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WN: You know, you folks were together a lot during the war. Did you folks ever get tired of each other? Did you folks get into arguments?

KM: I don't recall ever any of our boys ever having any argument among ourselves. I don't remember. I don't remember ever within our battery. Of course, there were boys who were hard to get along with, who very much liked to be left alone. And there were, for every one of us, there were moments when you wanted to be alone, you didn't want to be bothered. There were lots of times when people would let you be alone, be reflective of...

MN: In those days, were there, you know, by your recall, were there any instances where men were really troubled, being depressed or emotionally disturbed?

KM: From the very beginning of our training in Camp Shelby, there was one of the boys who we thought was very unsettled, disturbed, very quiet, never did associate with the rest of the boys too much, always by himself. And before basic training was over, I think he was sent back home. And he was a likable guy from Kauai and I've tried to follow up as to whatever happened, but I never could locate him in Kauai after the war. But he, I understood he was discharged from the army very early in our training. And then later on, we had a kibei who was in the 442 and he could barely speak English, but he was in the army. And so they put him into the mess hall, he was a cook. And everything was all right until Tokyo was being bombed by the American airplanes. And then we noticed that he seemed to be very quiet, very... and, as I understand it, it got so bad that he never went overseas with us. Before going to overseas, I don't know, ultimately, whatever happened to him because we left without him. But, and this was primarily because he was worried as we understood about the bombing in Tokyo. And he had, evidently he had parents in Tokyo. But talking about, those were the two in my battery that I know personally about.

MN: And then, you know, people mentioned the chaplains, Chaplain Higuchi, Chaplain Yost, just from your experience, direct experience with the men in your group, to what extent did the men that you know, have cause to see the chaplain?

KM: Chaplain Higuchi was the chaplain for 2nd Battalion, I think, and Chaplain Yamada was the chaplain for 3rd Battalion, and Chaplain Yost was for the 100th. And the artillery had a Chaplain West, a Caucasian chaplain, I don't remember where he came from or what because we had very little ties with him. I don't know for what reason, but I don't remember too many contacts with Chaplain West other than when he notified me that my brother had been killed in an automobile accident. But he wasn't close to the boys. There was a gap that I don't think we ever, I don't remember attending any church services with him. Some of our boys, even I, maybe when we had the chance, we would attend something that Chaplain Higuchi or Chaplain Yamada had on the infantry side, but I have very vague recollections of interchange with Chaplain West, other than the one time that he came to inform me about my brother's accident.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.