Paul Yamashita oral history interview, September 26, 2003

The interview begins with Paul Yamashita talking about his life, growing up in Hakalau Hawaii on a sugarcane plantation. He would attend regular and Japanese school and enjoyed playing games with friends and pounding mochi on New Years. Next, he…

Yamashita talks more about his time at Camp Shelby in Mississippi. There, he see segregation of races for the first time and talks about some of the experiences he had there. He also talks about meeting Earl Finch and how generous he was towards the…

Yamashita discusses the fighting between the Hawaiian and mainland soldiers, until Earl Finch decided to take some of the Hawaiian soldiers to the American concentration camps to show them what the mainland soldiers were going through. After that,…

Yamashita talks more about his war experiences, including going through France, taking heavy casualties and complete darkness in the Vosges Mountains. There, he would see the power of the German snipers and the courage of the non-commissioned…

Yamashita talks about his whereabouts during the end of the war. At the time of the V-J day, he was guarding German prisoners of war in Italy but would get the chance to come home due to the points system. He would ship back to the Hawaii, but would…