<Begin Segment 11>

KM: But the other memorable incident in Sospel was, in that area, there were lots of persimmon trees. Oh, it was just loaded, Menton especially, loaded with persimmon trees. But it was better, it had to be fully ripe before you could eat those. But I thought, well, you know, I'm going try and see if I can dry persimmons like I've had, you know, before the war, a few choice possession of Japanese dried persimmons, and I remember that. And I didn't know how it was done, but I figured out, well, I'm going to try it. Or what I see, remember is that that persimmons were tied and hung up to dry. So I peeled the persimmons, I hung 'em up to dry, but I couldn't wait until it was completely dried before it was, you have, I had about a dozen in my pup tent. But before I could get it dried, and when they became edible, I ate it all up. But it was really good. Somehow, I don't know, how come the persimmons, how the French people prepared it? And we didn't get to talk to too many French people. Because it was just a matter of going down, overnight visit down to Nice, and it was maybe once a week or something like that, we had these passes, they're going to Nice. And one of the things that I remember, significance of Nice is that there was a small little photo studio called Erpe. I remember the name distinctly because I have copies of the pictures. Almost, I would say eighty, ninety percent of artillery boys got their pictures taken at the studio in Erpe. It was a small little dinky little studio, and it was very nominal, the price for taking pictures. But all of us who had their pictures taken came out looking like movie stars. They were really experts in photography. And I believe eighty to ninety percent of the artillery boys got their pictures taken.

WN: You have your picture?

KM: I have my picture.

WN: I gotta see this.

KM: Yeah, I look completely different in that picture. Later on we found out, sure enough, movie actors and actresses, French actors had the pictures all taken by Studio Erpe. It was a well-known studio.

MN: Was that studio owned by the Millau family?

KM: I don't know, I have no idea. It's Erpe, E-R-P-E, with an apostrophe as I recall. But I do know that almost all of our boys have a picture by, taken by Studio Erpe.

WN: These are like formal photos, you know, with your uniform and everything?

KM: No, no, no, it was just casual. But the picture was like a portrait, it came out like a portrait.

MN: You know, when you were in like Italy and France, did you have a camera?

KM: I never did, but they were, Sus Ito, the biochemist from Harvard, later on, he was a lieutenant in the artillery. He had a camera, small little camera, and he took a lot of pictures. Today, copies were made and a lot of the boys pass it around among themselves and all dubbing that was done. And that's how we got a lot of the pictures, up front pictures. And one of our boys from Wahiawa, Takamori, Noboru, he was a photographer, and he had a camera. And I think you should find out from the family what happened to his archives?

MN: This is Noboru...

KM: Takamori. In the Fire for Effect book, most of the pictures in there is by Takmori.

MN: And then, you know, before we leave the Nice Menton area, the Champagne Campaign, during the Champagne Campaign, were there Germans shelling, and you folks returning to the line?

KM: Menton was just on the border between Monaco and Nice, smaller place. We did receive some shelling from the Germans, but nobody got hurt. But it was a nuisance fire, it wasn't that frequent. But I guess he was just an erratic, hit or miss kind of a thing because it didn't seem to have any direction and nobody got hurt.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.