Jimmie Kanaya was born in Clackamas, Oregon in 1920 and grew up working on a farm from dawn to dusk. He experienced the Depression years of the early 1930s. He had an older sister and a younger brother. During the Depression, food was hard to get, but he never went hungry. His father usually had one helper with him on the farm. Towards the end of 1935 or 1936, they decided they had enough of farming and moved into town. His father then bought the produce and sold it at the store. They ran food [Annotators note: hard to tell if he says food or fruit] stands and stores. Kanaya graduated high school and in 1940 he saw his friends getting drafted and he saw the war coming. He felt he should sign up and get involved before the war ended. He enlisted in the Army in late 1940. He went to the Marine Corps Recruiting Office, because they had nice uniforms, but they wouldn't let him join and sent him to the Navy. The Navy wouldn't take him and sent him to the Army. He knew the Army was taking everybody, so he went. He had to go through a physical before they would take him. He did good on everything, but his dental test. He had bad teeth. He had to go to his dentist and get his teeth fixed. During all of this time, he didn't tell anyone he was joining the Army, because he was afraid he may not pass the physical. He had a friend that was drafted and had a big party and going away party, but couldn't pass the physical and it was embarrassing. In fact, he skipped work a few days during his final physical and work checked with his parents to be sure he was alright and they found out he was joining the Army. Then, he got his dental work finished, but he wasn't 21 yet and had to have the signature of his parents. His father didn't mind, but his mother didn't want him to. She did reluctantly sign him up. Kanaya was sent straight to Monterey, CA where he got his uniform. He walked down the street downtown in uniform and was very proud. It was around the 12th of April 1941. From there, he was processed out of Monterey. Some went to Hamilton Field for Army Air Corps training. He hoped to be a mechanic and work on airplanes. During his basic training, his Sergeant talked about working on airplanes and that he was waiting his turn to go into that. But, about 3 or 4 weeks into basic training, he was pulled to the side and told he was now a medic. He was then assigned to Santa Barbara to the Hoff General Hospital in Santa Barbara. That was his first experience working in a hospital and he had never had any training in it. Being regular Army he was placed in the Fire Department and since he had a Driver's License, he was going to be the firetruck driver. After 3 or 4 days of fire drill and learning what was expected of them, they went through a dry run of their training and jumped in the truck, rang the bell and turned the siren on while he gunned the engine. It shot out of the barn and he tried to shift from 1st to 2nd gear, but didn't double clutch. This mistake caused the truck to stop. Everyone fell off and that ended his career as a fireman. About that time, a new ward was opened for officers. He was a Private, but was given an assistant and oversaw this ward. They had one nurse, Ms. Higgin [Annotator's Note: unsure of name] that tried to teach him how to do everything. This included cleaning the beds, giving enemas, bathing the patient. He got the hang of it. They had to be Privates for 3 months, but then they got promoted to Private First Class [Annotator's Note: PFC]. Then, he made a specialist rating and eventually had the 2nd highest rating, he made about $61, which was a big increase over the past 6 months. He was then promoted to Corporal, but lost money and made $54 a month. This is where he stayed when the war broke out on December 7th. The Medical Department being very tolerant and with little prejudice involved [Annotator's Note: towards Japanese Americans like Kanaya], they were treated very decently unlike the men in the infantry that had their weapons taken away and put on bad details, etc. Kanaya kept working in the hospital until Executive Order 9066 was passed. With that, he had to move inland in March to Fort Leavenworth and then to Camp Crowder, Missouri, which was a new Signal Corps training camp with a new hospital. He was promoted there to Sergeant. Among the Japanese-Americans there in uniform, there were few who were Sergeants. He felt like he was doing better than the rest of the Japanese-Americans in the service. He was put in charge of the Red Cross building.

An interesting thing happened while Kanaya was there. They had a patient that needed a blood transfusion every day. Kanaya and some of his buddies had the same blood type so they would give blood every 2 weeks. On Christmas Day, the Red Cross held a party for doctors, nurses and civilians working there. They had wine. One of his buddies was Joe Belostrari (sp?) who was from Terre Haute, IN. Kanaya was cleaning up after the party and his buddy came in and told him not to pour the wine out. Kanaya poured him one glass after another. The guy only had about a block to walk, so Kanaya knew it wouldn't be too bad if he got drunk. The next day, Joe had to give blood and when he did, the patient died. Kanaya is sure they wouldn't have let Joe give blood if he was drunk and maybe the patient was to die anyway, but it was ironic. Kanaya said that Japanese Americans in uniform knew there was something "in the air" about forming a Japanese American combat regiment. From what he can understand, the government and military wanted to see how loyal the Japanese Americans would be, even with families in internment camps. Kanaya kind of volunteered before going on a 3 day pass. He told his First Sergeant that he wanted to volunteer for the regiment. When he came back from his 3 day pass, his name was on the list and he was listed on the medical detachment for the regiment. He was going to be the ranking Non-Commisioned Officer [Annotator's Note: NCO] as a Tech Sergeant meaning he'd be the First Sergeant of the medical detachment. The rest of the 8 or 9 Camp Crowder detachment of medical staff formed the cadre. They all got promoted. Also, outside of this group in the hospital, there was about 150 others and they all formed F Company and Headquarters, 2nd Battalion. There must have been about 80 of them to form the regiment. They went to Camp Shelby, MS on February 1, 1943. It was cold and miserable. There was a potbellied stove that wouldn't burn and they would sleep with an extra mattress on top of them. They had to train the group that was going to come in and form the regiment. The medics had to teach emergency first aid, how to give shots, how to recognize blisters, etc., to the troops. They went through one company cycle of recruits they were going to train. One part bothered Kanaya. With the medical cadre, doctors, dentists were supposed to teach some of the classes, but Kanaya and the cadre had to do all of the military discipline training. They had to teach formation, how to stand, salute, etc. The doctors didn't care. One dentist had ROTC and he helped some. But this was different from having regular officers that had training in this. Kanaya recalled if they had to go on a field activity or march, the doctors would only go on emergency cases. Eventually, the first group of recruits came from Hawaii. There were 1,100 of them out of 10,000 that tried to enlist. They fully expected the other 100th Battalion members and their relatives in the unit would be their mentors. They got there though and found men like Kanaya. They didn't talk like them or act like them. Kanaya said they were pretty laid back and not aggressive. He noted they weren't the racial majority on the West Coast and so they just took orders and laid back, but in Hawaii they were the majority and were aggressive. The Hawaiian guys and the other Japanese Americans couldn't understand each other and weren't sure about one another. They didn't get along and at times, some of the NCOs were getting beat up after hours. Kanaya couldn't take that. He gave up his stripes and accepted a job of taking over a section, with about 33 men. About 12 of his men were out as company aid men, with about 4 in each company. So his problem was almost cured over night. He had a good rapport with his battalion commander. As long as Kanaya was close and could support his actions. When an opening came up for a 2nd Lieutenant in the medical section of the infantry battalion, his name was up there and he was offered the job. He took it thinking he may get an extra $35 or more each month. That took him through the rest of the campaign. He made it through the rest of the Italian Campaign and that is where he got his promotion, south of the Arno River. From there, he went to Southern France and joined up with the 36th Division. From there he got into a fiasco.

