<Begin Segment 14>

LT: Well, after your success in France, the 100th Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team was sent to Italy.

KY: Yeah.

LT: And you fought the Gothic Line. What was the Gothic Line and why was it important?

KY: Okay. The Gothic Line is the Po River. Arno River, then next is the Po River. And Mark Clark sent in (forty) thousand men to see if he could crush the Gothic Line. Hitler sent his best troops down to Po River because he didn't want them to break the Gothic Line, because that was a real strategic line. Because if we broke that line, it's a straight run through Italy. And that's when they called us back from France to Italy to see if we could break the Gothic Line. Day before we broke the Gothic Line, we climbed a three thousand foot cliff on the, that'd be the west bank of the German line, and Germans never thought anybody could break, I mean, climb that hill. So they didn't send any troops to protect that cliff, but we fooled them. They climbed that hill. Now, before I get to that, that morning, we were in a firefight to clean out the Germans. And I was down to see what I need to (...) build this bridge across the river. And apparently that was the time that I got shot. I didn't know I was shot until I was going, I went back to get the rest of the guys, blood was coming down my arm so then they knew I was shot. So the aid man looked at that, he wrapped it up and sent me to the field hospital. There were seven of us at the field hospital, three Germans, four Americans in this field hospital. I was right in between two Germans. At first I felt, god, this is kind of a weird feeling. But I said to myself, hey, they're only humans. They're no different than I am. So then I got at ease.

Then that evening, they put me on an ambulance and took me down to Naples for the general hospital. Then when I... I was there for thirty-two days, and I got back to the company. And when I got back to the company, we got, soon as I got back that same day, we got word there were twenty-five thousand Germans in the pocket, they won't give up. So they asked us to get 'em out of there. So we got all the firepower we could get, tanks, artillery, everything, And I drove the jeep down this road, and I hadn't gone four miles, and white flag. Germans gave up. The reason why they gave up, the young German soldiers shot their own sergeants and lieutenants so they could give up. Because the sergeants and the lieutenants, they didn't want to give up. And soon as we did that, the war ended.

LT: You faced so much adversity as a...

KY: Oh, that's why I didn't climb this hill, I was in the hospital. My kid brother did. He climbed up that hill.

LT: Because you were in the field hospital. What exactly is a field hospital?

KY: Oh, field hospital is a big white tent. And they had quite a few of those, and that particular tent I was in there was seven of us. It's just the receiving center to send down to the hospital in Naples.

LT: So I need to ask a question, because your goal on the field is to kill the Germans with your guns, and if you don't kill them and they're injured, you bring them back to the field hospital and you help them to heal?

KY: See, that's the difference between the Americans and the Germans. Germans wouldn't do that. I think they'd probably shot us instead of taking time to treat you. But we, once you're wounded, you're a human being. You're not a fighter anymore. So our, the philosophy of the Americans was a little different than the Germans, a lot different.

LT: So you were surrounded by German soldiers in the field hospital. Well, during the war in Europe, you also saw a lot of injured and a lot of deceased soldiers. I understand that you once saw a former classmate?

KY: Huh?

LT: I understand that you once saw a former classmate? I understand that you once saw a former classmate in the field?

KY: Oh, yeah. He was shot just before this Lost Battalion thing. I felt real bad about that, real bad. We played football together and everything. So that really, that really touched me.

LT: I can imagine. It has to be so difficult to lose members of your squad and battalion and friends.

KY: Being a classmate's even more than a member of your own squad. He was in a different squad, I mean, different company, but still, being a classmate in high school, it's a different feeling altogether.

LT: So what keeps you going as a soldier?

KY: You know, that's a difficult question to ask. Because what kept us going is to get the best of our enemy, to protect the United States of America against our enemy, and that you're a part of it. And that's your goal, to protect the USA against our enemy. And the way it turned out, Germans today are one of our best friends, Japan is one of our best friends. Hey, that tells you something, doesn't it? [Laughs]

LT: Did it ever occur to you and others in your battalion that while you were fighting the enemy, your family was also behind barbed wire and you were, your family was being discriminated against?

KY: No. As soon as I volunteered, my family was able to leave, so they went all over the country. I didn't tell you this Gothic Line was crushed by four thousand men, thirty-two minutes, where forty thousand men couldn't crush it in six months. That also tells you something. Whoever thought of that had a brilliant mind. And I think it was our Lieutenant Kim, who was our observation officer, I think he climbed that hill the day before to see if it (can be) done.

[Interruption]

LT: This is part three of our interview with Dr. Kenji Yaguchi on April 2, 2014, sorry. [Laughs] So while you were in Europe, were you able to send letters to your family?

KY: Yes, but not... I didn't have that much time to write letters. I probably wrote, I wrote a half a dozen letters was all I sent. And we used that... what is that kind of... s-mail or whatever you call it? Yeah, like email, except with paper.

LT: What kinds of things did you tell your family about what you were doing?

KY: No, I didn't. You can't write anything about what you're doing. Because every letter you wrote was censored. They would black out the places they don't want your family to hear. That's the reason why I didn't write too many. Because they get an s-mail, over half was crossed out.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.