Title
Ken Nihei oral history interview, part 3 of 5, August 20, 2004
Description
Overseas, every two months Ken's company moved to a different area.
Ken's first battle was on Mount Fogarito. In the Headquarters Platoon, Ken did various assignments. One job was to be a litter-bearer and carry the wounded soldiers off the battlefield. Ken discusses the risk of being a litter-bearer. His friend Tom Nishimoto died when he was a litter-bearer carrying Captain Cassey down the mountain.
Another job was escorting POWs down the mountain. Ken, Norbori, and Chizuo Uyeda took the POWs down and were attacked by mortar shells. They were not hit, but one of the POWs was wounded.
After Mount Fogarito, the Company marched into Carrera, Italy, and he recalls the townspeople were happy to see them. Ken was in combat with the German soldiers for several weeks until Genova.
Post-war, Ken was assigned to ship the German POWs back to Germany. The group was divided into two modes of transports truck and train. Ken and his men were on the train convoy, and they had to watch 400 POWs.