The 100th Battalion joined the 442nd in Italy and was their first battalion. After the battle of Bruyeres, they took the town of Bruyeres and were now in the Vosges Mountains. The 100th Battalion got orders to take Biffontaine, which was on the other side of the mountains from them. It was about 3 miles away.The 100th Battalion was cut off. It wanted support and wanted to evacuate casualties they had while taking the town. Kanaya had no idea where they were, [Annotator's Note: It sounds as though some fo the 442nd RCT guys that went out to find them came back for supplies and to get medical help to come up] so he took 3 medics with him at the time. They followed the resupply party to get to the 100th Battalion and it took all day. Kanaya thought they were just right next door and didn't realize they were on the other side of the mountain. Otherwise, he would have stayed back and continued to do his job as a section Sergeant and just send maybe 3 or 4 men. But he always liked to volunteer. When he got there that evening, there were half a dozen litter cases [Annotators note: wounded men stretched out on mobile cots] all over the floor of a house and all were seriously wounded. They gave the men morphine, gave them food and stayed with them. Kanaya realized that he and the 3 other men couldn't carry any wounded back across the mountain in the middle of the night. So they waited until the next morning and he didn't see the 100th Battalion doctor or their Lieutenant there. There was one medical Sergeant there from the 100th Battalion doing all of the work and coordination. During the night, one of the outposts had been hit and they now had more casualties to deal with. The 100th Battalion decided to get the casualties and about 30 German prisoners together and get the prisoners to carry the wounded. They sent 3 or 4 infantry guards to watch over the prisoners carrying casualties. There were 3 or 4 walking wounded and they carried the flag at the front of the column. One of the walking wounded was the commander of the 100th Battalion. He outranked Kanaya, but with this being a medical operation, theoretically Kanaya was in charge as the ranking medical person. But it was not his battalion that he was supporting, he was just there to help so he says, "How could I be responsible?" They started off and one of the litter cases was the Captain that was the battalion S-2 for the 100th Battalion, the Intelligence officer. Kanaya thinks they were more than halfway back to his unit and were stopped. He estimates the column had to be about 100 yards long and they checked the patients every time they came to a halt. He knew there was a good chance they would be stopped by the Germans as they controlled that area; it was like "no man's land" and they didn't want to take any chances on getting involved in enemy contact. With the Red Cross flag up front, litters carried by German prisoners and guards with rifles they were contrary to the Geneva Convention, as you can't mix weapons with the Red Cross flag. Kanaya realized there could be a fire fight and the enemy could ignore the flag since they had rifles with them. So the column stopped and Kanaya was toward the back and couldn't see what was going on. This Captain, the S-2, rolled off of the litter and had lost a lot of blood and was weak. The Captain started running back in the direction they had come from with a medic chasing after him. The Germans surrounded them and disarmed their guards, but still let the Germans that had been captured carry the litters since there were so few Americans. Kanaya said they started moving back in the direction he had been the night before and were close to the lines, but after about 20 minutes they were going up a hill. They stopped and the German officer was always checking his compass. A French farmer came by on a trail with a wagon and mule. He and the German officer started talking and the French farmer pointed in a different direction. They had to go back down the hill and head in a different direction. After about 30 minutes, they went right by a GI unit and could hear them talking. Someone shot a rifle and you could hear typical GI cussing. As they were initially captured, a German non-commisioned officer came and took Kanaya's wristwatch. When they came by the GIs, the German brought the watch back to him. After they got back behind the German lines, the German came and took the watch again. Kanaya thought that it was funny they may get captured by the Americans and the German wanted to give the watch back. He found out later that the voices they heard from GIs was likely the Lost Battalion [Annotator's Note: 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division who were surrounded by German troops in the Vosges Mountains until rescued by members of the 442nd RCT].

When Executive Order 9066 [Annotator's Note: Executive Order 9066, or EO 9066 led the way for the internment of Japanese Americans] was implemented, Kanaya remembered everyone got a notice and said under their breath that they would never be evacuated. But when the evacuation notice was announced, they were given about a 1 week notice. When the time came to evacuate, Kanaya got a 10 day pass to catch a bus and help his parents move. He also had to help his father sell the car. His father bought it only a year or so before for about $900, but was only able to get $400 for it. The stockyard in Portland was converted into an assembly center. There was still hay and manure in the stalls. On the day that they had to move there, Kanaya went with his family in uniform and was guarded by MPs with rifles and bayonets. He couldn't go far into the camp before a Lieutenant Colonel grabbed him by the arm and said that Kanaya that he couldn't go in there. Before he could even say goodbye to his family, he was put in the office and was told he'd be given a sedan to get out of there and get to a USO and call back to let the officer know that he arrived. He went to the USO and called the train and bus station and finally got a bus out of there. He called the Lieutenant Colonel to let him know that he got a bus out of town and that he'd be leaving at about 2:30 in the afternoon. He still had a few days on leave and spent a few days in Kansas City before going back to Camp Carter. Kanaya' s parents stored a lot of their stuff in the church that they belonged to, but the church wasn't secured. Luckily, they didn't have a lot of property that they owned, because they rented a good bit. The furniture and things stored in the church were taken or destroyed. His sister says that he lost a coin collection and a stamp collection, but he doesn't know that they were worth anything. His family endured the process and didn't complain too much. His father mentioned after 40 to 50 years of dawn to dusk work on a farm, he felt like he could now sleep in, in the morning instead of getting up at 3:30 or 4 in the morning to get to the early market. But he'd lost his freedom, which Kanaya felt was important. Kanaya recalled that his father and his mother never complained. Kanaya remembered that his parents didn't express themselves too much. He grew up learning the native language of his parents, Japanese, but when he started school it was all English, so he couldn't communicate well with his parents. There was little communication unless something had to be done, which they would say in Japanese. So there was little discussion on the evacuation. Kanaya knows they must have felt as they were victims of circumstance. But they endured it. He thinks they were better off. His father lived to be 96 and was healthy. His mother died of a stroke in her 70s. Kanaya thinks his family may have been one of the more fortunate ones when compared to those that had to part with their farms or property they owned and had to sell things at cost. There were reparations granted [Annotators note: Kanaya refers to the Civil Liberties Act Amendments of 1988 and 1992, both of which issued reparations to Japanese American families affected by the internment process], but Kanaya notes that most of the people who could have used it were dead. Kanaya feels that only "Uncle Sam" [Annotators note: the United States] would have granted a redress for what happened in its past. He feels no other country would do that in similar circumstances. Kanaya knows there were a lot of objections to the money going out because of the stress on the economy, but it was a good thing and good form of stimulus for those that got it. He feels like most folks spent the money and didn't save it. Kanaya's family was sent to an internment camp in Idaho and as a "buck sergeant" [Annotators note: Sergeant] he went to visit them. Kanaya recalled that usually when you graduated from basic training and before you went overseas, you went home and there was a party with all of your family and friends. In his case, he got to the camp and had to get permission to enter the camp through the gate. He had to show his papers to the MP and then he went to a holding area where they searched his bags for contraband like guns, alcohol, etc. Then he was able to go into the camp and find his parents. The first meal they had in the mess hall there and nobody was talking to him. He felt like he may have been taking a meal away from one person and he felt so out of place that he wouldn't go to the toilet until after midnight to shower and clean up. Nobody came to visit him either. His mother suggested that he just stay in the room and that she would bring meals to him. That was his overall experience with the internment camp. Kanaya feels that maybe the internees associated him with the camp guards, but maybe the people were all busy working and had other things on their mind. He felt very out of place. He had to wear his uniform the whole leave and couldn't wear civilian clothes. He was glad to get out of there. The next time he went back there was before he went overseas. This time he was a Sergeant 1st Class or Tech Sergeant. He got his parents out of the camp and to a housekeeping job waiting for them in Chicago at a girl's dormitory. They stayed there all during the war and that's where they are both buried. They liked Chicago because they could live like everybody else. They bought several apartments and increased their living situation over time. They also started their own church groups for the large number of Japanese Americans moving into the Chicago area. He felt like the war and the evacuation may have been tough, but he felt like his time as a POW was tougher. Where they had one barbed wire fence keeping them in, Kanaya had two, with a patrol of German Shepherd dogs between them. Also his rations were practically nothing, but a piece of bread and some hot water for dinner.

