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MN: So in your case, you were assigned to B Battery 522. And at that time, did you know the other men in your battery?

KM: Oh, for the original Maui boys, yes, but there was just a handful. Like I said, of my original Maui group that moved into Camp Shelby. There were maybe three or four us in B Battery from Maui. Maybe five of us from Maui. And thereafter, people from Honolulu, Kauai, as well as later on from the relocation camps came in to make up the full complement of the B Battery.

MN: So in the B Battery, what was your role?

KM: In the beginning, everybody, I think the first three months, I don't recall, but basic training was strictly getting in condition. Exercise, marching, basic exercise and forced marches, really conditioned. Physical conditioning was the major part of basic training, you had the orientation of rifles and carbines and pistols in addition to physical training. But only after basic training did we get into artillery training where we were assigned different tasks. Up until then, all of us was physical conditioning.

MN: And how did you fare during that first three months of training?

KM: Oh, I think I was on average, I think, like everybody else. We were beat the first few, the first month or so. But soon enough, we were in good condition.

MN: And then in terms of, like, the conditions...

KM: Oh, we were in top physical condition. Within one month, I think, we were really, all of us were... I mean, we didn't know how to physically train and get prepared.

MN: And you know, when you folks were in training, how were your relations with, like, you were saying, later on, the Mainland AJAs came in. And then, of course, you had the haole officers. I want to know what your relations were like.

KM: There was very little interaction between the officers. Little interaction between the higher level noncoms, first sergeant, buck sergeant, staff sergeant. In my case, in B Battery, first sergeant, staff sergeant, one was quartermasters, one was the gun crew, and the rest were buck sergeants, full buck sergeants. There was this group of non-coms, just a handful of non-coms in the artillery section, and the rest were basically corporals or private first class or just plain privates.

MN: And then what was the rank you were given?

KM: After a while, and I don't know how long afterwards, when we got assigned to our task as artillerymen, I was assigned as a gunner corporal, who was in charge of, basically, the deflection of the gun was determined by the gunner corporal. And he was given the rank of corporal, and that's why he was called gunner corporal. But four guns had one gunner corporal. See, each battery had four guns, and we had three batteries, to they have twelve guns in the battalion. There was one headquarters, the headquarters were in the so-called fire direction center, where they charted out the lay of the land where the gun was placed, where the gun would fire. This was done on the headquarters in the fire direction center. And there was a group that was called the forward observers, who was the group that went -- in the 442 case, these forward observers went with the infantry. In the ordinary setup, the 442nd Combat Team was a unique concept at that time. The regular army system was, you had a regiment of infantry who were on their own, basically. And they were supported by the artillery of the division. But they did not work hand to hand like the 442 did. In the normal system at that time, the infantry group relied on their group artillery for fire support. But they did their mission by, so-called by the book. And if the infantry was engaged, the artillery would be assigned to support them, and the forward observers of that artillery group did not go with the infantry attacking squad. They stayed behind five hundred yards, in some cases up on the mountainside, and communicated with the infantry through radio or through the wire. And the fire direction was given by the infantry group to the forward observers who were safely back in the distance. But in the case of the 442, the forward observers was with the attacking squad of the infantry. They were part of the infantry.

MN: Why was it set up that way? It was like a departure from usual practice.

KM: Because the combat team was formed as a unit, the 442 was formed as an assigned group of infantry, assigned group of artillery and assigned group of engineers, to work as a team. That was an unusual concept at that time, as I understand it. And I think because of the success of the 442, I think other commanders must have got the idea to tie up. But as I know, the concept of a combat team was very unusual at that time.

MN: So later on it became sort of like a model.

KM: Yeah. Because like we've said so many times, by the time we went to overseas, the reputation of the 442 had already gone ahead of us in terms of their capacity to do certain things in the field.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.