<Begin Segment 19>

NA: And another thing I experienced, we had anti-aircraft Caucasian units protecting us from the German planes. And one of the crew member from that anti-aircraft outfit was gonna get a pass to go home. So he was so thrilled about being able to go home because his mother had passed away. And it was raining just hard as it could, it was a summer monsoon, probably, in Italy, dry old hot Italy, and it was just pouring rain. And here this soldier, Caucasian soldier was sleeping in that rain with no protection, rain pouring down on him, and we said, "Hey, get under cover." He says, "Oh, no, I'm going home tomorrow, so I'm going to just, I'm just enjoying the rain," he said. And, and then in Italy, we were able to fraternize with the Italian people, and so in one position, we struck -- well, my other machine gunner, Morishita from Seattle that I told you about? He, he and I was walking around the field, and we came upon this Italian boy. Oh, he must have been eighteen years old, and we struck up, up a conversation with him. And we found out he was an opera singer, so right out in the open, we said, "Hey, sing to us." So he started singing, oh, he had a wonderful voice. That voice, we could hear it echo all throughout the valley. And so that was another kind of a treat we had as a soldier.

And by then, the Caucasian soldiers knew the Niseis, we were good fighters, and so they were friendly with us. In the stateside, they used to call us "Japs," and we used to have to have a fight with them and all that kind of stuff. But on the battlefield, we were good fighters, and all the Caucasian units knew we were. And we were attached to the 34th Division, and again, Morishita and I was just walking around the countryside taking in the views. And we were walking on this railroad track, and lo and behold we came to a warehouse, and the warehouse was occupied by the American army bakery, and we could smell the aroma of the fresh bread. And it didn't, and since the Caucasians, they were now our friends and we were their friends, we were their friends more than they were our friend because we still had bitterness from the discrimination in the stateside. But anyway, this one fellow, he was out for a smoke by the door, and he waved like this. And we said, "Oh, what's he want?" When we got there, he said, "Hey, you guys hungry?" and we said, "Yes." And so he came out, he went back in and came out with two loaves of bread. He said, "Here, catch," threw us one loaf of bread apiece, and it was still warm. And boy, talk about a feast, that bread tasted so good, Morishita ate his whole loaf by himself, and I ate my loaf, whole loaf by myself, and boy, I'm telling you, that's the best-tasting bread I ever had. Good old hot bread right out of the oven.

TI: Good, that's a good story.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.