Kanaya felt that living during the Depression years and learning to live under those conditions, working and living on a farm, helped his POW experience. He claimed over a thousand officers dropped out of their column and only about 400 of his group made it to Hammelburg. He felt that even though he lost 40 pounds and had so much trouble, he learned to endure and take a lot of pain. He couldn't get used to being hungry all the time. Kanaya went to the YMCA in Santa Barbara to swim at around 8 or 9 in the morning. The pool was highly chlorinated on Sunday mornings. He was there as usual swimming and as he got out and was leaving, there was a Caucasian man standing at the counter with a radio sitting on the window sill. The man told Kanaya to listen. He asked Kanaya, "Are you guys here already?" Kanaya wasn't sure what he meant so the man told him to listen to the radio. The man told him that the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor and Kanaya asked him where Pearl Harbor was. Kanaya was sure the man was kidding about his question regarding him "being there already." With that, he didn't say anything, but got back as quickly as he could to his base and to the hospital. Kanaya says after that, the next few months are just a blur in his memory. They all worked in their duties as required. One of Kanaya's buddies was a security guard at the hospital. He had his firearm taken away and was given a billy club. Kanaya remembered they had about 4 or 5 Japanese Americans that they called "kibays" (sp?) that were born in America, educated in Japan and returned to the US. Kanaya said they were more Japanese-oriented than American-oriented. One of them was suspected of saying that Japan was going to win the war. He was immediately taken out of there and sent to jail. [Annotators note: I'm not sure if this guy was a patient in the hospital or someone working there] Kanaya believes this man was later reinstated. There was also a suspected bombing raid in Los Angeles. Anti-aircraft guns were firing at the sky and rounds were landing all over town. But, Kanaya thinks it was just an anti-aircraft guy that was a little jittery. Kanaya recalled there was a Japanese submarine that shelled the oil derricks. The subs hit the catapults and walkways between oil rigs, but not any oil. He recalled someone brought in some shrapnel the size of a softball. It had a Japanese inscription on the side and Kanaya was the ranking Japanese American there so they brought it to him to read. He couldn't read Japanese so he got one of the Japanese educated men to read it and he told them it said, "Kure Naval base." [Annotators note: for Kure, Japan] Kanaya remembered having a good experience at that hospital and he remembered the medical department was very tolerant. The day that they were all packed and ready to leave, the commanding officer came down and praised them and gave them promotions. He also said he was sorry to see Kanaya and the other Japanese Americans go. Kanaya felt that even though he didn't volunteer to be a medic, it just became comfortable to him and it was what he knew. Kanaya feels that he couldn't have transferred to infantry or any other branch and gotten by. At Camp Crowder, they were in a small town or remote area. In the small towns they were tolerated. They had civilians working with them some. In Hattiesburg, it was deeper in the south. They had more problems there, but not insurmountable. They had one gentleman there that was a farmer that took to the Hawaii boys really well. He felt sorry for them being all the way from Hawaii. He would invite them for BBQs and shows. Unfortunately, after the war was over he passed away. Kanaya remembered that they had one day off a week, Sunday, and they would go into town for steak and beer. There would be 80 to 90,000 troops there at Camp Shelby and all went to town at the same time, so it was hard to have much time off. Kanaya also recalled that some of the Japanese Americans also made good friends in Hattiesburg. The only problem they had was with some of the boys from other units that wanted to fight them. Kanaya felt like it just like with any group of young men, if you can't fight the enemy, you fight each other. Kanaya says he knows of troops that went into Caucasian barracks and caused trouble and got called on it. But for the most part they did their best to do right and fight for their rights as they served their country. And for those from Hawaii, they wanted to fight for their rights and defend their home island. Some of those in Hawaii got into politics after the war and furthered their cause. Kanaya notes that some of those within the 48 states took a little more time and they seemed to be less prominent overall. He recalled that Norman Mineta was one of the first ones to become the mayor of San Jose, one of the largest cities with a Japanese American mayor. But since then there have been some politicians like General Shinseki that became Chief of Staff. Looking back on it, Kanaya remembered when he joined the Army, if he saw someone with 2 or 3 stripes on their arm, he wanted to be like them. But when it came time, if the war hadn't come along then he wouldn't have had the opportunity to get above 2 or 3 stripes and get a commission. He notes that without a college degree or academy or OCS [Annotator's Note: Officer Candidate School] experience, he wouldn't have been given the commission. He was able to serve 34 years. After serving in the war, he got used to dodging bullets. After 20 years, he learned to relax and not be too uptight. Also, making friends in the right places he found was important. Kanaya feels he had a good life, was passed over a few times [Annotators note: for rank advancements] and that reputation and meeting the right people is important.

