1 100 3 https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/8586258a36ea1234d45ed4cad39d804a.xml 405ea0409737011e855bacd18e9e3289 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Kazuichi Hamasaki oral history interview, March 21, 2006 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL http://www.goforbroke.org/oral_histories/mp4/657-Hamasaki-Kaz-2.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1922 May 02 Location of Birth Wailuku (Maui), Hawaii War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Volunteered Nickname Kaz Location of Basic Training Camp Shelby, Mississippi Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles North Africa Deployment Naples-Foggia Campaign Northern Apennines and Po Valley Campaigns Bruyeres, Belmont, Biffontaine Rescue of the Lost Battalion Vosges The Gothic Line Index indicates an oral history item with an XML file indexed in OHMS. Yes Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Kazuichi Hamasaki oral history interview, part 2 of 2, March 21, 2006 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hamasaki, Kazuichi: narrator Okitsu, Walter: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2006OH0657_02_Hamasaki Description An account of the resource Hamasaki discusses his time overseas fighting in the war. To begin, he talks about his combat experience at Hill 140, Bruyeres, and the Vosges Mountains. Next, he talks about the Champagne campaign in France, which would be his final campaign before the end of the war. After the war, his team was instructed to guard over the German prisoners of war in southern Milan until sent to Leghorn to ship back to the United States. After finally getting back to Hawaii, Hamasaki attended college at Graceland University in Iowa, followed by his master's degree at Omaha University in Nebraska. Following this, he moved to Honolulu, where he would start a family and start his career in social work. A few years later, he would move back to Maui to continue his career working for the State of Hawaii. Next, he talks about his family background, other activities that he has been involved with and a message to future generations. Finally, he looks through various photos and narrates them. Subject The topic of the resource World War II--European Theater World War II--Military service--442nd Regimental Combat Team Japanese Americans--Post-World War II Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 0:58:47 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006 March 21 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Maui, Hawaii 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) 442nd Regimental Combat Team Bruyeres Carrara Champagne Campaign discharge family France G Company German soldiers Graceland University Hill 140 Honolulu Iowa Italy Lamoni Leghorn (Livorno) Lieutenant Tanahashi Livorno Maui Milan Monte Casino Omaha University Po Valley prisoners of war shrapnel social work tree bursts Vosges Mountains https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/ce13d4ac4ebd9a71f1b81b73ffc0b47a.xml 3015a51ab9256103bcc58cf26b5eef56 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Kazuichi Hamasaki oral history interview, March 21, 2006 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL http://www.goforbroke.org/oral_histories/mp4/657-Hamasaki-Kaz-1.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1922 May 02 Location of Birth Wailuku (Maui), Hawaii War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Volunteered Nickname Kaz Location of Basic Training Camp Shelby, Mississippi Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles North Africa Deployment Naples-Foggia Campaign Northern Apennines and Po Valley Campaigns Bruyeres, Belmont, Biffontaine Rescue of the Lost Battalion Vosges The Gothic Line Index indicates an oral history item with an XML file indexed in OHMS. Yes Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Kazuichi Hamasaki oral history interview, part 1 of 2, March 21, 2006 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hamasaki, Kazuichi: narrator Okitsu, Walter: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2006OH0657_01_Hamasaki Description An account of the resource Hamasaki begins by giving a background of his family, as well as a sense of what it was like growing up in Maui. Next, he talks about the Pearl Harbor attacks and the effects that it had on the community, the ministers and the Japanese language teachers being detained and sent away. Following high school, he would volunteer for the Army and head to the Schofield Barracks to get ready to ship to the mainland. After two weeks, he would be sent to Camp Shelby in Mississippi to begin his basic training and prepare to go overseas. A little over a year passes until he is sent to Oran, North Africa and then to Italy where he would see combat. At Hill 140 he would encounter many casualties and see the hardships of combat. Subject The topic of the resource Identity and values--Family Hawaii-- Pearl Harbor and aftermath World War II--European Theater World War II--Military service--Basic training--Camp Shelby World War II--Military service--442nd Regimental Combat Team Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 0:58:22 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006 March 21 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Maui, Hawaii 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) 442nd Regimental Combat Team basic training Camp Shelby Hawaii Hill 140 Hiroshima Honolulu Italy Japan K rations kibei Leghorn Lieutenant Tanahashi Maui Mississippi Naples North Africa Oran Pearl Harbor Schofield Barracks segregation St. Anthony School volunteer for service Wailuku https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/82081167ed1e4f703bf6fde2fd0c0f01.pdf e4c911a136a2b67cdc253e73468d5caa PDF Text Text Go For Broke National Education Center Oral History Project Oral History Interview with Kazuichi Hamasaki, March 21, 2006, Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii INTERVIEWER: Okay, it is Tuesday, March 21st 2006. We're in Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, here for an oral history with Mr. Kazuichi Hamasaki. I’m Walter Okitsu, interviewer, and on, okay, our videographer and audio is Jesse Kobayashi. And this interview's being conducted by the Hanashi Oral History Program of the Go For Broke Educational Foundation. So, Mr. Hamasaki, can you tell us your full legal name. HAMASAKI: Kazuichi Hamasaki. INTERVIEWER: Okay. And your date of birth and place of birth? HAMASAKI: May 2nd 1922, over here in Wailuku, Maui. INTERVIEWER: Okay. So you lived your whole life here in Wailuku? HAMASAKI: That’s right, I was born and probably die here in Maui. INTERVIEWER: Okay. And so you grew up [and] went to school here. Actually, tell us about your parents, about your mother, father, where they came from, their names? HAMASAKI: Yeah. My dad’s name Kiijiro Hamasaki and my mother’s name Yoshi Hamasaki, and both of them came from Hiroshima and they call the place Tano and Oko, and then I don’t know how they met, but, they got married and come to Hawaii to work in a sugar plantation. INTERVIEWER: When you say Tano and Oko . . . HAMASAKI: Yeah, that’s how they identify Hiroshima. Hiroshima is a big area so they say Tano; Tano means, I think, [02:00] “in a city area” and then Oko is “little bit farther away.” So that just, you know, within Hiroshima they lived together. INTERVIEWER: Oh, which one was in Tano and which one is in Oko? HAMASAKI: My father was in Tano and they call it Tano-cho, and then my mother was from Oko-cho, Oko-cho. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 1 of 50 �What was your mother’s maiden name? HAMASAKI: Hirai, H-I-R-A-I, Hirai. INTERVIEWER: Did they know each other in Hiroshima? Or did they meet here? HAMASAKI: No. They knew each other in Hiroshima. I don’t know how, I never did ask my parents how they got married and things like that. But they were married when they came back to---when they came to Maui. INTERVIEWER: Do you know when they arrived here? What year? HAMASAKI: No, I’m not very sure on that. But they landed in a very rural area called Kipahulu, Maui and that next large village is Hana, that’s a little bit famous, that’s where, so, that’s where they work on the Kipahulu plantation. INTERVIEWER: Can you tell us about brothers and sisters and name them? HAMASAKI: Yeah. We had---there was eight of us. There are first four boys, Yoshiro, Midori, Shigeru and Tadayoshi. And then came three sisters Shizuka, Yoshiko, and Misao. And I was the last one, supposed to be a girl, I guess, but I became a boy. So, I’m a little bit more effeminate. [04:00] Nah, nah, nah, I’m just kidding. INTERVIEWER: Do you know if they were all born in Maui, all eight of you? HAMASAKI: All on Maui that’s right. All on Maui. Island of Maui, right. INTERVIEWER: How much older was your oldest brother compared to you? HAMASAKI: Gee, you should have asked me that earlier so I can check it out a little bit, but they must have been about---see, my brother died when he was 91 so, a bit much older than me, about 30 years older, maybe. No, something like, no 20 years because they were all---my mother was able to pace the children by every three years she had a child. INTERVIEWER: So, your oldest brother was about 20 years older than you? HAMASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 2 of 50 �Yeah, about that, yeah. INTERVIEWER: Okay. So, did you all live in the house at the same time? HAMASAKI: Yes sir, we---the girls, mother and me, the three girls mother and me would be in one room and then the boys would be have two other room on plantation home so it was very small. INTERVIEWER: And when you were growing up, did you keep in touch with relatives in Japan? HAMASAKI: My parents did, but not---we---I---I’m not aware of any relatives or know their name or what. My one brother was sent to Japan, you know, to stay---stay with---send a child to stay with the grandfather over there and was educated there. That’s why he was known as Kibei, you know, Hawaii-born sent to Japan, educated, and he came back to Hawaii. INTERVIEWER: Which brother and where did he go to? HAMASAKI: Shigeru, and he went to Hiroshima. He was one of the more intelligent children we had. He was smart so he---they took him to Japan. INTERVIEWER: Did he come back from Hiroshima before . . . [06:00] HAMASAKI: Before the war. He went before the war. INTERVIEWER: Okay, so you grew up on a plantation or most of your childhood was in the plantation? HAMASAKI: My childhood was out of the plantation already. We had already moved out, the family. My parents were little bit ambitious, so we bought land, agriculture land, and we didn’t---we were the first Maui auto paint shop. First auto paint shop on the Island of Maui and then the first wholesale liquor store in Maui. So, they were kind of ambitious and we lived---I was born outside of the plantation. And then my sister too. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Did you work at either shops? HAMASAKI: Yeah, I helped in the paint shop. I used to do all the dirty works. I used to clean the cars and, see, they do a complete paint job; they take off the paint completely. So, I would do that. And then also the doctor said painting was not good because it was poisonous. So, we stopped that and we went into This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 3 of 50 �liquor business, wholesale/retail liquor business. And then my job was to---we used to bottle all our wine. We get the barrel from California sent to us in big barrels and that we have to bottle all the wine, and we used to sell that. So that was my job, cleaning the bottles and . . . INTERVIEWER: So you lived in Wailuku? HAMASAKI: Wailuku most of my life. INTERVIEWER: Where did you go to school? HAMASAKI: I went to public school for three years and then I transferred to St. Anthony [08:00] Catholic School, boys and girls catholic school, those days the boys are on one side of the school and the girls on the other side, that’s where I went. Then I graduated from St. Anthony School. INTERVIEWER: What was St. Anthony School like when you were there? HAMASAKI: It was known for their commercial educational program, so a lot of us went there, so we’ll be able to go into the bank as a clerk and things like that, or in accounting and things like that. And I know a little bit about bookkeeping then already, I used to help the bookkeeper keep the recording and things like that. INTERVIEWER: The bookkeeper for . . .? HAMASAKI: My---we hired a bookkeeper and he comes in everyday and do the daily transactions and I would help him record things like that. INTERVIEWER: For the liquor . . . HAMASAKI: For the liquor company, yeah. INTERVIEWER: . . . for the liquor store. Okay. Who were the students at the catholic school? HAMASAKI: Well, its supposed to be mostly Portuguese but was most---as you get to the higher level, say, from around the eighth grade, there were less Portuguese people, no Hawaiians, and some Filipino, they’re mostly Japanese oriental, Japanese and Chinese. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 4 of 50 �And how would you describe your performance in school? HAMASAKI: I didn’t do so well. In the early part, I was ranked one and two, you know, like that, but as it's getting little harder and harder, then I fell back. Around a student of 18 seniors, I was around the 10th, 11th rank. I’m lazy, I never did do some study. INTERVIEWER: It was a small school, I believe? HAMASAKI: Yeah, well our graduating class was 16 boys only. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Were there any extracurricular activities [10:00] there like sports or anything that you---or music? HAMASAKI: We just started football when our year started football, so we were kind of lousy school for football and little bit basketball. The only sport I participated was in soccer, but we were lousy, too, again. INTERVIEWER: Was there a Japanese language school that you were involved with? HAMASAKI: We were forced to go to Japanese language school, I hate it, I used to play hooky most of the time and didn’t do so well. And the only reason my father was kind of big shot in the Buddhist Church here that sponsored the language school, that they were able to keep me in there. Because I used to just fool around, me and another guy, we used to not go to school everyday, but, finally, I think I---they threw me out after the sixth grade. INTERVIEWER: So, you went for a few years, about six years? HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Who is your friend, Ben? Can you name him? HAMASAKI: He passed away, Muneo Yamamoto. See, when you ask me like that, I’m---my Alzheimer working on me that I cannot recall quickly but, Wakamatsu family. Oh, there are many other people. INTERVIEWER: Do you have any other friends you can recall, you know, close friends from your days in school? HAMASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 5 of 50 �Maybe one or two, their still alive and, you know, I see them: Meiji Hirose and then Tadashi Wakamatsu, now the name come to me, Tadashi Wakamatsu and those people, Yasu, [12:00] Yasushi Wakamatsu, the two brothers. We used to play football in a regular dirt ground and then things like that. INTERVIEWER: Did your brothers and sisters go to the same school, St. Anth---or at least your brothers to St. Anthony? HAMASAKI: Yeah, they all have to go to language school. INTERVIEWER: Okay. They went to the language school? HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Did they go to St. Anthony? HAMASAKI: No, no, I was the only one there. Most of my brothers quit at the eighth grade. I think, they were able to---the law was that they could before 16, now it’s 16, but before then, I think they were 12, 14, they had to work to earn a living to help the family. So, they didn’t go to school. Sixth grade maybe eighth grade was the most. My oldest---one of my older brother, Midori, was sent to Honolulu for school, at the Buddhist Church in Honolulu. So, he had a pretty good education. INTERVIEWER: What about Shigeru in Japan? HAMASAKI: Only Japanese school in Japan and then he didn’t go to English school, so . . . INTERVIEWER: What language did you speak at home? HAMASAKI: All broken English because even---we couldn’t speak good Japanese so, communication was purely Hawaiian-Japanese mixture: “go kau kau”, I was sleep, “nemasu” or something like that. Some basic word we knew; “arigato,” things like that. We can converse, maybe, with my mother everything. INTERVIEWER: How was your fa---[14:00] your parents' English where your father and mother---did they speak much English? HAMASAKI: They can speak English, you know, to communicate with your friends. But most of the time they’re among Japanese people so no problem. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 6 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: Do you recall most of your friends, acquaintances were Japanese, Hawaiians or were there other? HAMASAKI: Mostly Japanese. In our neighborhood, all of them were Japanese. No more Filipinos, no more---the Portuguese, they don’t come play with us. INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Do you recall any animosity between the ethnic groups in Maui? HAMASAKI: No, no animosity. INTERVIEWER: Okay. And you mentioned Buddhist Church, did you attend that regularly? HAMASAKI: We were forced to go every Sunday to the Buddhist Church and I wrote one part---place in there that when I was out in combat and then the first battle we face, I didn’t know any prayer but “Hail Mary Full of Grace the Lord is with Thee,” I prayed like hell. I talked to God and said, “Please don’t let them kill me,” you know. I didn’t know any Buddhist prayers so I didn’t . . . INTERVIEWER: Okay. Yeah. You knew the prayer from your catholic school days? HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Do you recall---so, there was not much interaction with the Portuguese or the Chinese or the Hawaiians or Filipinos? HAMASAKI: No, no, we had some good friends, Portuguese, [16:00] and our neighborhood had some good friends: Tony, Johnny, Louie, all of them guys were good friends. But, you know what? Then they work hard the Portuguese people. They had odd jobs when they came back from school: they had to milk the cow, feed the cows and pigs and things like that. So, they didn’t have time too much to play. INTERVIEWER: Did you ever have a chance to visit the other islands, growing up? HAMASAKI: No. On my senior year, my brother took me to Honolulu and that was a fantastic trip there. Never seen a big city like that and stayed in a hotel and it was a fantastic experience for me. I think, nobody else but my brother and I went to Honolulu those days. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 7 of 50 �Yeah. How did you feel about Honolulu, I mean, can you describe Honolulu back then, this would be the 1930s or '40s? HAMASAKI: Yeah, in the '30-something, late '30-something, maybe '40, before the war, anyway, I was able to go and see fantastic changes since then. INTERVIEWER: Did---anything---any other stories you can recall about your childhood friends or anything you recall about your growing up in Maui that you'd like to tell us about? HAMASAKI: We were just like a, you know, we were a group. Where we lived we were known as Papohaku, Papohaku [18:00] “rock,” that’s our group gang, and then there’s a Mill Camp gang. And then we'd challenge each other and then there were Iron Bridge Gang and then we challenge them and then another gang they call, the leader was Koi, so, the Okinawa group we used to challenge them all kind of sports and the sports would be rubber gun. Make gun with a rubber tube and then fire at each other for challenge. INTERVIEWER: And these gangs were friendly gangs? HAMASAKI: All friendly. All friendly. INTERVIEWER: Was it by neighborhood or by their ken, by their . . .? HAMASAKI: By their area, see, so our place was Papohaku, then right next to us near the plantation mill was known as the Mill Camp Boys, and then one is the Iron Bridge, where you cross Wailuku to Waihee is an iron bridge there; they were known as Iron Bridge people. INTERVIEWER: Do you ever run in to them? Have you run into them lately, any of these people? HAMASAKI: I think only maybe one guy just recently, you know, this reunion, a name came up, I forgot his first name but Oki. He is one of the kind of good physical athlete, and then also he was very intelligent and he did come out very successful man. Yeah, I met him once in a while. INTERVIEWER: But after you graduated high school, what were you doing? HAMASAKI: Then I volunteered into the United States Army, you know, that's when they---442nd was recruited. Just after the war, 1942, so . . . This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 8 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: So as soon as you graduated high school, you volunteered for the United States Army? HAMASAKI: No, no, there was a period where I worked and then my brother had some [20:00] plan to send me to mainland for education. My brother kind of adopted me, Midori, and took care of me, you know, send me to that private school, you know, I was very fortunate. INTERVIEWER: And he would have been about seven or eight years older than you, Midori? HAMASAKI: No, much older than me, you know, as I say, maybe it would have been about 17 years older than me. INTERVIEWER: Oh, you’re right. HAMASAKI: Yeah. But somehow he picked me and then took care of me. INTERVIEWER: So, you were working in the . . .? HAMASAKI: The (inaudible) Wholesale Liquor Company. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Okay. Is that where you were on December 7th 1941? Were you’re working there? HAMASAKI: That’s right, that’s right. INTERVIEWER: Do you recall that event? What can you tell us about that event? HAMASAKI: Well, I remember it was about 7 o’clock or somewhat in the morning, then everybody was saying, “Listen to the radio, go listen to the radio because their saying that the Japs are attacking Pearl Harbor.” Then we said, “No, that’s just maneuvers, they're just doing maneuvers.” And then the radio announcer kept on saying that “This is the real McCoy, this is the real McCoy, the Japs are attacking Pearl Harbor,” and so everybody was around talking a little bit, that's all, nobody was excited, we weren’t involved, see, so . . . INTERVIEWER: Okay. Your feeling was Pearl Harbor was far away? HAMASAKI: Far away, so it wasn’t no significance. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 9 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: What did---was there any impact later? HAMASAKI: The impact started, they---I think the United States Army even in Hawaii were preparing for the eventual attack of the Japanese, you know. And then, so, they had a national guard activated already. [22:00] So they were watching the main installation like the electrical power plant and things like that. So, we saw these people around like that already. And my mother used to bring food for them for their meals like that. So, because they’re local boys, Hawaiians, like that. So, we used to take care of them. INTERVIEWER: Was there any change in the neighborhood reactions among the residents here in the months that followed? HAMASAKI: Until I left Hawaii, I volunteered in the 442nd, I didn’t see any change or anything, nobody knew what was going on, you know, and nobody ever yelled at us or “You stinking Japs” or anything like that. INTERVIEWER: Was anybody arrested or taken away? HAMASAKI: I don’t---I didn’t know that people would be taken away, like the language school Japanese, the ministers, and some other prominent Japanese were, as I recall now, were evacuated to Honolulu and then they stay there for a while. I think the Buddhist minister was sent to the mainland. INTERVIEWER: So, when did you decide to volunteer? HAMASAKI: When they first announced that they were recruiting, oh, I don’t know, a thousand five hundred men from Hawaii. So, I was about the early people proud to volunteer for the United States Army. So, I was in line and I volunteered and I passed the physical examination. INTERVIEWER: What---you---so, your feeling is it's something you wanted to do. [24:00] How would you describe your feeling about volunteering, was it something you always wanted to do? HAMASAKI: Oh yeah. We thought we were so proud, yeah, we’re gonna do---fight for our country, so I, you know, I didn’t think I was a Japanese, I’m more---I’m American and, oh, we were so proud and we're the heroes. [Laughs.] INTERVIEWER: Okay. So, what happened? How did you volunteer and what happened? HAMASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 10 of 50 �Yeah, well, there’s one place in Wailuku where they send armory, National Guard