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HM: What about your... I know that you went to Italy and were stationed there at one time...

KO: Well after basic training, after a delay enroute, visiting the folks back to camp, long train rides, but we were young, we could take it. We finally ended up in the 442. But, let me tell you how we got there finally. This is... our training cycle ended in February. We had this delay enroute, back home. It was a furlough license I suspect, you'd call it a furlough. But it was a delay enroute. We actually had time enough to get back to camp and spend a few days. I actually took time off to take the northern way back through Minneapolis because two of my brothers were going through language school up there. And so that's exactly what I did. And I saw them for one day. Then moved on to Chicago, my old stomping grounds, and looked up a couple of buddies. Beyond that I then reported back to Fort... something in Maryland. Fort... I can't recall the name of the fort. From that assembly area, we were -- our training group, so we knew each other -- were assembled and moved off to Camp Shanks in New York, Upper New York, up the river. Camp Shanks was a port of embarkation, I think. Or at least that was an assembly area for a port of embarkation. So now it's getting to be early March. March. And after maybe about two or three days at Camp Shanks, New York, we were put on board a troop ship in New York Harbor. And this was an old -- not an old, because none of them were that old -- liberty ship. They were all within a few years of building 'em. They were that new. But they were, they were pretty rocky. They weren't all that sea worthy, I don't think. But this is all we had and we made the best of it. But going over on this troop ship, this liberty ship, from day one out of New York Harbor, I was sick. I went up for breakfast that first morning and took one look and... you know. And that was, that was enough. It wasn't stormy all that bad, but the ship was moving. And I'm not a sailor, obviously. I was sick from day one until time we got off. Story of my life.

HM: Is that how you got to Italy? Or how...

KO: That, well, we disembarked at Le Havre, France, amongst the whatever bits and pieces that we could see of leftover Normandy parts. They had a makeshift wharf, dock. And I'm not sure what they were built out of, but they were prefabricated steel units floating out there as docks. And somehow they anchored them to be sturdy enough to be used as docks. After about a month of evasive action on the Atlantic, the ships docks in Le Havre, France. That's right at the mouth of the Seine River, which I find out later. After a long last, here I am in France along with three or four hundred other guys. I'm trying to think what we did then.

[Interruption]

KO: From there... now we were trained as replacements for 442. So we were trying to catch up to the 442, which was in Southern France. Okay, now Le Havre is up in the northwest coast of France. So we have to go all the way through France to catch up to these guys. And we knew that, but we were living strictly day-to-day. They marched us off into some railroad yards. And here is a train of... a freight train. I mean, a real freight train, these [inaudible] boxcars. We were loaded aboard those. And off we went, trying to find the 442, which was at that time in Southern France, down in the Marseilles area. Our journey through France aboard these real freight cars... I mean they were freight cars. There was nothing there, just empty freight cars. Course we had our duffle bag and, and sleeping bag and whatever else, shoulder half of blanket. So we made do. And we passed on the outskirts of France... outskirts of Paris because way off in the distance a guy says, "Hey, there's the Eiffel Tower." Okay, so we all had to see the little Eiffel Tower that was a speck in the distance. That was all well and good.

By this time this is late March. I mean, real late March. We finally, we finally get down to Southern France, into a repo-depot, replacement depot, that the army always has here and there in the back area. And we find that the 442 is pulled back into a rest area not too far from there. Some of the guys took off and went, went up to visit friends and brothers and cousins or whatever. At that time I didn't know one thing from another. I knew my brother was out of... he was reassigned from his unit because he was wounded. And after his recuperation he was assigned to a quartermaster corps, I think. He was driving trucks somewheres up in, up in Southern France. So I had nobody to look up or see as far as brothers are concerned. Now, Bill was with the infantry in the third battalion. Nibs was the 522nd Field Artillery, which was still up in France, someplace, but they didn't know exactly where. So we ended up in Southern France. Finally got together with the unit that we're trained for. We weren't assigned to them. We're still replacements, individuals, unassigned. When the 442 went back to Italy, we followed them back. We went to a repo-depot to, just outside of Florence, in Italy. From there... from there I was, I think my imagination was getting the better of me, but this was about the time of the last offensive, that last push into the Po Valley. And I swear I could hear artillery fire somewhere close by. And about that time my blood pressure goes up another notch. Finally out of a repo-depot in Italy I'm assigned to the 442. I get as far as some provisional service company of the 442, which was a unit leftover from the regiment since they had all moved on ahead. They were successful, or so successful in their last offensive that the enemy was all the way, all the way north. They had retreated. And I can remember riding, riding this service company truck trying to catch up to the unit.