The Preparations for Overseas Movement [Annotator's Note: POM] he doesn't remember a lot of. He remembered having to get vehicles ready and he had to get everything packed. Kanaya did recall that there was an officer that had a big bed roll, about the width of a 55 gallon drum. He knew that there wouldn't be any alcohol on board ship, so the officer had the bedroll unrolled and he would lay across the bedroll and roll 5 or 6 bottles of pure grain alcohol into it. After about a week on board ship, Kanaya says he was the most popular man on board. Kanaya can't remember where they debarked, but he remembered doing climbing training up and down rope ladders. He also remembered one incident at the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange] before they got on the ship to embark. Their unit got in a fight with another unit and MPs came and the jeep got tipped over. But the next day they were all gone. Kanaya wasn't involved, but he heard about it. It took them almost 30 days to get across the ocean. Kanaya did remember one little gimmick going on while on ship. You could take a silver quarter, drill a hole through it and pound it with a spoon and you form a ring out of the quarter. When you have 300 or 400 guys banging quarters on the railings of the ship, it makes a lot of banging noise. It went on all day long and Kanaya can't remember if he tried to make one or not. He realized he might get seasick so when he got on board, he got as high as he could in the ship and into the top bunk. He also realized if he was below anyone that threw up, he'd be covered in their vomit, so he got onto the top bunk. There were a lot of seasick soldiers on board the ship and they had to practically bottle-feed all of them because they were so sick. All they had to eat was dried chicken noodle soup, but he doesn't remember what was for breakfast or lunch. If there was anything greasy, it went over the side. They had saltwater showers and nobody would take them. Kanaya recalled that if you went in there, you'd be about the only one there. He noted there was about half a battalion of troops on board and the ship was in the front left hand side of the convoy. If you looked off to the right, all you could see was more ships. Kanaya said it would take about half a day to zig the ship one way and zag the other. Zig-zagging is why it took so long to get across the ocean. They had a corvette escort off on their left front. About halfway across he took off and they were all by themselves. He also recalled hearing that the back side of the convoy was attacked by German submarines, but he couldn't hear anything at the time. It was maybe 20 miles from where they were. Kanaya heard later that part of the convoy took off and went to England and the rest went through the Straits of Gibraltor. They stopped at Casablanca and then stopped at Sicily before going on into Naples. In Naples, they got off the ship. Kanaya also recalled a lot of card playing and gambling on board the ship. When they got to Naples, Kanaya doesn't remember how they got off the ship. He thinks some smaller boats picked them up and took them to the shore. They were taken to a bivouac area just north of Naples. Kanaya notes that when they left Camp Shelby, Mississippi, they left their first battalion behind to train the replacements coming in. Just the 2nd and 3rd battalions went overseas and then they picked up the 100th Battalion just outside of Rome. That is when they became a full regiment with the 100th Battalion as their 1st battalion. The 100th Battalion was retained as its own battalion with its own flag, etc. After they left Naples, their first contact with the enemy was just north and east of Civitavecchia. They were on the western flank of the 5th Army. They were in the mountainous area of the coast. They fought their way up to Collesalvetti. It took them about 3 weeks to a month to get up there. They could see Pisa from there. From there, they were pulled back and put into a line just outside of Florence, Italy. They held the line there about 3 or 4 more weeks. About late September, they pulled out of there and regrouped and then went into Southern France. Kanaya thinks they staged out of Naples. They loaded LSTs with their trucks, artillery pieces and other equipment. He recalled it was an overnight trip to Naples. He had just gotten his commission and got a bunk on the inside of the ship, but someone had left his door open. The ship would rock and the door kept banging and banging so that Kanaya couldn't get any sleep. It kept him awake all night long. From there, they staged from Aix-la-Chapelle [Annotator's Note: Aix-la-Chapelle is actually Aachen, perhaps Kanaya meant Aix-en-Provence] just north of Marseilles and trained there for about a week. They had trips to Marseilles to loosen up a little bit. From there, they went east of Epinol [Annotator's Note: Epinac or Apinac?] and headed north. Just before Bruyeres, they tacked onto the 36th Division and they became their 4th regiment. They took Bruyeres and went beyond there. That is where the 100th Battalion got separated at Biffontaine, the 442nd tried to help them out and that is where his association ended with them. He was with the 442nd from February 1943 to October 1944. That was his experience with the infantry. From that point on in his career he was with military government and then intelligence and then back to the medical field.