Armory, and that was one of the place that they were---people would sign up for recruitment, and then after we signed in, then they said you’re going to have physical examination at Makawao, they converted a school into a field hospital and then that’s where we went to have our blood test and everything. And then few days later, they said “Okay, you’re ready to go.” And we rode on the boat and go to Honolulu, and then we were shipped by train, I guess, railroad cars and take to Schofield Barracks. And then we stayed for about two weeks and then we’re shipped to the mainland. INTERVIEWER: Who else volunteered? Some of your friends volunteer? HAMASAKI: No. I don’t think I knew anybody that I knew volunteered. Just like, I was just one of the few---not very many of my friends volunteered. And maybe I was the only guy that was never smart. INTERVIEWER: So, when you arrived in Honolulu, it was the second time you arrived? HAMASAKI: That’s right, second time. INTERVIEWER: What did you see when you arrived in Honolulu? HAMASAKI: I don’t even recall anything, nobody greeted us, we were just a bunch of people coming in and nobody was interested in us. [26:00] And then we just got into, like a cattle went to cattle car and then we’re shipped, taken out to Schofield. INTERVIEWER: You didn’t see Pearl Harbor? HAMASAKI: No, no, we didn’t see Pearl Harbor or nothing. INTERVIEWER: And this would have been in the middle of 1943? HAMASAKI: Yeah, March when we first got in. INTERVIEWER: Okay. And what happened when you arrived at Schofield? HAMASAKI: Yeah, I was kind of shocked, that we would sleep in tents [laughs], you know, those days tents, so were in the tents. And then I think for about one week before they had prepared us to be shipped to the mainland on a big liner “Mariposa.” This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 11 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: So, during the one week, do you recall meeting new people or new experiences at Schofield? HAMASAKI: No, nothing. I don’t just---it wasn’t very exciting or anything interesting. The only thing they had a bugle and wake you up and things like that. And then, when we ready for kau kau they call us for eating it, so . . . And then, if anything, we---they taught us to march. Here, you know, just marching up and down that’s all. That’s only activity we have. INTERVIEWER: And what can you tell us about your last day in Honolulu? HAMASAKI: Well, they gave us all pass and then knowing some relatives and first thing I was able to call my brother, “I need some money to go to on pass,” so he sent some money over then went on pass. That’s all I remember, and then there was certain spot we were supposed to meet to go back to the camp. INTERVIEWER: And then from the camp, where'd you go? HAMASAKI: We had one big assembly at the capitol [28:00] in Honolulu. And then we had khaki uniform already: all khaki hat and khaki uniform, that’s how I remember. And then few days later they shipped us to the mainland. And then in San Francisco they put us on a train for about four, five days across to Mississippi. INTERVIEWER: It was your first time you'd seen the Mainland. HAMASAKI: Mainland. And they didn’t see too much, you know, because you were all closed most of the time. So, yeah. INTERVIEWER: And then you arrived at? HAMASAKI: Camp Shelby, yes, in Mississippi. INTERVIEWER: Camp Shelby. We’re going to take a break right now. HAMASAKI: Okay. INTERVIEWER: Okay. [Break in interview.] This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 12 of 50 �CREW MEMBER: Speed. [Interview resumes.] INTERVIEWER: Okay, just backtracking a bit, you mentioned your mother brought food to the, was it the National Guard? HAMASAKI: National Guard. INTERVIEWER: Do you recall her talking about it or any stories from that? HAMASAKI: No. You know, what? Because some of them were from our---where they, you know, they used to come all these Hawaiian, Portuguese, Chinese, they used to come in front of our store over there and they would drink beer, wine, things like that. And they used to sing, and things like that. And they go in our backyard and they play the game mahjongg. They liked that and they shoot crap, everything. And back there we're all in our yard, so my parents liked these people and then, she used to make kau kau for them every time. For, I think, for dinner or something, a little added from their regular military kau kau, see. INTERVIEWER: Okay. So these are people of various ethnic groups? HAMASAKI: Yeah, very ethnic group. INTERVIEWER: Who would, how would you say, they liked to be at your wholesale shop? At your---[30:00] the---or you say in your backyard? HAMASAKI: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s what---their meeting place the whole camp used to come in to my backyard and just have fun, talk story, and drink beer, drink wine, things like that. INTERVIEWER: But was your house near your---the business? HAMASAKI: Yeah. The business is about---our liquor store, a barber shop and a retail store, and, you know, back of that is our big house. My brother bought that property from the Hawaiians, so it was a little bigger house than plantation, had three big bedrooms, I remember, a big dining room, a big living room and we added on the kitchen where he could cook things. INTERVIEWER: So it was your brother owned a house? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 13 of 50 �HAMASAKI: That’s right. INTERVIEWER: Okay, and his brothers and sisters and parents including you lived in the house? HAMASAKI: Yeah, that’s right, all of us live in that one house. INTERVIEWER: Did he also own the shops? HAMASAKI: Yeah, we owned the whole building over there, shops, we rented out the barber shop and the retail store, and then we rented one space for a garage man and then we had a big warehouse for the liquor. INTERVIEWER: And you welcomed all of these young men? HAMASAKI: Yeah. And they were maybe there were only about three or four of them over there, so, at that post over there, and then my mother used to bring kau kau for them. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Well, we’ll rush---run forward to Camp Shelby. What was your impression when you arrived in Mississippi and Camp Shelby? What do you recall about arriving there? HAMASAKI: You know, it wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t that cold, I mean, you know, so, we were kind of [32:00] fortunate there it wasn't the winter, January or December, March, latter part of March so it was very pleasant, wasn’t bad. But, after a while, they told us not to lean against a pine tree or any kind of tree because there’s chiggers. So we learned that quickly. And then the water wasn’t so good, that’s the only thing I can remember. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember getting chiggers? HAMASAKI: Beg your pardon? INTERVIEWER: Chiggers, do you remember? HAMASAKI: Oh yeah, we got---used to get that and then they used to tell us “don’t try to break it off, get a cigarette,” somebody get a cigarette and put it on there then the chigger would release and come off. If the chigger left their claws in there it's a poison, then you get swollen. Yeah, but that was a horrible This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 14 of 50 �thing, chiggers and snakes, we used to worry about snakes sometime, when we go out bivouac or something like that. In the morning the snake is in there with you because its warm in that bedding. INTERVIEWER: And do you recall meeting new people at Camp Shelby? HAMASAKI: Yeah, and that’s where we used to have fight. All the other white troops there, they used to call us Japs. See, but we were kind of smart, we're small, but we usually go by six, eight people and we used to, you know, make trouble by going to the other guys PX and then---but when we fight, we fought together, so the other guy who got to defend only himself so we used to be okay. But we used to have a lot of fights. And then when we meet we play boxing, we’re good in boxing and baseball, and then we used to have some little [34:00] argument there. INTERVIEWER: When you say “we” were in fights, you were involved with fights? HAMASAKI: No, not me, I was a scary guy, I was always behind, you see, coaching them from the back. I wouldn't get near that. INTERVIEWER: Were you involved with the baseball or the boxing? HAMASAKI: No, no, no, I didn’t have that kind of talent. INTERVIEWER: Were you assigned to a unit when you arrived to Camp Shelby? HAMASAKI: That’s the one I’m not very sure, but, we’re a regiment by ourselves, so we just had a regiment area and then we all stayed in there as much as possible. The officers will tell you, “Don’t go around too much, you're gonna get into trouble.” INTERVIEWER: When were you assigned to Company G? HAMASAKI: Immediately. I don’t know why but we were immediately--- but by the time we reached there we were all set and we just went to our barracks or certain space; G Company, E Company was across us, H Company, L. INTERVIEWER: And G Company was it mostly Hawaiians? HAMASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 15 of 50 �All of them are Hawaiians except maybe less than 10% were mainland Japanese. Mostly all of---I’m not sure, that’s not very accurate. INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Do you remember meeting mainland Japanese? HAMASAKI: Oh yeah, there were lot of good guys and little rascal guys too, you know, but they were careful not to fight us because we had many friends. So---but we got along real well. I got along real well with them. There are some real good mainland friends that I still have. INTERVIEWER: Like whom? HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Like whom? HAMASAKI: Kingo Kato---Kotake, and then there was a, I forgot his first name, a Goto. You know, when I was overseas I used to be the man that [36:00] ride the bicycle with the cherry box on and I going to---I had permission to go into the prisoner camp and then the German officer will be all waiting for the cherries and cigarette and we sell them hundred dollar a box and I paid the Italian $5 one box, I made a hundred dollars. So I had so much money, I used to save---help this guy from Seattle, Washington. They were struggling, so I used to give him about $100 a week so he can send money orders to his parents in Seattle. I used to---everybody wanna go pass, they say, “Ask Kazu get---send me some money.” Then I would go sell the cherries. The Italians all be waiting for me and says, “Paisan, please buy, please buy.” And sometime the same guy I give him $10 instead of 5$. INTERVIEWER: So that was in Italy? HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Were you so enterprising in Mississippi? Were you . . .? HAMASAKI: No. We didn’t do anything there. You couldn’t do nothing. Oh, I think the white people would come and sell us pecan nuts and watermelons, they come into camp and sell us that. INTERVIEWER: And do you remember anything about outside of the camp? HAMASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 16 of 50 �Hattiesburg, Mississippi, that’s when we get pass, we can go eat there; fried chicken, seafood, oh, and I enjoyed that. They had good food over there, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. And that’s the first exposure to black and white, in a bus it says black and white. And when you ride the bus, the blacks always stand outside in line. And then all of us, and we were considered white, so we get in the bus and then you get two seats left, two guys come, two black guys gotta come and sit down. That’s where we learned there’s black and white, colored. [38:00] INTERVIEWER: Did that leave any impression on you? HAMASAKI: Well, it didn’t have any significant---I didn’t realize, you know, there were people like that being treated different. And then even when we go to Hattiesburg town to eat, because real money for them, so they didn’t discriminate against us, “You cannot come in here, you Jap,” you know. So we went any place and then ate and had a good time. INTERVIEWER: So at Camp Shelby were you---what were you trained as? HAMASAKI: I would say---I recall, a first scout. I’m a first scout in a squad and then, you know, that's all I was. I was a little bit rascal, you know, they tried to put me up as sergeant but I was always goofing off. So, the sergeant didn’t like me and then, eventually I became a first scout. And then the guy Kiyomi Yamamoto was second scout. And you know what that means, when you go into combat, “Okay, first scout out,” and then we go out, two platoons going out, maybe second platoon and us, and then there was this lieutenant tell me, “Hey, you, Hamasaki, get up in the front, you too far behind,” he say like that. I said, “No, I’m same line,” I used to just argue, but we have to go draw the fire, huh? Eventually, Germans would fire at us. INTERVIEWER: So, what platoon were you in? HAMASAKI: Third Platoon, George Company, G Company, 2nd squad. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember your serial number? HAMASAKI: 30-10-60-59. I remember that well, I never forgot that. Here you salute, the officer said, “What’s your serial number?” “30-10-60-59, sir.” INTERVIEWER: So you were in Camp Shelby for over a year? HAMASAKI: Yes, about a year. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 17 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: Oh, from [40:00] it says here from April 1943 to May 1944. HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Anything else you want to tell us about your experiences in the camp? HAMASAKI: I kind of proud, because the kind of guy I was, they picked me as one to represent the company. See, when the Third Army or the Fifth Army came and said, “Okay, we're gonna test you people, whether you're capable of going to combat.” So they made us do all kind of, you know, 3-mile forced march and push ups, bayonet practice, run the 440, things like that, and I was one of those from our company selected to represent, because I was kind of, you know, Japanese say “gasa-gasa” you know, always moving around so, they picked me and then, we passed the test, so then we were ready for combat. INTERVIEWER: This test was what you---one person from each company needed to perform? HAMASAKI: Yeah. We’re selected people, maybe about 20 of us, run all kind of stuff with these people watching us. A 2-mile forced march and everything. INTERVIEWER: Were there other regiments beside the 442nd involved? HAMASAKI: No. I don’t recall that, but the Second Battalion was tested. First Battalion, Second Battalion, Third Battalion, they all were tested, but we were all in a separate field. INTERVIEWER: Can you tell us about your last days in Camp Shelby and your trip overseas? HAMASAKI: The thing that I remember very vividly is our mainland Japanese lieutenant by the name of Lieutenant Tanahashi, and [42:00] his last talk to us as a company was that “If anybody is going back to the United States, you guys going. I want you guys to go back.” And sure enough, when we're in combat, other units' first scout go out, second scout go out before I was doing that because I had different kind of lieutenant, haole lieutenant, so, you know, we did that. But when Lieutenant Tanahashi took over, he went---he is first man go out and then his staff sergeant behind him. So, our first major combat, Hill 140, the two of them ran into a machine gun nest; they were wiped out. So we lost our officer, our first sergeant. We’re kind of “aaah,” but we somehow, you know, we got together then we---we weren’t routed by the Germans or anything, we stuck there. And then I remember one time, someone said telling, “Hey, let’s go back, let’s go back.” The one lieutenant yelled, “You stay right in that hole, don’t you stick your head out, stay right in there.” One of them wanted to run back, some guys, but the lieutenant heard us, he says, “You guys stay right in that hole.” This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 18 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: That’s Lieutenant Tanahashi. HAMASAKI: No, some other lieutenant. Tanahashi died already. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Well, we’ll get back to that point, but, going overseas, do you---anything you recall about the trip from Camp Shelby to going overseas? HAMASAKI: Before I reached the ship, I was seasick already. I’m a poor sailor. I was sick as hell and then it was horrible food, you know, it’s all steamed food the Liberty ship. And Liberty ship, you think you gonna crack because “Bong! Bong! they're [44:00] bouncing, but it somehow hang on. This guy Kaiser made big money on that, eh, Mr. Kaiser. He built all the Liberty ship. And it was a horrible ride. And then after a while I got adjusted, and then, you know, when you go across the Atlantic, you go zigzag, and then they give you signal, the boat all go one way, all---there's thousands of ships going. And then monotonous---we didn’t know how dangerous it was, you know, because there were a lot of German Uboats around and then, there’s a torpedo, but we never got into trouble. INTERVIEWER: How did you spend the time? HAMASAKI: Playing cards, pinochle. I learned how to play pinochle. INTERVIEWER: Any gambling games? Did you . . .? HAMASAKI: Oh, no more, nobody had money. We didn’t have money, they didn’t give us any money, so, no gambling. You would be on the deck all day. And then nighttime we go back down. INTERVIEWER: And do you recall how long---how long was the trip? HAMASAKI: I’m guessing, maybe, about 17 days, because we zigzagged and then, our group, a bunch of ships went to Oran, Africa, we diverted to Oran, Africa and we stayed there for about two weeks, and when the Uboats were kind of slacking off, then they took us to Italy. INTERVIEWER: What did---do you remember anything about Oran? HAMASAKI: I saw those ladies all with the face covered, they come to our rubbish dump and pick up everything. That’s all I can see, all these ladies, and it’s a poor, poor country. Nothing but flies and things like that. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 19 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: That was---is that off limit? HAMASAKI: Everything was off limit to us, we cannot eat their food, we cannot drink water, we had to go straight to the, what you call those things, [46:00] one, you know, the American Red Cross have them, some kind of meeting place where they serve dinner, kau kau. INTERVIEWER: So you say you were two weeks in Oran? HAMASAKI: Yeah, something like that. INTERVIEWER: And then you went to where? HAMASAKI: And then we went on a ship again and they shipped us to Leghorn, Italy, Naples, Italy, Leghorn and Naples. INTERVIEWER: Okay, Naples. HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: What did you see there when you arrived? HAMASAKI: Nothing. Nothing much. You’re going to edit this, but the prostitutes were all over the place; in the camp and every place, prostitutes were there. That’s all I can remember about the camps. INTERVIEWER: No. We won’t edit it. HAMASAKI: [Laughs.] INTERVIEWER: Say whatever you want. HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: And from Naples, where did you go from there? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 20 of 50 �HAMASAKI: On a ship again. They took us to---now I could correct: at first was Naples then they took us to Leghorn. And that’s where we started to meet combat, from there on. See, the 100th Battalion started from Anzio, but we started from Leghorn. INTERVIEWER: Do you---what was---what did you know about the 100th Battalion up to this point? HAMASAKI: We know they were at Monte Cassino, they got, kind of hit pretty bad over there. And then they landed in Anzio Beach and they got beat up a little bit too. That’s all we know. and then they were---by the time we joined [48:00] together and attacked in Italy, they were, the crack troops, they were always ahead of us attacking the Germans. So we were---we learned from them. INTERVIEWER: Did you think that their exploits, did it scare you, make you proud, how would you describe your thoughts about the 100th Battalion? HAMASAKI: Well, they were supposed to be rugged and tough and everything. So, it was---if you were picked to go to replace their unit battalion, you were honored, you know, you're going to the 100th Battalion. INTERVIEWER: So when you joined up with the 100th, do you recall what---do you recall where you went from there? HAMASAKI: We were in the Po Valley there already, and that’s where my first combat. And then infamous Hill 140 where we had a heavy casualty. I think from here to, maybe, that lamp there, maybe, one of my Mill Camp buddy was digging holes over there. Me and my friend from Pukalani was from this side, and the shells keep on coming in and the dirt and stone fall on us, but I had my hole kind of dug down a little bit, so I was covered. And then I heard him moaning one time when the shells came in pretty close. Then I asked, “Tomiso, Tomiso, you okay?” I didn’t hear anything moaning. He was hit and he died right there. Yeah. INTERVIEWER: What was his name? HAMASAKI: Tomiso Okamoto. See, so, you know, [50:00] amazing, you know. Then, we didn’t feel nothing, I didn’t feel nothing already, but we're becoming battled trained already. So what we did was three of us said “Let’s protect our right flank because the Germans are going to attack us. So, let’s go.” Three of us went, and sure enough, we met two Germans with machine gun was gonna attack us from the side. And if we didn’t see them first, we’d have been killed or the whole platoon might have been wiped out too, but bang-bang-bang-bang we shoot 'em and then we killed that two German guys. That’s the closest I got to Germans. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 21 of 50 �Uh-huh. This was your idea to? HAMASAKI: No, I think I said, “Let’s protect our flank.” So, there’s three of us went over the flank, watch right flank. Our lieutenant was killed, our sergeant was killed too, nobody. So---but eventually as I tell you, I said the first time where we drew back from a position we gained, went over the hill and we got sucked in, and the Germans just about to wiped us out. Every time a shell come in you can hear “medics, medics.” INTERVIEWER: How did you feel about shooting the Germans with the machine guns? HAMASAKI: Well, instinct, you know, they call that Kentucky windage, you don’t aim. When we saw the German, we just, maybe, bad weather got part arm like this. And as soon as we saw the Germans, bang-bang-bangbang. But we shot so many M1 shots that, you can see we hit 'em, the helmet flew off and everything. We’re aiming in the right spot. We were lucky. INTERVIEWER: And that Hill 140, do you recall the events leading up to it? [52:00] Do you recall the events leading up to that first (inaudible)? HAMASAKI: Yeah, yeah, it was a long march forward. And then they used to tell us, “Colonel ?Hall? is in front leading us in battle,” so we all, oh, we were kind of full of pep. Then after a while, Colonel ?Hall? standing there saluting us. And we were going forward and he went back. [Laughs.] Yeah, and that’s when the shells start coming in and that’s when we didn’t know what to do. We just hit the ground and, oh, we were scared that time. INTERVIEWER: You mentioned, you were the first scout, does that mean, you're at the front of the squad? HAMASAKI: Beg pardon? INTERVIEWER: You mentioned you were the first scout. HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: And so that meant you were---were you always marching ahead of the squad? HAMASAKI: Yeah, but not necessarily. Each platoon might have been assigned today, you’re gonna lead the attack. The platoon will send their one first squad, second, no, first platoon, second platoon or third platoon goes out first, attack. And then from there they pick their squad and things like that. And then from the squad, one guy is the first scout. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 22 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: Okay. So, Hill 140 was that a one-day battle? HAMASAKI: One-day battle. From afternoon to next morning, and then we withdrew that night, not next morning, so we withdrew back because we got too many casualties, so we had to withdrew. It’s the first time, I think, we ever went back after we gained a spots. INTERVIEWER: And so when your friend was killed by the shelling, was that that day or the first day? [54:00] HAMASAKI: Yeah. When we first attacked that hill. And nobody knew what happened to him. I’m sure afterwards we picked his body up, but, at the same time, we didn't try to carry him back, we just left him over there. Plenty of guys got killed there. INTERVIEWER: How did your platoon, how did G Company do, I mean, would it suffer, did you’re company suffer a lot of casualties? HAMASAKI: That’s right we suffered quite a bit at that attack, Hill 140. And we were pretty much involved in that. I think some company was on our left, but we were on that spot where the artillery shells were coming in. And then they also fired mortar shells too. That’s the one we’re scared of; you cannot hear. That artillery shell you can hear “bang! woooo” and when it no sound, the shell is pretty close to you. INTERVIEWER: How did you spend that night? HAMASAKI: Yeah, so, we withdrew and then they took us back. They just said we’re gonna get three days' rest. We were just withdrew one day back and then we were able to take a bath and get new clothing and then, “Okay, we gotta move out again,” attack again. That’s how it was. INTERVIEWER: So, you just had one day? One night? HAMASAKI: Yes, just one day. And then they---it's the first hot meal we had for maybe about, two, three weeks. So the food didn’t taste good, our stomach was so small already, that we didn’t have to eat; we were used to C-ration, no, K-ration, you cracker box, cracker box of choc---chocolate. Horrible food but it keep us alive. [56:00] INTERVIEWER: What was the hot food you got? HAMASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 23 of 50 �Not a lot. Hot food was, oh, I don’t know, I cannot even remember, it wasn’t that ono, it wasn’t good. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember who else in your---who were casualties, anybody you remember? HAMASAKI: I know only three people that died in that place that’s our platoon, so we knew that. INTERVIEWER: And after Hill 140, what happened next? HAMASAKI: Then, after that, it got easy. The Germans were always running away, running away, running away. We start to attack, they fire their machine gun “brrrp, brrrp” then we stopped, then we call in artillery, artillery fire, then Germans withdraw then we go forward. We never had a good action. Only that Hill 140, even we used to---we can here on our right, 100th Battalion was there and then they were shooting machine guns “brr-brr-brr-brr-brr” too good. And then we were kind of stuck. INTERVIEWER: You were kind of stuck? HAMASAKI: Yeah. We didn’t move. We didn’t move. The 100th battalion was so good that day. They just move forward so fast. That’s how the Germans withdrew the next day. That’s why they told us we got to get back to the front line again. Now I get one day rest. INTERVIEWER: And this progress lasted until when? HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Until you reached where? HAMASAKI: Until that movement was continuously---I think we just came near that city that had that Leaning Tower of Pisa, just before that that they withdrew us. United States Army in France were stuck with the Germans, [58:00] in the Apennine Mountain. So, they requested General Clark to loan us, the 442nd Regiment, so we were shifted to France and then we lead the attack there. And we broke through. INTERVIEWER: Okay. We’ll take a . . . BEGINNING OF TAPE TWO INTERVIEWER: At the first battle which was Hill 140? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 24 of 50 �HAMASAKI: No, leading to Hill 140 we had a little action, but some other outfit were---company were ahead of us so we're support company, so we just followed, that’s all. INTERVIEWER: Okay, so you didn’t experience any shellings? HAMASAKI: Only---we got the shell. Yeah. INTERVIEWER: What was your reaction to that? HAMASAKI: Oh, that was scary, the first time, oh, was scary. As I said, I didn’t know how to pray in Buddhist so I prayed in the Catholic Church, “Hail Mary Full of Grace,” I said about hundred times, I think, “Please God don’t let them kill me.” I said “God,” you know, that’s the only person I know. INTERVIEWER: So you progressed up to near Pisa? HAMASAKI: Yeah, yeah. INTERVIEWER: And at that point you were withdrawn, your unit? HAMASAKI: Yeah, we were withdrawn. INTERVIEWER: Gradually? HAMASAKI: Yeah. We had one more---there was a big fort over there, you know, big cement fort that they had artillery there and everything. And we kind of---our plane and our artillery wiped them out and then we were able to get back this fort. Wasn't as great was Casino, but we had to attack this fort. But our artillery and our plane just about ripped them wide open. INTERVIEWER: Yeah, do you---were you involved in any combat there? HAMASAKI: Oh, we were always the people behind and then we call the artillery there, the planes and everything, and then when they wipe 'em out pretty good then we move forward, then Germans have withdrawn already. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 25 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: Did you ever see German planes attack? HAMASAKI: Nighttime, we can hear them coming [02:00] [making plane sounds], “Hey, they gonna drop some bomb,” but they never did; they just scouting, I think. Germans didn't have anything there; we were just scot-free. Even they had their panzer outfit, but they weren’t any good; we ripped into them. INTERVIEWER: So when you left Italy . . . HAMASAKI: Go ahead. INTERVIEWER: . . . and so the 442nd left Italy from, I guess, you were near . . . HAMASAKI: Just in the Po Valley. We---then we were shifted to---we arrive in Marseilles, from there we went---they trucked us up to the Apennine Mountains, and then that’s the time we first came to the town of Bruyeres; the Germans were there. And then a little bit later in the forest there, the Texas 36th Division, Battalion was trapped there and then we rescued them. INTERVIEWER: What happened when you---did you arrive into the town of Bruyeres? HAMASAKI: Yeah. We were outside of Bruyeres, you can see the town of Bruyeres after the shelling and everything. Then we eventually got rid of the snipers and everybody in the church tower and thing, then we move into the city of Bruyeres. And so as we got into Bruyeres, right away we move out into a combat area, out in a field, and then the headquarters was Bruyeres and they were out there. That’s when it started to snow. INTERVIEWER: When you say you cleared out the snipers . . . HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: . . . who did it? Was it . . .? HAMASAKI: Some other squad or platoon went out there. We were like just like a support, we were coming in, so we were lucky. INTERVIEWER: Another platoon of G Company? [04:00] This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 26 of 50 �HAMASAKI: Yeah, that’s right. INTERVIEWER: Okay. And then you went beyond Bruyeres? HAMASAKI: Yeah, then we went into that Vosges Mountain, that’s where that Lost Battalion was. And again, G Company wasn’t the---the company was---I think it was the 3rd Battalion that got smashed, they led the attack, they were just about wiped out; one company, just about nobody left over. INTERVIEWER: And where were you? HAMASAKI: We were coming up. You don’t realize how dark their winter months are in Europe. You cannot even see your finger in front of your eyes, so we have told each other's belt to, you know, we're moving forward every time. We just spot you unit, so---and you had to hold 'em, and then somebody fall down the chain bust sometime, it's snowing. And one of my job was to carry people back who was got hurt, you know, our platoon. And we carry this guy by the name of Lieutenant White, he played for Texas A&M football, he was about 240 pound. And four small Japanese guys carrying him and one guy slip in the snow, everybody fall down. So eventually we had to tie him [down with] our belts to tie him to the [litter]. And that’s how we took him back, but he---they tell me---they told us he died. INTERVIEWER: What did---how was he wounded? HAMASAKI: I think in the chest some place; it’s a kind of severe wound he had. He didn’t know nothing. He was a good officer. INTERVIEWER: A bullet or? HAMASAKI: A shrapnel, yeah. So [06:00] for him to get hit he was the 4th Platoon sergeant that carries a kind of weapon, mortar or machine gun, so they not too close up in the front. They're kind of supporting us. So---but he got hit by the shell. INTERVIEWER: Were there---how would you describe the shelling that night. Was there a lot of artillery shells you're finding around you? HAMASAKI: Yeah. You see, in that Vosges Mountain, they're all pine trees. So when the shell come they hit the tree and then when they hit the tree, burst. It's just like when they sometimes---they time the shell, time burst, and then make a spread like that, but they didn’t have to, they hit the pine tree, burst, so the shell This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 27 of 50 �come down on us and we got hit pretty bad that way. One of my good friend in our squad got killed there. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember his name? HAMASAKI: Henry Chibana, he used to be a boxer and then he was kind of rugged guy. But he was in hole and the shrapnel hit him. INTERVIEWER: Where you spent the night, were you walking or were you moving all night or were you or did you . . .? HAMASAKI: We stopped at night because it's so dark and snowing and things like that. And I---because I was just like handyman for the captain, Captain Aull, me and Kiyomi, we had to follow him every place, and he goes out patrol, three of us, we going into German territory and, you know. One time we were going out there, here comes a bunch of Germans coming. He tell us, “Stay down, stay down. Don’t shoot now, don’t shoot.” And we let the German patrol pass us. We were out in the boondocks and then we cannot get back in time; we [08:00] had to sleep out there, out in the snow. INTERVIEWER: And who assigned you on these patrols? HAMASAKI: Well, the captain must have. He was a good captain, Captain Aull. Yeah, he was brave. He wasn’t like some of the other haole officers. We had some officers that was pretty good in basic training, but when we went out combat, they became sick and they left us. That’s when Tanahashi came up. And even our Lieutenant Ikeda he was assign to us when were in camp, starting from Schofield. But somehow he got replaced, maybe he was ill or something. We lost a lot of lieutenant like that. There were few lieutenant that was gutsy. INTERVIEWER: Back up on Lieutenant Tanahashi, where was he killed? HAMASAKI: Hill 140. INTERVIEWER: Hill 140? HAMASAKI: Yeah. About the first big break we had, we came back, they had letters for Lieutenant Tanahashi. He just got married and I think the wife gave birth to a son or something, so it was real sad. That’s the only time we felt sad because he was such a good lieutenant. Yeah. Other than that, even our friends dies, “Oh, okay, he died.” You didn’t worry. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 28 of 50 �So by the time you were at the Vosges Mountains, you were, what, one of the three selected for patrols by the captain---by the company commander? HAMASAKI: Yeah. Not---he usually goes to the platoon. Platoon you only go at night to go see where the Germans are out there. You gotta go in no man's land. And then [10:00] our platoon leader selects and he rotates that among the squads. And then I remember one time we went out. It's all very scary, but you can’t help it, you know. You just lucky that you don’t go run into a machine gun nest. So we was lucky that way. INTERVIEWER: And so one night you had to spend the night away from the from the rest of the platoon? HAMASAKI: Yeah, yeah. Was no big deal. We just stay out there a little while and then, okay, we did our job, so now we gotta go find our way back again to the company. INTERVIEWER: And you mentioned you carried wounded men and how many times did you do that? Was it quite often? HAMASAKI: Quite often we would see our friends wounded. It's just like when that German 88, it fired on us, killed the machine gunner. I know him pretty good, Jichaku, he was wiped out completely. INTERVIEWER: That was in---near Bruyeres? HAMASAKI: Not Bruyeres, I was in Italy yet. Near Po Valley already. INTERVIEWER: And you were carrying wound---you were physically carrying wounded people yourself. HAMASAKI: That was in Bruyeres when we were short-handed. And when, you know, medics don't carry, somebody in our company got to go carry people out. INTERVIEWER: Where did you carry them to? HAMASAKI: To the field hospital---just back to our headquarters and our jeeps were there to take 'em back. I---one guy I remember carrying him out, he was hit in the face, he was all smashed, blood and everything, but he remembered me and then, until today, every time he say, “Kaz, you saved my life, you saved my life.” INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 29 of 50 �What was his name? HAMASAKI: [12:00] George Ajifu. And he's the guy---we're carrying him, a shell coming in, so we know it's near so we just throw him over there, that stretcher, dive in a ditch. And that’s how we were, you know, we don't want to get killed. But Ajifu, we saved him. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember firing your rifle much in the Bruyeres or Biffontaine area? HAMASAKI: No. Over there we were mostly support. You know, that Bruyeres area was only short, I think, maybe, about two weeks by the time we attacked Bruyeres, and then we---once we broke the German line over there, then they withdrew us. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Okay, anything else you recall about the Vosges Campaign? HAMASAKI: Not---maybe Vosges Mountains was, you know, I used to---usually the captain would send me here, there. And then even I had to check the wire when we get no more communication between company and headquarters. That’s mainly the shell hit that line or the German cut the line; so I gotta go out. It’s spooky, you know, you're out in the no man's land and you're following the line and you expect a German right there “bang” at you, but I was lucky many times I went out like that. I patched the line up and I was okay. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Do you---after---anything that you remember about the Bruyeres/Biffontaine area before you were pulled out? HAMASAKI: Yeah. It was snow, snow, snow, always falling down, falling down [14:00] and then it’s so dark, sometimes we don’t know which way we going. And then one time we see the German tank burning. “Oh, that’s the wrong place we gotta go the other way.” Yeah, was things like that happened. and then I saw one Japanese, I think he was a mainland Japanese, he was hit in the head and everything, you can see all the blood and then---and the only thing I can hear him say was, “Okasan, Okasan,” he was calling his mother, see. That’s why they say when you dying you always call your mother and this guy was saying “Okasan,” mother, mother, and he died right away. INTERVIEWER: So after you pulled out of there, where did you go from there? HAMASAKI: Then they call us that Champagne Campaign just outside of Nice in the mountain; we're protecting the border, Italy and France border; and that’s where we were. And then that’s where we had really had passes to Milan. That’s when they shot---what that Italian---not Hitler, but the other guy, the Italian. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 30 of 50 �Mussolini? HAMASAKI: Mussolini. We all going to the square where they hang him upside down, but we didn’t see him there, but they tell us this is where they hang Mussolini. That was in Milan. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Do you recall anything during the Champagne Campaign? Any---what were you doing during that time? HAMASAKI: Yeah. Again, dangerous for us, see, we have to bring the food to them out in the outpost and the Germans can infiltrate in between. But somehow we were lucky. We had to take food to them [16:00] and things like that. INTERVIEWER: Do you recall---what do you recall about Southern France during that time? HAMASAKI: Well, we saw Monte Carlo, we saw---we passed over there, and nice French hotels, nice women [laughing]. That’s all I remember. INTERVIEWER: And when you left Southern France, you went back---did you go back to Italy? HAMASAKI: Yeah. They, again, they were stalled. The 92nd Division was leading an attack in Italy, in Po Valley, and they couldn’t move. The Germans had us stronghold in Mount Carrara, it's a high mountain. So they sent 4-4-2 that route, and we---all night long we climbing up the mountain. And then finally we met the, I don’t know what they call themselves, the panzer division or something, we combat with them and then we push them away and then we break through. And two days later the war ended in Europe. INTERVIEWER: Do you recall, were you involved with any firefights during that time or did you fire your rifle at all during that time? HAMASAKI: Well, we didn’t fire, but we can---we were attacked mostly by mortar shell, and that was real dangerous, that's the only thing we had. We weren't firing at the enemies, they were running away already. So once they knew that we were there, we’re moving, so they move away right away. INTERVIEWER: So you rarely saw German soldiers? HAMASAKI: I---we can see German every time far away. And then we used to fire at them and you know our bullets came pretty close because they jump and run and run away, [18:00] So our bullets were coming near them. But we didn't---we couldn’t hit 'em too far. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 31 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: So during the night near Carrara . . . HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: . . . you climbed the mountain, do you recall anything about that night yourself---but what activities were you involved with? HAMASAKI: Nothing, we were just---everybody’s tired climbing up the mountain, so, “Okay, stop,” everybody stop, everybody sleeping. “Okay, move!” okay, we gotta move again. Step by step we went up the mountain. And next morning we were top of the mountain already; took us all day and night. But the Germans didn’t attack us. They're deciding to withdraw already, so we were lucky. INTERVIEWER: So you actually reached the top of that mountain? HAMASAKI: Yeah, we reached the top of the mountain. And then that’s when the war ended, the Germans run away all. INTERVIEWER: Where were you when the war ended? HAMASAKI: At the Carrara Mountain. Near where the, what that, Columbus ships, that town up there, we were pretty close there already. INTERVIEWER: Do you recall how you felt---how did you hear about the war ending? HAMASAKI: Well, through our radios and the Stars and Stripes. The news come over and say they're about (inaudible), and then when they were running away already, then they say the war has ended. INTERVIEWER: You mentioned to me you had a Purple Heart. How did you get that? HAMASAKI: Yeah, that’s the one where the machine gunner, my friend, Jichako, got killed and the German 88. And when they fired, no matter what, all the shrapnel go forward, but some come back this way, something hit me over here and when I touched it, blood. [20:00] I yell, “Medics! I’m hit back.” [Laughing.] The guy saw me they knew dumb luck, “Oh that’s a scratch.” So I---then they put some sulfa and they put the patch on down there. They tell me---they walk me---I gotta walk to the field hospital. When I got there they sent me right back to the front line [laughing]. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 32 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: That’s at Hill 140? HAMASAKI: No, no, that wasn’t at Hill 140, that was just after the fort, we passed the fort. So that’s pretty close to Po Valley near Pisa already. INTERVIEWER: Oh near the . . . HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: . . . near the Arno River. HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: What happened in the days after the war ended? Do you remember where your unit went? HAMASAKI: Oh, we took in about 15,000 German soldiers, we had 'em in a camp over there. And we were, our company, watched them. That’s when we stole so much money from the - German. They had a serial number stack about this high; thousands of dollars. So then the Germans complained to our officers, not our officers, I don’t do, General Mark Clark's office that we're stealing all their money. So then our officer said, “Okay, everybody dig hole, cover---hide your money because they're going to have a inspection to see if you have any money.” We had thousands of money, oh, so much money. INTERVIEWER: How did you get the money? You just . . .? HAMASAKI: Oh, we knew we were going to the camp with the---go to that main office place. I don’t know how they found the money, but we took all the money. INTERVIEWER: What kind of denominations were there? HAMASAKI: All twenty dollars. Twenty dollar that---I think it was 20,000 lire or something like that. Italian money, see. INTERVIEWER: [22:00] You had mentioned riding a bicycle with a crate on it. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 33 of 50 �HAMASAKI: Yeah, yeah. I used to do that. INTERVIEWER: Where was that? HAMASAKI: That was with the German camp after the war, German camp. And the officer would ask me---you know, I can go in there because I’m headquarters, so he asked me, “Go bring cherries and cigarette.” Cigarette was twenty dollar a carton in those days because we can buy 'em from the PX two dollars and so we make money from that and the cherries. That cherry people would all line up over there and I’d very discriminate pick it---everybody get a chance to make some money. I’d back and forth and back and forth. INTERVIEWER: But when you say everybody have a chance to make money, who else? HAMASAKI: No, all the guys selling cherry, I only buy from only one guy; have to give everybody a chance. Then I--so they figure out, maybe it worth only dollar a box, but . . . INTERVIEWER: And you sold them to? HAMASAKI: The German. The officers all would get money for me ready. INTERVIEWER: So the German officers had the money. HAMASAKI: Yeah, yeah. So, maybe I make about 15 trips, that’s a thousand five hundred dollars I get and I give all my friends going on pass. INTERVIEWER: A pass? HAMASAKI: Yeah, yeah. You know, everybody was getting pass already, so they have to have money, so (inaudible) German money. INTERVIEWER: You have to have money to buy a pass? HAMASAKI: No. For them to spend money. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 34 of 50 �Okay. HAMASAKI: I had German Leica, I had all kind of camera, buy all that with my money. I had cameos and everything. I sent 'em all back to Hawaii. INTERVIEWER: Do you still have any of that? HAMASAKI: My sisters have some left over. [24:00] And then I confiscated Lugers, P38s, German Beretta, all that kind of pistols. And I had a bag of ammunition I was going to bring 'em home, but no can [laughing], I cannot bring 'em home. INTERVIEWER: Yeah. How did you spend your money on your passes? HAMASAKI: We buy things: camera, jewelries, and then I help my---lot of friends to send money back to the mainland---Jap---like Goto, eh, my friend. INTERVIEWER: But where could you spend this money? What cities or where would you go to spend---to buy all of these items? HAMASAKI: Oh, that’s in mostly in Milan. That’s when the war ended, somewhere---we’re in south of Milan. INTERVIEWER: So you were guarding prisoners near Southern Milan? HAMASAKI: That's right. INTERVIEWER: How long did you do that? HAMASAKI: Only for a short while and then they shipped us back to Leghorn, Livorno later on. And that’s where the ships come in. So from there we get shipped back to the States, huh. And so, again, we were taking care of a depot that had 10,000 beer cases all rotting away. They had fur coats, the kind jacket, they have skis. The mainland people will take it all the thing, but we don’t need 'em in Hawaii, so nothing. But mainland people were taking the nice fur jackets. And we took everything and some of them were selling jeeps they were so plentiful, everything. INTERVIEWER: Selling jeeps? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 35 of 50 �HAMASAKI: Yeah, anything. INTERVIEWER: So you were near Livorno, in Leghorn, and how long did you spend there? HAMASAKI: Oh, maybe about [26:00] ten days, I think. Then we were---because I have a Purple Heart, I five points ahead of other people going back to the mainland. But most of us right away came back. INTERVIEWER: How did you go back? HASAMAKI: That Liberty ship again. INTERVIEWER: Was that similar to your trip to Europe? HAMASAKI: That---the same thing, you know, rough Atlantic Ocean, and it was okay, but this time was no more Uboats so we were okay. INTERVIEWER: So you reach the mainland and then . . . HAMASAKI: Train straight across to San Francisco. And then we moved to Los Angeles to be shipped back to Hawaii. INTERVIEWER: And then when you got to Hawaii, what happened? HAMASAKI: Just took about, maybe, about ten days when we were finally discharged. Just about December 30th, I think, I got discharged. INTERVIEWER: December 30th? HAMASAKI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Do you recall hearing about Hiroshima being bombed, atomic bomb? HAMASAKI: I think we heard about it. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 36 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: But it didn’t mean much to you or did you have any personal feelings about it? HAMASAKI: I don’t recall. I never did ask my parents because you;d think the relatives were there, but Hiroshima is--mountain protects Hiroshima, see, so they didn’t get that fallout or anything, the blast, the heat. INTERVIEWER: When did you come back to Maui and how was the reception and reaction [28:00] when you got back here? HAMASAKI: Not too much. You know, I remember lot of other states gave the GIs coming back bonus and any kind, but Hawaii gave us nothing [laughs]. Yeah. INTERVIEWER: What was it like to see family members back here? HAMASAKI: I guess my parents were happy that both of us came back alive, yeah. But, you know, Japanese teaching is that when you go to war you never come back. You come back shame, you have to die. But I came back [laughs]. INTERVIEWER: Let’s talk about your brother. You mentioned some---he was also in the 442nd? HAMASAKI: Yeah, he was in 100th Battalion. INTERVIEWER: The 100th? HAMASAKI: Yeah. Yeah, he was a mortar lieutenant, he handled the mortar, heavy mortar. That’s why he got hit. He was out in the field post and they zeroed in on that post and he got smashed pretty badly. INTERVIEWER: Which brother was this? HAMASAKI: Tadayoshi. INTERVIEWER: So was he---so how did he join the 100th Battalion? HAMASAKI: They do---what you call the kind---they recruit---you're picked to serve, you know. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 37 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: Drafted? HAMASAKI: The draft, you were drafted, see. So first they're with National Guard and as soon as Pearl Harbor was attacked they were segregated to one group and they didn’t know what to do them, all Japanese. INTERVIEWER: Do you know where he was wounded? HAMASAKI: Beg pardon? INTERVIEWER: Do you know where was he wounded? HAMASAKI: The chest, the head, everything. And he was just lucky that he was alive INTERVIEWER: [30:00] So you never saw him in Italy? HAMASAKI: That---that’s it, when I landed in Italy they told us there was a field hospital in Naples, and then someone said they saw my brother there, so I got a pass to go and sure enough I saw him. First thing he asks me “What are you in the squad?” [I told him,] “I first scout.” “You better get out of the first scout, you’re gonna get killed.” [Laughing.] That’s what he told me, yeah. INTERVIEWER: Did he recover from his wounds? HAMASAKI: Yeah, he got recovered. He was very lucky. No problem. INTERVIEWER: Were you a first scout throughout the war? HAMASAKI: No, you see, the messenger got hurt, two messenger guys are hurt, you know, assistant to the captain. So they picked me and this other guy. INTERVIEWER: To be the messenger? HAMASAKI: Yeah, just like, you know, whatever you were asked to do for him. Yeah, so I---he took us all into the combat area, any kind of place. He was a rugged officer. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 38 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: We're gonna take a short break right now? HAMASAKI: Okay. INTERVIEWER: Okay, I need to cool off. [Interruption in interview.] CREW MEMBER: Okay, speed. [Interview resumes.] INTERVIEWER: So you'd mentioned you saw your brother in the 100th, did you correspond with him or hear from him anytime before that, all the time he was in the 100th? HAMASAKI: Somehow we never did try to correspond with each other. Never wrote a letter to him and he never wrote a letter to me. INTERVIEWER: Did you correspond or write to any other family members while you were in Mississippi or overseas? HAMASAKI: Not to my---you know, I never did write to my family too. Only person I used to write to is my girlfriend. [32:00] That’s the only person that I---and she used to write me, so that's mail call, that’s all I had, letter from my girlfriend, no letter from my family. INTERVIEWER: You had a girlfriend who was---who lived where? HAMASAKI: In here, Wailuku, Maui. INTERVIEWER: Did that correspondence last throughout the war? HAMASAKI: Throughout the war. INTERVIEWER: So when you came back to Maui, what did you do when you got here? HAMASAKI: Well, I helped my brother quite a bit and he had planned to send me to the mainland for college. So it was just from January to early September when I was sent to the mainland to go to Graceland College, Lamona, Iowa, 1946. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 39 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: Did you pick this college or did your brother? HAMASAKI: My brother picked the college. INTERVIEWER: Do you know why or how he picked it? HAMASAKI: Well, it’s a kind of story that I tell everybody. My brother was in liquor business and there was a liquor commissioner that checked all the liquor stores and the alcohol content, things like that. And then he was good friend of my brother, his name Prescott Fu and his children went to Graceland. It's a nonsecretarial school, but it’s a reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints. So he told my brother if he want me to take care his son, his son is Sammy Duco [34:00] Hamasaki. He wanted him to go to college, so me to chaperone him while the first two years, at least. So that’s the reason why I went to him---with him to Graceland College. And then this Prescott Fu said, “It’s a good college to start with.” It was real church-like. I had a difficult time adjusting because my environment was more swearing, you know, everything was swear word and very vulgar and very plantation-like words, so I had a difficult time. This was a real church school. When I first arrived there they came and hold our hands and we all hold hands and we walk up to the college dorm, so, you know. And over there you have to say, “Hi, Walter.” If you don’t say “hi” they gonna scold you. So everybody got to say, “Hi, Kazu,” they call me “Kazu.” So anyway, that’s kind of school I went. The strongest thing is you can drink cocoa. You cannot drink coffee, you cannot drink soda pops. That was strict. INTERVIEWER: Were there any other Asian people besides you two? HAMASAKI: There were about 26 Hawaiian people, Japanese Hawaiian, no more Caucasian, but Hawaiian, Japanese, Portuguese, yeah. So we called---we formed a Hawaiian club. But they were so friendly it just amazed me. And I learned quickly not to swear and then when the lady come to sit down with---to eat lunch with you, you have to stand up. You cannot eat your dessert until everybody finish their meal. Oh, I learned a lot of things. INTERVIEWER: What did you study there? HAMASAKI: Anything that I can pass on. See, Saint Anthony School [36:00] was a commercial school, and the last two years they converted into so people can go to college, so we cram everything. So I didn’t have any major just a B.A. and that's all to it, whatever the easiest course. INTERVIEWER: And where did you go after Graceland? HAMASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 40 of 50 �Then I went to the nearest in that area was Omaha, Nebraska. And some of my friends was there from Omaha, Nebraska so they asked me to go over there. That’s how I went over there. INTERVIEWER: Which college? HAMASAKI: Omaha University. It’s a part of Nebra---University of Nebraska system. INTERVIEWER: And you got a degree there? HAMASAKI: Yeah, Bachelor of Arts degree, and my major was Sociology. INTERVIEWER: How was college life in Omaha? HAMASAKI: One thing, it was---I was lonesome. I wasn’t able to laugh if went to a movie because nobody---I sat next to my friends who, you know, it was very kind of lonesome. But they're a group people that help people like myself and they call themselves, I don’t know, Unitarian or something like that. And then they helped me to stay in the program and activities and they were some of my good friends. But still, they were my good friends, so when I went to eat Chinese food I eat by myself. When I went to dinner I eat by myself. INTERVIEWER: Did anybody else go to Graceland with your, was that your nephew or? HAMASAKI: My nephew. And then . . . INTERVIEWER: I mean . . . HAMASAKI: . . . what happened from Graceland was that I met---my roommates were all haoles. One was from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one was from Carthage, [38:00] Missouri, other one was from around there. There were kind of---and then there's my friend Jack ?Swall?, was from farmland in Missouri near Lee's Summit, Greenwood, Missouri. And they took me every holiday, they took me. And those days, “Okay,” Jack says, “we’re going home,” to his house. Okay, and then we get out on the road and hitchhike, “No time to get to Kansas City and dad would pick us up at Kansas City and then drive us home.” INTERVIEWER: So you would spend holidays with the Jack ?Swall? HAMASAKI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 41 of 50 �All. My summer, I stayed there all summer. I pitch hay and one of my daily job was, during the winter when the cold, cold, maybe ten below zero sometime, we have to go milk the cow. And the cows are all be outside waiting to come into the pen because they have food in there. Soon as they get in the pen, I don’t know why they don’t do it outside, but they do it the barn, plop-plop, and I have to shovel this out. As much as I was---and I never got promoted, four, five years I spend with them and I was the guy that took that outside. But they were so nice people, oh, shoot. INTERVIEWER: And so you graduated from the Omaha University. HAMASAKI: University. INTERVIEWER: What year and what . . .? HAMASAKI: 1953 I gradu---I went to graduate school there and mastered in sociology. That didn’t help anything, so when I came back I went school as social worker at University in Hawaii. INTERVIEWER: Okay, what kind of degree did you get? Was it a master's degree? HAMASAKI: Yeah, master's degree in social work [40:00] INTERVIEWER: So you were in Honolulu, you lived in Honolulu for awhile. HAMASAKI: Yeah, 1964 to ’66. I was married to my wife Grace and my son was born in Honolulu, May 2nd, on my birthday. Like a samurai I told her I want one son on my birthday and she gave me a son on my birthday. INTERVIEWER: How did you meet your wife? HAMASAKI: Well, my job was, you know, social work and then I used to visit different institutions, if our workers are doing okay and then things like that. And then I happened to this see this lady in the dietetic department and then, my gang, my friends, were all college graduated around ?Yanwi-chan?, Bull Toyama, Meiji Hirose, Alvin ?DeLoso?, all college educated, so we get together and drink beer and things like that. And then they would make party with the nurses and my wife was part of that group and a nurse and dietician, so when---that’s how we met. And my---actually, my wife caught me, she was lucky she caught me. INTERVIEWER: So you have college buddies. These were from your University . . . This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 42 of 50 �HAMASAKI: [Coughing] INTERVIEWER: . . . University of Hawaii days? Oh, what---when did you graduate and where did you work after you graduated? HAMASAKI: Yeah. The department gave me stipend to go to university to get graduate degree, because they didn’t have too many social workers those days so they wanted a person with graduate degree. So they paid my tuition and they allowed me two hundred-something dollars a month living, and my wife was a dietician so she was easy to get job. [42:00] INTERVIEWER: You mentioned the department, which department did you work for? HAMASAKI: Department of Social Services and Housing. That’s provided---administered the public welfare program: financial assistant, medical assistant, food stamp, child protective services, adoption, you name it, child welfare services. INTERVIEWER: And this was a department in the state of Hawaii? HAMASAKI: Yes. INTERVIEWER: Thank you. And when did you---when were you employed with them? When did you join them? HAMASAKI: I---1953 I worked for one year and then they said if I wanted to go graduate school. I said, “Yes, I want to go graduate school.” They send me so I was fortunate there. INTERVIEWER: So you worked in Honolulu though the---right up through the mid 60s? HAMASAKI: That’s right, nineteen fif---sixty-four. Sixty-six, I graduated. INTERVIEWER: Fifty-six you graduated. HAMASAKI: Yeah ’56, yeah ’56, yeah ’56. INTERVIEWER: Okay. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 43 of 50 �HAMASAKI: Sixty-six, yeah. INTERVIEWER: And then you moved back, then you moved to? HAMASAKI: Wailuku, Maui, yeah. And I was fortunate, a supervisor's job was available. I qualified for that, took the examination and then I was selected. And than I was lucky again, about three years, four years later, the administrator retired and I qualified again, took the examination and then I became the administrator. INTERVIEWER: And what were your duties as administrator? HAMASAKI: Administer the public welfare program. I was in charge of three islands, Maui County; Maui, Lanai and Molokai. We had offices all on that island. INTERVIEWER: [44:00] How big was this program? Was it a lot of employees? HAMASAKI: I think we were about the second largest department. The Department of Education was the biggest, then, maybe, the Health Department was maybe a little bit bigger than us, but, no, I think we were bigger than public welfare, the Department of Social Services and Housing. INTERVIEWER: So you traveled a lot to Molokai and Lanai all over Maui? HAMASAKI: Quarterly, I used to visit. Yeah. INTERVIEWER: And then how long were you in this department. HAMASAKI: Thirty-five years I work for the state of Hawaii. INTERVIEWER: So that will take you through the . . . HAMASAKI: Nineteen . . . INTERVIEWER: Nineteen eighties? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 44 of 50 �HAMASAKI: Nineteen eighty-eight, when I retired. INTERVIEWER: And there was a time you mentioned your son was born. HAMASAKI: Yes. INTERVIEWER: And his name again? HAMASAKI: Masao, Mark Masao. INTERVIEWER: And did you have any other children? HAMASAKI: One grandchild, yes. June 9---June 2nd, just recently, two years ago. She’s 17 months, 18 months old now, my daughter Ashley, granddaughter. INTERVIEWER: She’s Mark’s daughter? HAMASAKI: Son, daughter, yeah INTERVIEWER: Do you have any other children? HAMASAKI: No. INTERVIEWER: Or do you? HAMASAKI: She had a difficult time childbirth and yet she's a child of 13 family, and yet she had a difficult time giving birth. INTERVIEWER: Your form mentions Terry? HAMASAKI: Yes mum, yes sir INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 45 of 50 �And that’s . . . HAMASAKI: My daughter INTERVIEWER: That’s your daughter, okay. HAMASAKI: Can’t give her away. Trying my best to get away, bargain basement, but nobody take her. [46:00] I still stuck with her. She’s done well too. She’s in a superintendence office, education specialist. She was a vice principal for several years, so I’m happy that I---she’s pretty much set now. My son is doing good. INTERVIEWER: What have you been doing during retirement? HASAMAKI: I’ve been helping my church a lot and then I belong to this Hale Mahaolu, elderly housing, for about 33 years now as a board of director president. And I it develop from a two or three projects to now; we get about 20 projects. We’re pretty well known throughout the state as one of the---not the state but, you know, United States, one of the better housing project. INTERVIEWER: What kind of projects? You say you have 20 projects? HAMASAKI: Yeah, yeah. They're for elderly housing and then the low income people. So, yet we're under section eight program, the HUD program, and the rent is $800, maybe going rate now is $800, and usually HUD subsidizes about 75% of that. So our income is very healthy and every year we're doing okay, yet, HUD says, you have to increase, you have to increase. And then HUD, you know, our taxpayer's money paying all this rental. INTERVIEWER: Were you involved with this group from the beginning? HAMASAKI: I was three years after. I just missed the charter membership. INTERVIEWER: But you take a personal interest in this organization? HAMASAKI: [48:00] Yeah, because I---our people, poor people, welfare people, are always having trouble with paying the rent, and so that Hale Mahaolu have an excellent program. State of Hawaii have---Hawaiian Housing Authority have housing project, but they doing so terribly. Their people just don’t pay any rent. Ridiculous. And our law states that one month, then second month you throw 'em out. But nobody's thrown out with back rent about $10,000. Horrible, see, but not high program. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 46 of 50 �INTERVIEWER: What other things keep you busy? HAMASAKI: My church. Mostly everyday I go the---my coffee club, I have to---I’m the treasurer for about 35 years. Every time when we have an affair like that, we have a banquet for the wives. I’m the one that organized this when we have our annual Christmas party we go to Lahaina. I arrange the bus to pick us up and take us there. INTERVIEWER: You mentioned a coffee club? HAMASAKI: Yeah, coffee club. See, assess enough so that we have a surplus every time. From this surplus we have a Christmas party and things like that. INTERVIEWER: But is it a group of friends? HAMASAKI: Group of friends. INTERVIEWER: And you mentioned a church, which church is that? HAMASAKI: Wailuku Hongwanji Buddhist Church. I went to a Catholic school, I went to an reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints. Nobody converted me somehow, you know, they try to, but then I came back and then, only recently, I was finally given a Buddhist name. Only about three years ago, I said I might as well get a Buddhist name [50:00] I don’t want when I die and then they give you a Buddhist name, see. INTERVIEWER: So what is your Buddhist name? HAMASAKI: Issai. Is just like my name Kazuichi when you write that ichi ichi, one and one. Kazu is first ichi is first one, number one. I'm the best of the Hamasaki family. And then Issai is like that too. What very good man, number one man, Issai. INTERVIEWER: So you've described your life and how would you say the course of your life, the direction of your life has changed because of your service during the war. How would you say that your life changed or did it change? HAMASAKI: I kinda think that the war came about and it was blessing to me that I was given the opportunity to work with many, many different people and able to work along, get along, respect each other rights. And then I learned to become a man. I was well disciplined and then I didn’t embarrass my family and my This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 47 of 50 �mother told me, “Don’t shame us, don’t shame Hamasaki family name,” and I did this pretty good. And then, I’m sure that even my brothers are happy what I did, I went to college got my graduate degree and then became head of a department. So, you know, I---for a while, every head of the department were Caucasian, they were the people that had all the education before. [52:00] And I’m one of the first person of Jap---Asiatic to become head of a department. So I was---I felt pretty good about that and I didn’t shame anybody. I did try to do the best job. INTERVIEWER: Is there any message that you want to send to your children or grandchild. Any---anything that comes to mind, an opportunity to tell them something. HAMASAKI: My son kinda followed what my instructions were. He was an Eagle Scout, he excelled in language school, he was---he won the Bishop's Award for being the outstanding student on Maui. Then my daughter, too, she went get education and did good. They didn’t, well, they were lucky fortunate that drug wasn’t so prominent as today, so they avoided that. They didn’t get arrested for drinking or anything like that. They were good children I had, so I proud of them. And I think Hamasaki family, all of my nephew and nieces my grandnephew and nieces all have done good, that whole clan. INTERVIEWER: And is there anything you want to say to future generations that come, who watch this video? Anything you want them to know about or your feelings about the 100th, I mean, the 442nd? HAMASAKI: The only thing I can say is that they were good, brave men, definitely, they were brave. They, at the beginning, a lot of them panic little bit, but after that we became good soldiers and never once thought of running away or [54:00] trying to not do your duty. And if any legacy that I would behind is that you do your best so that people can be proud of you, and then you’re children can be following your steps, see, just like my son. INTERVIEWER: Okay. You brought some photos, so we’re gonna look at them in a little while, we’ll take a little break now, but at this point, though, I want to say on behalf of the Hanashi Oral History Program, we'd like to thank you for taking the time to allow us to conduct this oral history. So, thank you, Mr. Hamasaki. HAMASAKI: My pleasure. INTERVIEWER: Take a break right now? CREW MEMBER: Sure. [Interruption in interview.] INTERVIEWER: [Interview resumes. Mr. Hamasaki displays his photos.] . . . recording, if you want to just ask---can you tell us a little about this photo. ]Mr. Hamasaki coughs.] Okay, just hold off until, yeah, until . . . Oh, we're ready? Okay. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 48 of 50 �HAMASAKI: Okay, this picture is my picture of holding a rifle with a bayonet on and trying to demonstrate combat, use of bayonet. INTERVIEWER: And where was that taken? HAMASAKI: This was in Camp Shelby, Mississippi. This one is---this picture is on the maneuvers and this is off in Camp Shelby, Mississippi, part of our squad, G Company, 3rd Platoon. This picture represents my good friends, and again in G Company, one of this guy here is Oscar Tsukayama, he's a medics, and the rest of them are our 3rd Platoon friends. INTERVIEWER: [56:00] Are you in this photo? HAMASAKI: Yes, I’m on this picture right here, I can see right here. INTERVIEWER: Okay, great. HAMASAKI: Yeah. This was in the border of France and Italy near Nice, France, uh-huh, near Monte Carlo and we're on a outpost protecting for the Germans not to infiltrate into France and we're up in the mountain. And this is one of the mountain where the people brought up food for the people out in the outpost. INTERVIEWER: Which person is you in this photo? HAMASAKI: This one, it’s this one here. INTERVIEWER: And what are doing in the photo? HAMASAKI: I’m hitching the food that was brought to us. INTERVIEWER: Is that a mule or a horse there? HAMASAKI: Yeah, mule, mule. INTERVIEWER: That's a mule. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 49 of 50 �HAMASAKI: Yeah. And this is the guy that was a good friend from Seattle, Washington. Not Goto, but John Oto. That’s the guy was really nice to me, being a Japanese boy, and I try to help him financially. INTERVIEWER: You send money? HAMASAKI: Yeah, money. That’s it. Oh, and this is the most picture recently, we had a reunion in March 8 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the California Hotel. And this, I’m over here, and this are all good friend of mines. [58:00] Kiyomi Yamamoto was the second scout, he and I went through the war right through without getting hurt. We were lucky. Yeah, you know, it's just matter of luck that you---I guess I had a mission that, maybe, God wanted me to do more things later on. And I did help quite a bit the poor people. I used to fight with people they said they're all cheats on welfare, but they're a lot of good welfare people that needed help. That’s my (inaudible). INTERVIEWER: Okay, great, thank you. CREW MEMBER: Thank you. HAMASAKI: Okay. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 50 of 50 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Kazuichi Hamasaki oral history interview, March 21, 2006 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Kazuichi Hamasaki oral history interview transcript [full interview], March 21, 2006 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hamasaki, Kazuichi: narrator Okitsu, Walter: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Type The nature or genre of the resource Transcriptions Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Extent The size or duration of the resource. 50 pages, typescript Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006-03-21 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2006OH657_T_Hamasaki