<Begin Segment 37>

TI: So after the hill...

GS: We had orders to go after the "Lost Battalion." So then we went to the left side, we took the hill, and another part of this, back of this one hill, Hill 617, 100th was taking the back side, back end of that hill. 'Cause we had outskirted the Germans by going, without making any noise. There were still troops behind there where we were, where we had, but they were on the other side of the ridge, this side.

TI: So you had to clean all that up.

GS: And we were on the right side of it. And when we went out and crawled, walked at night without any noise, they were here but we were here. So then we took this hill here, and then 100th finally had to go back and come into the ridge, this ridge here. And then we followed towards. And the middle, I Company, 3rd Battalion was in the valley, 2nd Battalion went on this other, left side. So this was going through, and I Company was on the valley looking, they took the brunt of the thing because everybody, all the Germans were down, dug in, in the valley area, shooting at the "Lost Battalion." Plus the hill on here, shooting. So then when we went more, I heard the mortar shell goes and he hit this hill where the 100th Battalion was. Then I hit the ground, and I heard the mortar shell go off again, hit this hill. The third one went off and I says, "I have to fight around that hill." So I hit the deck twice over here and I thought, "That's the final round." So I didn't, I was halfway down and boom, picked me up, here to there. Then the artillery shells started really coming in, 'cause they knew our troop was moving here and the 100th was moving here, we were moving here, and I Company's down below.

So there were all kinds of artillery coming in, mortar shells coming, and so I had to dig in, and I threw my pack off and I tried to dig in. I could pick my elbow this way, but I couldn't move my elbow up here to pitch it, you know. "What the heck? I can't move this arm." Then I looked at my pack, and I had that overcoat and I packed it real tight. I was going to throw that overcoat away 'cause it was getting too damn heavy. But it was snowing, so I had to keep it, so I packed it four or five times in my pack, I saw a hole through there. And I, I ached all over, but I didn't feel no, nothing here. And I took off my jacket, and, "Oh, I've got a hole in my jacket." Then I felt the trickle of blood going down my spine, "Hey," I told the sergeant, "I'm hit." He looked and he didn't see no blood, he says, "You're not hit. Dig, dig." [Laughs] He tells me to dig, says, "I can't dig." Then he comes a little closer and he looks at me, "Oh, I guess you're hit. Gotta go back, back to the aid station." Artillery shells were coming in, booming, I got fifteen, twenty feet above that way, I'm blown up again and picked me up, but the concussion just threw me over. But I didn't hit anywhere else, I was all right, finally made it to the aid station, got to the aid station. I had more than nine lives.

TI: And so a piece of shrapnel had, had gone through your pack and your overcoat.

GS: Hit my spine.

TI: Hit your spine...

GS: Ricocheted, it's in my left lung here. It's about this size, still here.

TI: And the fact that you had that overcoat there kind of softened it or deadened it? 'Cause otherwise it might have gone right through your spine if it...

GS: Right, it would have penetrated, if I didn't have that overcoat, it would have penetrated, the momentum would have hit my spine and wouldn't be here. But the overcoat stopped most of the momentum from, force of going through, straight through, would have severed my spine, but it just, momentum stopped it enough to penetrate and bounce off of my spine and into my left lung.

TI: I mean, literally, you do have nine lives. I mean, in just hearing these last two hours from when Yohei was killed in terms of artillery was right to you, the tank shooting the artillery at you, the charge up the 617.

GS: But I didn't tell you about that other time when I was marching, and the sergeant said something to me, I was taking a step, and I turned around and said, "What?" Pow, hit the tree. If I had went forward, it would have hit me. But I stopped to turn to see what he's saying, hit, went past my left ear and it hit the tree I was standing next to. [Laughs] So that was another one.

TI: Do you ever think about why you lived?

GS: That's why I can't understand how I'm still alive. I had pneumonia, even when I got out of the hospital, I was in Long Beach, California, I had pneumonia, 105 degrees, and I survived that.

TI: Because I have to tell you, Joe, I mean, leading up to this, the battle scenes, I don't think I would have said you were a candidate to be a war hero. I mean, you're right, you were small, you were in some cases weaker in terms of climbing hills, you had this past of being sick, and yet what you did was extraordinary. I mean, what is it that, that made that happen.

GS: I don't know.

TI: I mean, part of it, I think, was the death of your friend Tanimachi that...

GS: That was most of it. Yohei dying.

TI: Yohei died.

GS: Futamata dying, then Masaoka.

TI: At some point, do you just sort of don't care anymore, or what is it that... because I was thinking at the very beginning, there was more of a tentativeness in terms of the battles, and perhaps more fear. But at the end, it looked like you were literally fearless, you didn't care.

<End Segment 37> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.