Kanaya said that medics followed the troops into the field. He liked to pick units that he knew would probably get into action because he felt like he should be there to help with the casualties. In his first combat action he recalled being out there and they got into an artillery barrage. Kanaya recalled jumping into some bushes for cover and then having an artillery round land next to him and it was a dud and didn't go off. He bounced up when it hit and he later found out that for every round that was a dud, the Germans could trace those to where they came from. The Germans used a lot of slave labor to build the military shells. The Germans would execute slave laborers because the round was a dud. [Annotators note: This is all hearsay as Kanaya never saw this actually happening and probably just heard this during or after the war]. Kanaya didn't really know the town names of the areas they first fought. He did remember Hill 140, where they fought heavily and he received his 1st decoration for treating casualties sustained by GIs getting down a valley and across another and up another hill to get them to safety. He treated them and got them hauled back to the aid station. Kanaya thought he was getting some help from the group he was with, but when he got back to the aid station area at the end of the day, they were all asleep. Kanaya was angry with them. They had all gone back into the aid station to get some sleep while he was bringing in the last of the casualties. Kanaya was a Sergeant and he told the Captain off because he was top NCO. Kanaya got the casualties out of there by treating them and getting them over the hill out of the line of fire so he could work on them more. All the time he was working on them, he was being fired at 88's [Annotators note: German artillery, Flak-88, possibly other German artillery too]. They were shooting rounds just over his head, even with him having a medic armband on. Kanaya feels if one would have landed in front of him, then he would have died. When it got dark, the unit ended up taking that hill. The next morning, he went up to the top of the hill and there was a cave there. There was about 30 guys in there with the anti-tank company and a platoon leader. They said they were there to help, but Kanaya said they weren't needed now and to go on. He noted that you never seemed to get help when you actually needed it. By the time they got there, it was too late. For that action in saving the lives of the wounded, Kanaya was awarded the Silver Star. He didn't know about it until he got back to the United States. He was awarded it at Stark General Hospital in Charleston, SC after he recuperated at Miami Beach, FL. Kanaya said they went through Rome in the middle of the night to join the division just north of the city. They got back to Rome a couple of times and saw the Coliseum, the Vatican. Kanaya remembered that they were in a stalemate situation at the Arno River. The Germans would be crossing the river at night and in some cases, the American and German patrols were crisscrossing each other. One night, Kanaya got a call to go retrieve a wounded there. They got there and found that 3 or 4 had been killed outright, one of which had his face shot off. Kanaya went to work on one of the wounded men with a shattered knee. He was putting a splint on his knee and his Sergeant that was a litter squad leader and started yelling for him. There were the medics and 3 or 4 German soldiers with weapons trying to communicate. The Germans were trying to communicate that they carried one wounded across the river and he had him under his arm and was trying to drag him. Kanaya's Sergeant was getting excited thinking they were about to get captured and they could have been, but they had the Red Cross flag and the Germans knew they were medics. They started communicating and there were bodies laying around. There were 3 or 4 wounded they were working on so they had to come up with an arrangement on how to evacuate the bodies without the Germans following them. It was getting late and the Germans were infiltrating their area at night time. He didn't want his men to be evacuating bodies after dark. Kanaya talked to what was apparently a German Sergeant in the group and pointed to his watch and said he would be back at 12 o'clock the next day to pick up the bodies. Kanaya told him this so that the Germans wouldn't think they would be attacking. He was careful not to give the German any kind of assurance. Then they carefully evacuated the bodies of the wounded and that night within about an hour of getting back to the aid station, about half a mile from where the action took place, and he got a call that the Battalion Commander wanted to see him. The Battalion Commander wanted Kanaya to go with him to see the Regimental Commander and explain what happened. Kanaya went there and told him that he didn't want to take a chance on getting caught out there after dark to bring the bodies back. He explained his arrangement with the Germans for tomorrow. 12 o'clock was all he could think of at the time. The next day, they got ready around 11 o'clock to go out and pick up the bodies. When they got to the area, there was an infantry outpost out there and Kanaya knew how many bodies they had to bring back. He only had about 6 or 7 guys with him and he needed about 4 more. Kanaya asked for volunteers and several of the infantry outpost volunteered. They all wanted to meet the Germans. Even the chaplain wanted to come along to meet the Germans. Kanaya told him if he didn't mind on taking a chance getting captured,then he could come along. He got the Battalion Commander to agree. Kanaya put arm bands around all of the infantrymen and they got the Red Cross flag.They got to the area right at 12 o'clock and the Germans were waiting for them right on time. They got the casualties ready to be picked up and Kanaya noticed that all the GIs that volunteered were talking to the Germans and they were all trading pins and souvenirs, insignia and "having a ball." He was ready for them to get out of there. They got everything done and Kanaya notes that the Regimental Commander could have had a patrol out to capture the Germans that were waiting for them, but he didn't. They had their word to keep and both sides kept their word. The Germans told Kanaya that they had captured Lieutenant Potter, who had been wounded seriously and died a couple of days into German captivity. The German soldier was demonstrated how they carried him back and the Sergeant thought he was getting captured so he yelled. That was one incident along the Arno River.

Both sides honored their gentleman's agreement to meet at the river in order to collect the bodies. There was one other incident too after about 2 weeks of combat. Their battalion was the lead battalion leading the attack and it came to this town with a curved wall leading down the hill and it curved around and their troops were at the bottom of this hill. As they rounded this curve, the Germans would start shooting at them, so they pulled back. So the order was to take this town. Nobody wanted to go around this curve and attack the town so there was a Platoon Sergeant that went around this curve; there was a church steeple halfway up this hill. He was shot and nobody wanted to go and get him. They sent word back that they had a man trapped out there and they didn't know if he was alive or dead. Kanaya took a flag up and waved it around the curve and kept waving it. He went up and walked around this road. The Sergeant was off this road and had jumped off of this bank and rolled. Kanaya yelled to him and he didn't answer. He went down to check and the Sergeant didn't respond; he was dead. Kanaya didn't think he should lift him and carry him back because he'd have to go over 75 to 80 yards with the body. Kanaya motioned that the Sergeant was dead and turned around and walked back toward the American lines. As he walked back he realized that the rifle that shot the Sergeant could have been pointed at him the whole time and the man that shot him could have shot Kanaya too. He went back and reported him dead. Kanaya heard later that the regiment was criticized because the entire lead battalion got stopped by one sniper and nobody wanted to go around the curve to attack. By that time, the 100th Battalion came around the left of the battalion and surrounded the town and neutralized the threat. This was one of their 1st combat experiences, though and that is why the whole regiment got stopped by one sniper. This was around the time that Kanaya found out he was receiving a commission. The Commanding Officer, Major Buckley, who was the regimental surgeon, took some information on Kanaya and sent it up the chain. 4 GIs including Kanaya were promoted, 2 medics and 2 infantrymen. Kanaya understands that they were the first commissioned in the 442nd. The 100th Battalion had commissioned combat people before. The ceremony took place in Florence and there was a battalion of the 34th Division as an honor battalion. It was 5 or 6 miles south of Florence and out of range of enemy fire. Mark Clark came and pinned the bars on Kanaya's shoulder and wished him good luck. It didn't matter as much to Kanaya because he was still doing the same job either way, but it did give him a little more pay. Kanaya was sending his money home. He started smoking, but wasn't drinking or anything else that was expensive so he could send most all of his paycheck home. After they came off the line and before they shipped to Southern France, Kanaya's battalion commander, Col. Purcell [Annotator's Note: spelling unclear], got the motor officer, a First Lieutenant, to take Kanaya to the Officer's Club in Naples. It was called the "Orange Club" and it was for all the officers in the 5th Army that happened to be in the area. So they went there and Kanaya and this Lieutenant ordered something. There was a table full of Air Force officers sitting next to them and one came and tapped Kanaya on the shoulder. He told Kanaya that he knew who he was and Kanaya recognized him as Ralph Road [Annotator's Note: spelling unclear] . They played football together and he was a Captain already. Kanaya thinks he was stationed south of Rome in Foggia. Ralph told Kanaya that he already had 50 missions in and was going home already. Kanaya had just arrived in country and his buddy had been overseas 3 or 4 months and was already going on. He was Operations Officer so he could pick his own flights. He could schedule 1 a day for 50 days and then be done with his missions. Kanaya saw him after the war at a high school reunion. Ralph didn't stay in and started working for his father. Kanaya said funny things like that happened.

