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MN: Then let's go back to when you folks were first in France and you went to Bruyeres, Marseille first and you went to like Bruyeres and Biffontaine.

KM: Yes, and then we moved up... artillery by our own trucks, we had to take our trucks and guns. So we drove up what was called... I forgot what the name of that, the Valley of, in the middle of France, the Rhone Valley, and we rode this famous highway from Marseille on up to Lyon, Epinal, and then Bruyeres. We had to stay over one night, one or two nights on the way up to Bruyeres. I think it was maybe one night we had to lay over because it was such a long trip. But that Rhone Valley highway, French highway, was very notorious, in that the French people had the use of their own cars and whatnot, and most of it was charcoal burning cars that burned charcoal as fuel. And most of the European countries at that point had charcoal, but even Germany and Belgium that I visited had charcoal burning cars. I don't think gasoline was available. But I don't know if it was the French or whether it was American troops -- mostly French -- were notorious drivers. And this Rhone Valley highway was noted for all of the accidents that happened on this road. And we could clearly see the evidence of all the accidents because this narrow highway had trees lined up. All European roads, you know, had trees, apple trees, mostly apple trees and fruit trees along them. And evidence of accidents were all over the place. In fact, a lot of the cars were left as-is when it was a total wreck, it was just left on the roadside. And we would see this evidence because we traveled this highway going up to Bruyeres, coming down from Bruyeres, when we went to recuperate after the Lost Battalion in Nice. We spent Nice from November to... I forget when it was. And then then we had to go back on the same route when we were ordered to go to invade Germany. So we drove this route going, coming and going in on two different occasions, the Rhone Valley, and it was a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful countryside. Hard to forget, because you had the hills and the valleys and rivers and most of it was along the river. I guess that's the Rhone River, most of the highway was along the river, so it was beautiful countryside.

MN: Traveling along that road, did you ever feel vulnerable?

KM: No, it was completely... there was no evidence of any war, no war-torn cities or anything. You see, I think, you remember when the Germans first invaded and occupied France, they did so without, right after the Maginot Line was broken. And so south of Paris there was no war damage, so to speak. And this was in the middle of France, Lyon and Epinal, Dijon, we all passed through these cities. In fact, the one night, I think it was in Dijon.... Dijon, yeah. There was a circus going on the night that we had one day off, and so we had a wonderful time at the circus. This is when I first met Dan Inouye. Because the infantry boys were there, too. The infantry boys, they went by train and they laid over that night over there. And my good friend from Maui, who we grew up together, was Dan Aoki. I don't know if you folks know, but he was the enforcer for Jack Burns, Governor Burns. Anyway, "Balloon," as we knew him., he was from Maui, we grew up together. He's a couple of years older than I was, but a very good family friend and all that. I happened to see him on this night, one night out in Dijon. And he had a couple of boys with him and he said, "Hey, Kats, come, I want you to meet somebody." And by that time we had heard... now this is, as I said, we hear all kinds of things. We had heard about the young punk who was one of the up and coming officers, because he had just gotten his field commission, by the name of Dan Inouye. And he grabbed me and said, "Come, I want you to meet my friend and my lieutenant." And that's how I first remember meeting him. He had just become a field commission officer, and for me, it was such a big thing, because we had already heard about the exploits of this, and daring, devil-may-care, tremendously sharp field commission officer. And somehow I cannot forget that experience, and that was the first time I met Dan Inouye. And there was a circus, we enjoyed ourselves at the circus. In fact, was it there or was it Belgium, after the war? No, after the war, we had occasion to visit Belgium, I remember one of the first thing we had was banana ice cream... banana split. We enjoyed banana split in Belgium, because Belgian Congo was part of Belgium and it was still a colony of Belgium and banana was one of its biggest export items. And so, we had a banana split in Belgium and at that time, it was quite a treat. But in France... and then we, as I said, we on three different occasions went up and down the road of Rhone Valley.

MN: And then the first time you folks are going up, you folks were heading towards Bruyeres?

KM: Bruyeres.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.