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LD: How did the other American troops treat you, the fellows in your unit? Actually, over time, you had to win them over.

HM: That's right.

LD: How was it for you to deal with?

HM: Well, at the very outset, when we went overseas, the language school, intelligence school, on an experimental basis, tried our unit as a unit in the front lines. That was the purpose and the object for sending us out as a group. Now, one group came from the Caribbean, another group came from Camp Carson in Colorado. Then we picked up some other units, and they joined us in San Francisco. San Francisco we went on the Lurline, it was all painted green, olive drab. And when we set sail, we didn't know anyone. We didn't even know officers, the commanding officer or anything, we just came from Minneapolis, right into San Francisco. And, well, the way the other troop people, "So that's how a Japanese looked like," the way they looked at us. We imagined all those things. And, well, they stared at us and all that, they didn't know how Japanese looked like.

And we went on board, and I guess some of the officers felt that there might be some harm done to us. We were in about one or two cabins, we had good rooms and all that. But along that line now, the officers decided to have us give talks to the troops. So all of us gave something, some aspect of how Japanese behaved. Somebody may have given the weapons of Japanese army, and the geography of Japan. All of those things, and there were fourteen of us, so fourteen of us went all over the ship and spoke to the group. And by then, we were really a godsend to them. They were blind, deaf, that's why the Japanese attacked them. They don't know anything how they behaved in combat. So by the time we were in India, we had picked up the whole battalion from Guadalcanal, combat wise veterans from Guadalcanal. And that was the 3rd Battalion of which Hank Gosho was. He was in 3rd Battalion, and they were battle wise already.

So when we landed in Bombay, we had the regiment. We didn't have any vehicles at all, because Burma, mountainous terrain, muddy, monsoon, you can't take any kind of vehicles in there. So we brought Missouri mules, and they were so surprised, the mules, of the size of the mules in the Orient, throughout China, Japan, all over. They're so small, short, low, they could, pony or something. Now when the mules came, they came along with the mule attendants, we used to call 'em, mule skinners. They actually cared for the mules. And the way they handled the mules, you can't even going, hit them or throw rocks at them or anything. Then they'll come after you.

Now, these people were all on our ship, and they had all kind of ideas how "Japs," the enemies. So we dwell on the behavior of the Japanese soldiers, we emphasized the point that in Japan they teach 'em from sixth grade, they imbue in them that spirit. They don't go with weapons, but they imbue in them the spirit of unification. Even if you're a small group of people, that small can penetrate a larger mass of people if they're unified. That's the part we dwell on, and show how Japanese unify, and they deified the emperor as a sun god. That was there way, and everybody just bowed to him, or in his direction. But they had one strength there: entire people unified spiritually. Now, with proper weapons, they can do damage. They can go into battle so easy for the leaders, the officers, to control them, and it is true. As far as training, ability, I would say the Japanese soldiers out-excelled us, oh, I don't know how many times.

Because look at myself, when I went in the army, I didn't even know how United States Army rifle looked like. I didn't know the first thing about training, drafted, I volunteered for the first draft. And went in, private, they issue us our clothing, rifle, and we didn't know how to, even how to shoot actually, in the true sense of the word shoot. But we can pick up a rifle, and blam. That's shooting, but we're not using it to the maximum efficiency.

So all this thing was taking us abroad, and by the time we landed in India, I would say well over fifty percent of the GIs were on the boat with us now, felt safer with us, any one of us. And we went into jungle training somewhere in central India, Deogarh, it's not even on a map, Deolali, [inaudible], river crossing and going into the jungle, and marksmanship, they used to give us certain amount of ammunition, shoot the targets.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1985 The Center for Educational Telecommunications and Densho. All Rights Reserved.