<Begin Segment 19>

BT: And you know, like one of the things that I used to like... Salty Mizuta sent me a picture of he and Kash together. And you know, right in front of my desk I have the picture up. Every time I'd be typing, I'd have the picture right there in front of me. And after everything was over and done and, you know, like you have a stamp of a official seal that's...

LK: Approval.

BT: When you sent me the photograph of the headstone, that's it. Everything's signed, sealed, and delivered.

LK: Yeah. There's a great satisfaction to be able to put staff sergeant on his headstone, marker. Because that was the whole motivation for me, because my girls were... and he'd... that was his joke that, "When I die, I'll be Private Kashino." You know, and that's -- you can only put down the highest rank.

SK: You know he could have gotten that tech sergeant's stripe in my place. But somehow I think this was Kaz Muto who wrote me in saying that, "Somehow along the way, because of Kash's conviction, he wasn't elevated to tech sergeant." And of course, right after, I mean charges, not convicted yet, charges. Charges. He wasn't elevated to a tech sergeant, you see. A platoon sergeant. I would have loved to have him take over as tech sergeant. It's too bad. Even Fred Matsumura, just about the time that he's supposed to receive the staff sergeant's stripe, he was wounded. So back he went to the hospital. In the meantime, we had recruits -- not recruits, but replacements --

LK: Replacements.

BT: Replacements.

SK: Replacements come in, with stripes on them. You see? So I remember this particular fellow coming in with a staff sergeant stripe. So we can't put him down as a buck sergeant. He kept his staff sergeant stripe. So he became the squad leader. So these are things that happened along the way. So I feel bad for Shiro as well as for Matsumura, because they're my key men, actually.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.