As a medic, Kanaya had to treat the Germans like their own wounded. The medics would treat the American wounded 1st and then would treat the Germans afterward if they were capable of doing so or had the time to. Early on, one of the 1st medics killed was from Seattle. Kanaya recalled he was working on his PhD and was a college Assistant Professor. He was working as a litter bearer and he volunteered to go out and evacuate casualties after they got a call in the rear area. They had a Red Cross flag and Kanaya's Sergeant was leading the group. They were in an open area and George Sawato [Annotator's Note: spelling unclear] was 2nd man behind his sergeant and he was shot. They saw the German in the woods no more than 50 feet away and they thought he recognized the Red Cross flag. But he shot the man carrying the flag for some reason. He was one of the 1st medics killed over there [Annotators note: in the 442nd RCT, not in the war]. This was a case where the Germans didn't respect the Red Cross flag. When a medic was killed deliberately, the word goes up to take no prisoners. This will continue for a few more days. Eventually they need prisoners and started capturing them again. Kanaya felt that for the most part he thinks they respected the Red Cross and the fact that the medics were unarmed. Kanaya notes that medics were armed after the war, but that was only 50% of them. Then you can't say that medics had a weapon. It was only for protection of the patients and of the aid station. Kanaya knows in some cases that they caught a German medic with a weapon and they saw him as just another infantryman. He felt that for the most part the Germans respected American medics and they tried to reciprocate the best that they could. He knew there were some violations involved, but sometimes it depends what was going on at that moment. Kanaya admitted that it is hard to completely abide by the Geneva Convention, because you would unknowingly violate it, like when he evacuated wounded soldiers and German prisoners and the German prisoners carried the wounded out of the woods. Kanaya talks about being so confused by the whole situation and how it all worked out that way, but they didn't have helicopters or other transportation to evacuate them over the mountains. They also didn't have enough medics to help with the evacuation. He noticed when the Germans carried the prisoners and they got stopped, the German prisoners mumbled amongst themselves, he thinks about being worried they weren't coming back to the States. Just a day before the rescue of the Lost Battalion, Kanaya was captured. It took about 3 or 4 days before the Lost Battalion could be rescued. After he reached the 100th Battalion and was treating the wounded, was when he had German prisoners helping to transport them back to American lines. The German prisoners were captured by the 100th Battalion while they were fighting for Biffontaine. In regards to being captured, the 100th Battalion was in Biffontaine and the rest of the 442nd RCT was on the other side of the mountain, about 2 and a half miles away. That's why they needed help evacuating the casualties. The German line was further east by 2 or 3 miles and the Lost Battalion was between Biffontaine and the German lines. Kanaya remembered the Germans were running through the mountains because they knew the Americans couldn't hold the whole area. The 442nd took Bruyeres and the mountain was half a mile or so from there. Kanaya remembered they were running along the northern edge of the ridge into the woods area, but when the Lost Battalion had to be rescued, they had to go over the mountains to save them. Kanaya describes the area as a tough situation because of the woods and enemy. After being captured, Kanaya remembered that there wasn't any way to really escape. Before they evacuated that night, artillery came in and they had more casualties. Kanaya couldn't figure out how a few GI medics could carry all of the wounded litters, but the Germans came up with a plan and he couldn't see any other way to do it. Kanaya thinks the Germans had no choice but to let them through and treat their wounded. They only lost one along the way. He was so upset about the situation of getting all these men captured that he didn't want to talk about it for a long time, but now that he is able to, there isn't really anyone around anymore to talk about it with.

Of the 3 guys that went with Kanaya to bring back the wounded, one was a Caucasian from a supporting company. They called him "Tex" because he had a Texas drawl. Him being Caucasian, they always interrogated him first because they thought he was an officer. Kanaya and the other Japanese American officers [Annotators note: referring to as a whole, not the men with him as he was the only officer captured] wore their rank under their collar. After a few days, the Germans realized Kanaya was the officer and they separated him from the other men. They put him with about 5 or 6 officers captured from other divisions that were nearby. Kanaya spent the rest of his POW time with them. He recalled that the Germans knew who the Americans were and what they were doing. Kanaya didn't know much because he was a brand new 2nd Lieutenant. Once they realized this, the Germans didn't really seem to care about getting much information out of him. One of the first stopping places was about 10 days after they were captured as they worked their way into Germany. With Kanaya being a medic, they pulled him out to work in the hospital at his first camp. It was run by an Australian doctor, a Captain named LaSouf [Annotator's Note: spelling unclear]. He interviewed Kanaya and they put him with a French prisoner who spoke a little English. He showed Kanaya how to sharpen needles. Kanaya didn't have any medical training and it took them a few days to find out. They put him in an operating room at one point and the soldier had a leg wound in the right leg. They were going to put a pin in his leg for traction. The GI got excited when he heard the drill because he thought they were taking the leg off and started screaming at Kanaya. He assured the GI they weren't taking the leg off and the guy calmed down. Kanaya recalled being in a gown and not being sure what to do other than watch. That lasted about a week and during that time whenever there was an air raid warning, they would carry the litter patients down into the cellar about 3 or 4 stairs down. That went on every time it sounded-- 2 or 3 times a day and sometimes at night. It was nerve-wracking and Kanaya never got any sleep. He was glad to get back with the group of officers. They were housed in a cement barracks that was cold. There were 5 of them at one time and they would all sleep in 1 bed together. They would all sleep facing the left side for maybe and hour or so and then all shift to the right side. He found himself on the outside most of the time. They were supposed to take turns being in the middle and being the warmest. It was so cold that they slept that way to stay warm. Kanaya had heard of others sleeping that way and some even stripping down to transfer the body heat faster, but they kept their clothes on. They got meager rations every day and were always hungry. From this point, they headed to Poland. There was 1 German NCO and 1 Private escorting them all the way. From Stuttgart to Oflag 64 and Kanaya can't give them enough credit for trying to protect them. Even with other activity with other German soldiers. He doesn't recalled ever getting hit or spit on, but remembered the hostility there, because they were getting bombed and getting beaten and getting desperate. At 1 train station, it was pretty empty when they arrived. They sat in the corner on an L-shaped bench with their guards sitting with them. Then the station got crowded and there were hundreds of German soldiers standing up with no place to sit. One German soldier basically got up on a soap box and started pointing to them saying they were prisoners of Germany sitting down while the soldiers of Germany are standing up. He kept harassing and the Sergeant responsible for Kanaya and the other officers told his fellow German soldier that they were officers and to be treated as such. This guy didn't care and after about 15 minutes they finally gave in. They stood up so the Germans could have a seat. But this Sergeant didn't want them to have to do that. Kanaya has no idea how they were able to provide food or water to them as they traveled and found them a place to sleep. Both guards couldn't sleep at the same time and 1 would have to stay awake and guard. The previously mentioned train story took place in Berlin. It was underground about 2 or 3 stories down and reinforced with boards. They thought they'd be buried alive down there after all the bombing. They were there around Thanksgiving 1944. He recalled the British would bomb at night and during the day, American B-17s would bomb in formation, so they would have bombing day and night, coming and going. He recalled that when he escaped and hid in the woods near Nuremburg, it was being bombed heavily. Some shrapnel landed near his leg at one point and he picked it up and it was red hot. At this place where he was hiding, he could see about 100 yards in every direction because the ground was clear about a foot and a half high. Kids were running through the woods and Kanaya was hiding in hopes they wouldn't step on him.

