<Begin Segment 39>

TI: Yeah, sort of taking a step back, and we talked earlier about how there was that incident when, when the Caucasian units would order you in front, and we talked about being kind of used as cannon fodder. And I was thinking about the rescue of the "Lost Battalion" and how you, the 442 was ordered to go save them in a very, again, difficult situation. Did the men ever talk about, like, General Dahlquist and some of his decisions, and how he put you and the others at risk?

GS: Yeah, he's, in fact, one other platoon, oh, it was the 100th with Kim.

TI: Colonel Kim.

GS: Kim, so when he, he had to, Dahlquist come up and says, "Why don't you go forward?" he says, "There's no Germans in this area." But Kim told him, "Well, fifty feet over that way is, there are Germans there." "Oh, there's nothing out there." 'Til his aide got shot, Dahlquist was... but so everybody was always saying, "Dahlquist is using us as cannon fodder." No matter what the cost, we were to take the rescue of the "Lost Battalion." Look how many men got killed. I Company lost, what, only seven guys left standing, and K Company, only seventeen men standing out of forty men. Seventeen?

TI: Yeah, even some of the men of the "Lost Battalion," after their rescue, they found out how many casualties that the 442 took --

GS: For the Hill 617, eight hundred and some got killed or wounded, and to rescue the...

TI: Yeah, and they actually said that when they think about it, they said it probably wasn't worth it, even though it was them who was being rescued.

GS: Yeah.

<End Segment 39> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.