<Begin Segment 32>

LK: ...impossible for this to could have happened without somebody, some other reasons. And the other reason is the fact that there was a, my husband an had argument with an officer, Lieutenant Colonel, I think, when they were in the midst of the rescue of the "Lost Battalion" in France. It was one of the major victories.

AI: Oh, you know what, actually, can you...

AI: I would like to back up and...

LK: Well, I don't...

AI: Oh, you don't feel like you can talk about this.

LK: I don't think that we should make any accusations because...

AI: I see.

LK: He didn't feel that...

AI: So this was something that was just, people were thinking that...

LK: Well...

AI: This is not something that you can really talk about..

LK: Well, I don't know whether we should or not because the man's dead and he, never were able to, to... well, I'll tell you the reasons. Okay, he... anyhow he had a, the officer told my husband to take a group of them down for supplies and they were in the forest of the Voges Mountain, and he, they could hear the trucks coming up behind the, and it was night. So he said, he told the officer, he had gotten all the men together that were gonna go down. And he says, "You know, I think we should wait a little bit, you know, maybe after it settles down and then sneak down there and get our supplies." Well he, he said to the doc, the officer, "You know, I, I don't think we should go right now." And the officer didn't appreciate my husband second-guessing him, so he told them to go. And so he turned, he turned around to the guys and he says, "Well, what should we do?" So they said, "Oh, let's go because you know, he ordered us to go." So they went and sure enough, they were, they threw a barrage on them and half of them got killed. And he had to carry some, a lot of the injured back and all.

So when he get, got back he looked, you know, went to hunt for the officer and he told him in no uncertain terms what his opinion was. And, "We could have saved, you know, look at all the lives we lost," and all this stuff. So he probably didn't say it in a very nice way, so then this officer that had always kind of had it against him and he, someone said that they heard him say that he was gonna make an example of him. And so when this incident happened, the fight, they, he was the officer that pursued it. And even if the MP had said to drop the charges, he insisted that they go ahead and charge them. And so I, he, my husband says, "I think he wanted me to..." So then when they went, were moved to Italy, you know, they were in, in the stockades so they brought them down to Italy in the stockades. Then when they needed to go fight they had them go out. So my husband says, "I think he wanted me, see me get killed." Well, one of the four that was incarcerated did get killed.

And then he, he was on the front lines in Italy, they called him back to the headquarters, because this was in April already, and this Lieutenant Colonel Hanley, who's now kind of senile, he called them on the telephone at headquarters and said that, "Kash, there's gonna be a court-martial trial and I want you to plead guilty." And he said, "Oh, I'm not gonna plead guilty to something like that." And so then he said, "Besides I might get killed tomorrow or today when I go back." And so this other lieutenant that overheard the conversation said, "Oh, Kash, don't ever plead guilty. I mean, I'll, I'll be your witness and you'll never be charged for something like that." So he went back on the front lines again and the next day this lieutenant was in, in the headquarters area and a shell landed on them and everybody was killed including the officer who had told him not to plead guilty.

But anyhow this, the person who called him on the phone said, "If you don't plead guilty you're gonna get a general court-martial which means that you will be dishonorably discharged." So he said, "You plead guilty and we'll give you a special court-martial." And so that makes a difference between dishonorably or regularly discharged. So, but then my husband wouldn't be moved by any threat like that because he said, "I know right is right and wrong is wrong," and he didn't do it. So he went through the trial and got railroaded into being charged. So then after the war was, after he came back and we got married, shortly after we got married, we got this Christmas card from the lieutenant colonel that he had the argument with. I mean, signed by him and he found our address. You know, newly married and got a new apartment and all, how he found us, we don't know, but after that he sent us Valentine's cards, and Christmas cards, New Year's card, Valentine cards, St. Patrick's card, I mean, it's ridiculous.

AI: How strange.

LK: We kept saying well, "What's wrong with this guy?" So then, and then when they had the first reunion he came down to Hawaii and Shiro was invited as a guest, all expenses paid. His friends had chipped in for him to come down. Because this was in '53 and our children were little and we couldn't afford him to go to Hawaii. And because of his actions at that time, you know, because he took the brunt of all this, the boys wanted to do something nice for him so they (gave him the free trip), and this lieutenant, this colonel was there, came to participate and everybody ignored him. And they kind of, Shiro kind of kept out of his way because he didn't want to be having any confrontation with him. And then in the '70s he went to a convention in Illinois and he saw the name tag of a fellow from Seattle who's Japanese -- it was a Baptist convention. And he asked, he went up to him and said, "Hey, do you know Shiro Kashino?" so he said yes, he knew him. So he proceeded to tell him his story of why he, you know, charged him with, got him, pushed through with the court-martial. And so this Peter Koshi came back to Seattle and called Shiro up and he said, "Gee, I met somebody who was your superior officer, and he's telling me all these things," and he couldn't make head (or tails or) reason why he was telling him all this. And 1976 they had a convention in Chicago, and he's from Illinois and he came to the convention and he came to I Company's hospitality room at the hotel and asked, "Where's Kash?" Looking for him. So when he came into our hospitality room they would tip my husband off, so then we went out the other door. So we avoided him twice, but the third time he kind of cornered us and he said, "Oh, is this your wife?" He put his hand out to shake hands and my husband was gentleman enough to, to shake hands with him and then he says, "This is your wife?" and so he said, "Yes." And he said, "Well, how could a nice girl like you marry a guy like him?" Like that was kind of a derogatory. He was trying to be funny. So he had a terrible guilty conscience, so this is, this is...

AI: It certainly sounds that way.

LK: Yeah, but then we can't really accuse him because we have no evidence.

AI: That's right.

LK: So we just try to be big about it and just kind of... poor guy was carrying it on his conscience. And then he talk, cornered my brother-in-law and he talked to him at length, telling him all the reasons why it all happened and justifying himself. And so... he realized that he should not have done what he did, I think.

<End Segment 32> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.