Kanaya never tried to escape until after they left camp in Poland in January of 1945. That is when opportunities came up to escape.Before then, there wasn't much opportunity. He couldn't escape by himself or with a group because he couldn't identify himself as a non-German. He made up his mind if he escaped to do so by himself. From Berlin, they left by train to Poland and during that period it was hectic, cold and there was no food. Kanaya and the other prisoners were locked in box cars. During an air raid, the Germans would all take off and leave the POWs in the box cars. It was a long trip and they eventually made it to Oflag 64 in Szubin, Poland, around the 1st week of December 1944. It was a week or 2 after being in Berlin. There were almost 1,000 Army officers there dating back to North Africa fighting. It was a well organized camp. The senior officer was in charge, they had to clean and shave everyday and had formation twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. They formed into 50 man platoons with a Lieutenant Colonel in charge of each platoon. With about 1,000 officers there, there were about 20 platoons. They got 1 meal a day and 1 slice of bread and 1 bowl of soup, that was supposed to be potato soup, but usually looked like gray water. If you were at the front of the line, you'd get some potatoes and some beets or horse meat, but toward the rear of the line it was just gray water. The group of 5 or 6 men would sit together at every meal. When they got the bread, they took turns slicing it so that everyone would take turns slicing bread. The last guy to slice it would get the last pick. They would measure every slice and would take turns picking pieces. They had a library there and Kanaya was in the hallway reading the bulletin board. The senior commander was Colonel Paul Goode. He had a room across from the bulletin board. He came out and looked at Kanaya and didn't say a word. Kanaya looked around and realized nobody was there and they were at evening formation in the cold winter. Here were 1,000 officers standing out there freezing waiting for 1 guy who was missing at 1 formation. Kanaya came running out there embarrassed. After every formation, they had to walk around the camp once. After the formation was over, Colonel Waters or another staff officer told Kanaya to walk around it 2 more times in the cold as punishment. They didn't want to walk because they'd lose energy and need more food because of hunger. But that was his punishment and he was really embarrassed. Nobody mentioned it to him though. They had a tunnel group that would dig tunnels and the Germans knew it and would drop dynamite charges every so often to try and cave in the tunnel. They never knew where it was, but would have detail people do the digging. Kanaya got there late and they didn't want everyone knowing where the tunnel was located. The men digging would drop the dirt from the tunnel out of their pants when they walked around. The dirt from underground had to blend in with the dirt from the playing field because they were 2 different colors. But Hitler put out an order that for every prisoner that escapes, 10 will be shot. So this halted their tunnel digging. Some people did escape, but didn't get far. Kanaya remembered nobody got out for good. Kanaya was there from the 1st week of December until the 21st of January. It was long enough to get used to a routine. There were about 6 men to a cubicle area. They would make a oven out of a coffee can and take wood shavings to melt chocolate or make coffee. They would get the wood from the bed slats by shaving wood from 1 slat at 1 bed and then getting another from a different bed. 1 of his bunk mates was an engineer from Texas A&M. He created a tiny oven out of adobe mud. They could shave little matchstick pieces off the wood and feed it. There would be a pot belly stove at 1 end of the barracks and the senior Colonel would usually bunk near it. Kanaya and the other men would get about 3 pieces of coal in a day or so, which wasn't enough to do anything with. There was also 1 big washroom and toilet area. It had cold water and there would be 100 in one building with 50 on one end and 50 on the other. They had to abide by regulations and prove to the Germans that they were officers and would not work. They had about 50 enlisted men assigned to cook and help with yard work and do the work troops normally do. The Germans had to keep them organized and in order to earn respect they had to abide by their own rules and the German ones. Otherwise, the German command wouldn't respect them. Kanaya said they knew that the German officers saw things too as a class structure and that the British officers even had a "bat man" that was their aid.

They also knew through a radio set that they had that the Rhine River was under siege. They were aware that the Russians were closing on the other side. The winter offensive started. They left on the 21st of January and crossed the river. They could hear Russian artillery. They each got a Red Cross box and an overcoat. Some people tried to carry extra blankets. Kanaya teamed up with one of the medical corps officers. There was 3 of them. The snow was past ankle deep and the road was rough. They had a makeshift sled that they took turns pulling, the sled had their Red Cross boxes on them. The more they ate from the box, the lighter the load became. They pulled the sled for a couple of days. If they had any leftovers they put them in their pocket. Kanaya lost track with the guys he started with and he was actually alone for most of the time. Kanaya stayed away from the guys who could not keep up. Between 50 and 80 guys were left behind to be put into hospitals. The 1st 2 days on the road were tough; they slept in barns. A lot of the guys stayed hidden in the barns and did not come out for morning roll call. They lost about 400 guys that way. They were down to a thousand by the 4th day, every day guys would drop because of frost bite or because they were not in shape. Doctors were constantly assessing the men to see if they could go on. Kanaya always stayed with the front of the group. There were 2 officers from the 100th battalion. They asked Kanaya if he wanted to tag along. Kanaya ended up staying in his group. The Russians were right behind them. They ended up crossing an iced over river, the next morning they found out that all of their guards took off and they were alone in this town in Poland. They found out later the Russian tanks could not cross that river because the ice was not thick enough. Kanaya and some men were running around the town. A group of Latvian SS troops came by and rounded them up and they were told they were prisoners again. They were in German territory and life became hard again. The Germans would spit on them. The Russians had already reached a point south of them so they ended up heading north. There was a German Navy base where they ended up, there were battleships and submarines there but no fuel to use them. The slept in the barracks that night. When the Russians were behind them, Kanaya was able to understand how the young Germans were indoctrinated. The Hitler Youth still acted like everything was alright. One of their groups got in trouble because someone stole a chicken. They were going to execute someone, but they did not. From there they went to a town called Parque [Annotators Note: not sure on the spelling.] . They had marched about 400 miles. The men were exhausted. It was early April. Kanaya took off his clothes and realized that he had lice or bed bugs. Kanaya got upset that the bugs were eating his blood. Kanaya saw a German jet plane for the first time. They did not know what they were. Kanaya also heard that Roosevelt had died, but they thought it was propaganda. The Germans announced it to the public and them. They were then put on a train to Hammelburg, there was about 400 of them. There were over 1000 officers there who were captured at the Battle of the Bulge. When Kanaya's group came in, their colonel took over command of all of the officers. The men who were captured were in disarray and clearly upset about being captured. Men were blaming each other for various things. There was a little more discipline in this camp. They obeyed the rules that the Germans set up. 2 weeks later the Hammelburg Raid took place [Annotator's Note: 26-28 March 1945]. Patton sent in a task force.