[Interruption]

KO: Well the offensive was so successful that the... that there was a group of us temporarily assigned to service company that we were hard pressed to catch up to them. And we were in six-bys, these army trucks, double dual rear axels and front wheel drive, the whole bit. We were riding those trucks trying to catch up to 'em, full speed down the freeways of Italy, up the west side of Italy, up from Pisa to Genoa. We overnighted in Genoa in some, some bombed out factory of some sort. We recognized it as some sort of factory building but we saw nothing in there that would say what they ever had or made. But we overnighted there and then moved on ahead. And by that time they were almost to Milan, or even further north of Milan. There was a Gei Airfield and the unit was that far. And Gei Airfield was designated as... by this time the war was done in Italy at least, Northern Italy. So the... perfect timing, personally. I had all this, all this travel and didn't fire a shot.

At that stage we finally caught up to the main body of the 442nd. However they decided who goes where... it seems like it was all alphabetical. The "Os" go here and the, and the other guys go there. Do you remember Bear Omoto? Somehow, out of Chicago, we meet at Camp Blanding in the same, in the same training company. And I'm with him all this time trying to get to Europe. The Os, tOmoto and Okazaki were assigned to Able Company 100th Battalion. I mean, that's a prestige outfit. And they've got awards and ribbons galore. And soon as you are one of them, I mean, they tell you, "Hey, you don't have any ribbons but you have to wear this." It's, it's... the ribbons were not earned by me, personally, but by the unit. So we're one of the big awards individuals along with the rest of 'em. Okay, speaking of Bear Omoto, we were in this airport area and this was a designated surrender area for German troops in the area. They came in voluntarily, convoy after convoy, and it was our job to process them. We were told they could have this that and the other, but they cannot have firearms, knives, or anything like that. And if they have firearms you confiscate it. Bear was in one of these search groups that apparently had an officer come through with a sidearm. They are told to lay everything out of their total possessions and they, the group from 442 would inspect 'em. And Bear was in this group that relieved this one officer of this sidearm. It happened to be a, it happened to be a thirty-two caliber Beretta, I think. It was a small one. And this was fairly late in the processing, so it was a prize, is what it was. And there was a group of people... group of 442 members that had to go and see it and fondle it and do whatever they do with a weapon that's, that's just been relieved from the enemy. But I was away from that particular group at the time and I heard a "pop" and apparently this pistol went off. Somebody had it. Bear was shot in the arm. The bullet was dangling just under the skin on his, I think it's his left elbow. Anyway, million dollar wound. So, he's rushed off to medics and that's the last I see of Bear, 'cause obviously he went to a hospital, or wherever they treated him. And talk about a million dollar wound. He was... "You're going home, soldier." So, I don't see him from there, that point on. But I, but that particular weapon is still there... on the examination area. Since Bear was the last one to have it, they said it was his. I mean, it was... so I took possession of that particular gun and carried it with me throughout the remainder of the time I spent in Italy and declared it as a war trophy and brought it home. I requested a discharge in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, because my brother was there, or out in Chicago at least. And I got the weapon back as far as Chicago. And Bear is living in Chicago, so I'm told. So I take this thing and says, "Hey, here's your war trophy." That million dollar wound.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.