the place and move along, but just that -- and that night, as we move along, you can see everything burning, and really something that kinda stayed with me for a long, long time. And I really believe that the sound that -- after you get used to it, all the sounds and everything, and that's when you really can move and fight your way through. But the first day, we just sat behind the wall and just couldn't move, until the 100 went around and cleaned every -- but the 100 was an experienced (outfit) because they would -- they went to Africa and they came all the way up. So they could just move all over the place. And I think that's what happened later on to us, too. But that really stayed me for a long time.

ME: What else do you remember hearing in battle? You mentioned the machine guns. What else?

TA: Well, you can tell the, when the mortar fire, you can hear that muzzle, poom. You can hear that thing, peeu. Okay, you listen to it, and if, if you don't hear it for a while, and if you feel the noise coming, rushing like fshh, then you know that you gotta be care -- going right underneath somebody near you. But if you go peeu, you can hear it for a long time. You know it's going way over you. I think the one that most scary for us infantrymen was the German 88. It, because soon as you hear the muzzle blast, poom, it's hitting you already, poom-bang already. That fast. And the other thing is that you can tell when our machine gun fire, you go pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop. When the German machine gun fire, just like motorcycle, brrrrr, brrrrr. So all these sounds that you get used to after a while, and really help you in, in your combat. Because I remember that went into Vosges (Mountain). Oh, the bullet was flying over all, but we just keep moving because we knew ping, ping, ping, we don't care. You know he's not firing at you. Keep moving along. But the first day, just sat there.