Densho Digital Archive - George T. "Joe" Sakato Interview (denshovh-sgeorge-01-0038)

<Begin Segment 38>

GS: There was another thing prior to 617, we went out on a patrol to see where the Germans were at, just twelve of us going out. So we, taken downhill and I listen, I can hear some German talking, and then pretty soon he, Norman Shibata was on the right side, and he got behind a log, laying on the ground. And then this German was talking, giving instructions, and pretty soon the machine guns went up and hit Norman Shibata's backpack. This German was giving instructions that, I found, saw him, so I shot him. Shot him in the legs and knocked him down. And he turned around and he saw me, he made a mistake of picking up his gun. So he picked up his gun, I shot him again, but I hit him down in the lower part, knocked him down. And he was hollering for help, so we says, "Well, we know where the Germans are, let's go back." So we were heading for our lines, I can hear the Germans hollering and screaming for help, nobody came. Pretty soon I was, got to top of our ridge, and boom, something went off, explosions down where he was, no more crying. So when I went back to see, we took that hill back, he had stuck a grenade under his head and blew his head off.

TI: So for him just to end the suffering, that he knew that he wasn't going to be saved, and so he, he killed himself.

GS: That's why I wear this medal for him, too. He'll never go home. I felt sorry for him, but just one of those things, yeah. We even captured one young kid was coming down, his overcoat was too big for him and everything, German soldier, and, "What's the matter?" I told him, "Halt," and he's surprised, he saw me, he ran down and got behind a big rock like this, and we was up here, and he got down behind here. So I threw a grenade down here, Sergeant Takemoto went around this side and I went around this side to shoot him. He was on his knees and shivering and scared, he was only a fifteen year old kid. He was lost, he didn't, and he didn't have any guns with him or anything, but he was scared.

TI: And so Joe --

GS: The shrapnel didn't even hit it.

TI: Yeah, I'm curious, as you talk about being, sort of, in this close contact with German soldiers, did you ever get a sense of the German soldiers and how they looked or thought about the 442 or the Japanese American soldiers? Did they, like, know that, who you were, or did they, did that register at all?

GS: I heard about it from another bunch. One, one group captured this one soldier, he spoke English and he was educated in the U.S. And he says, he was cussing us out, says, "You dumb Japs, you're supposed to be our allies," and this and that. But this guy's Hawaiian brother was killed, so he was supposed to take him as prisoner, and they took him over the hill and [imitates sound of machine gun fire]. That ended his life. They shot him because his brother got killed and he was mad, so he wasn't going to take him as prisoner, he was cussing us out, this and that, so he shot him.

TI: I just think about war and how, how horrible...

GS: It was bad.

TI: ...how these things happen.

GS: It wasn't good. When people die and you shoot somebody, and I shot so many. And then after I shot 'em, you know, I didn't think of it, but only this one kid that I shot, he was screaming for help and didn't come, so he blew himself up. I felt sorry for him.