There was 1 company of tanks, 1 company of infantry and a company for support. Kanaya is not sure how they did it, but they broke through the German lines near Frankfurt and made their way [Annotator's Note: to the POW camp at Hammelburg]. On the way the soldiers shot up whatever they could. They finally found Kanaya's camp and they went through the gate. They were told that they could not take everyone back. They did not realize a thousand men were there. Whoever wanted to get on the half tracks and tanks were allowed to do so. Before they left they opened the kitchen up and they ate it. Kanaya teamed up with a guy named C.B. Moral [Annotators Note: Unsure of the spelling]. Moral was an old timer captured in North Africa; he grabbed a sack of sugar. Kanaya tried to get on a half track and it was full. Kanaya was the medic so he hopped onto the truck with the wounded. Moral was allowed to ride since he could operate the machine gun. They took off in the middle of the night. It was 9 o'clock at night. The column of tanks, trucks, half tracks, and jeeps was a quarter mile long. Every time they got to a road block the lead tank would get shot up. They had to reroute numerous times because of road blocks. One time they stopped in the middle of the night and everyone started shooting into the darkness. Moral was infantry, but he had not fired a machine gun in 5 years. Moral was chewed out when they realized he could not fire the machine gun. They did not get very far, in the morning they found a bare spot on the side of a hill. They stopped there and could not go any further; every roadway was blocked off. They were aware the Germans had sealed off the area. The last minute dash was going to be done by the faster vehicles. Moral, Kanaya, and a guy named Pops made the decision to head back to camp. They got maybe half a mile away and they heard German armor off to the west. They heard the Germans firing. They had no trouble getting back in. Kanaya went back to his barracks and later that afternoon the stragglers from the group came back with the task force. Kanaya felt bad for the armored guys, they sacrificed a lot to get to them. Patton later wrote that he wished he had sent in more infantry to help. Patton wanted to send a larger force, but the Corps Commander deemed it too risky. Patton's son-in-law [Annotator's Note: Lieutenant Colonel John K. Waters]was there, which is probably why he sent the task force. When Patton organized the task force, he felt that he might have had the chance to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Kanaya finds it remarkable because they were 50 miles behind enemy lines. Kanaya knew Patton's son-in-law. Kanaya could tell by his demeanor that he was West Point educated. Patton's son-in-law was actually leading the group. A lot of people felt that once they became prisoners they did not have to take orders, that was not the case.

They were able to keep their sanity because they knew the war was going well for them. Once the front line was going their way they knew it was not going to stop. They were also aware that the Russians were coming. They did not relish the idea of getting freed by the Russians. From Hammelburg, they went to Nuremberg. They joined up with a gang of prisoners from all over the place. At Nuremburg, the camp was either 5A or 7A. Over 20,000 Russian prisoners were there. Kanaya was in a disorganized group; there were officers and enlisted men together. They got Red Cross boxes at the Nuremberg camp. There was always the threat of air raids. One morning they were told they were going to be moving out. Kanaya was 1 of the last soldiers to leave. When Kanaya's turn finally came it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon, all of the Russians were still there. The scuttlebutt was that they were going to be taken up into the Alps and held as bargaining chips. Kanaya did not want to escape with any group; he wanted to escape by himself. Their column got strafed by American planes. Kanaya ran as far as he could into the woods. Kanaya jumped into a depression into the ground. There were trees everywhere. When the raid was over, everyone was told to fall back in. Kanaya stayed put until it got dark, he was going to try and find his way back to the camp. Before Kanaya left, he buried some items out in the woods. Kanaya went back 5 years later and found the stuff. Kanaya left under cover of darkness and tried to make his way back to camp. At night Kanaya ran into a German barracks and could hear them talking. The building was blacked out, but he could hear the voices. Kanaya crossed a stream at night. By morning Kanaya was across the street from the camp. Kanaya walked into a wooded area. Kanaya saw another stream and the water tasted good. Kanaya had 3 or 4 days worth of food in his Red Cross box. Kanaya could hear the artillery bombing the town. Kanaya knew that Nuremberg was going to be overrun in a few days. Kanaya ran out of food after 6 to 7 days and he got diarrhea. Kanaya decided to give up and walk back into the camp. When he walked up to the front gate, people were running and walking all around him. No one paid any attention to Kanaya. Kanaya got to the gate and there was a German guard who would not let him in. The guard took off and found someone who spoke English. The man let him in and Kanaya explained his story. The German thought Kanaya was lying, so he put him with a group of Air Force officers who were shot down. There was about 25 to 30 officers. Kanaya was put into the dispensary to work. There were a few beds in there if 1 was really sick. During the day the town was bombed by American bombers. One load of bombs went through the POW camp. The American Air Force officers had never been bombed before and they were terrified.

During that period, the Russian prisoners got along with the American prisoners. One of them made a cigarette case for Kanaya. About 50 Russian prisoners would die every day. The Russians did not immediately report the deaths because they wanted to get the dead man's rations. They were finally liberated. A day before the German officers came around and gathered all of the able-bodied American officers in a last ditch effort to move everyone. The doctor let Kanaya stay because he had a fever. About 25 American officers were moved out the day before, Kanaya never heard or saw them again. The next day, the tanks came from the 45th Infantry Division. The tanks barrelled through the front gate and the Russians took off and raided Nuremberg. Kanaya was liberated on the 26th of April 1945. Kanaya had his wristwatch taken from him, so he wanted one. Kanaya befriended the Serbians while he was in camp; they treated Kanaya well. The Serbians were able to get different types of supplies. The prisoners were separated by male and female. When they were liberated everyone was suddenly together. Every bunk had a couple in it and they were going at it [Annotator's Note: having sex]. Kanaya asked them for a wristwatch. They told Kanaya they would trade a bicycle for a watch. The male and female prisoners were getting together because no one had sex in a long time. People were scrounging around for jewelry, weapons, and everything valuable. The Russian soldiers followed behind the Americans picking up everything that was left behind. Kanaya attempted to escape at Hammelburg, at the river where the Germans could not cross. Kanaya had a few days of freedom. Kanaya stayed a week in the camp after liberation because there were so many people. Kanaya was on a C-47 coming back from the camp. Kanaya was sick from the ride. They landed near Camp Lucky Strike [Annotator's Note: One of the transfer and recuperation camps in France]. After about a day or 2 they were given uniforms and money. They were fed steak dinners. Eisenhower came and told the troops that they would not be going back home for a week because of transportation problems. Kanaya slept on a ship on his way home. Every few hours they would trade spots on the deck. There were 27 meals a day being served. Halfway back, word came around that all souvenirs were going to be confiscated. People were throwing all types of weapons over the side into the ocean. When they landed, no one got searched. After they landed they got on a troop train to go to Camp Kilmer in New Jersey. There were about 800 POW's in the group they were with. They went through an area where there were garment shops run by women. They were waving panties at the men. Some of the troops went back there that night. They got aboard a train, all ranks were in the train. They gave Kanaya a box of about 800 records. Kanaya was given charge of the train. Every time the train stopped, guys would jump off and buy as much stuff as they could.

Kanaya had no idea if everyone made it back. They got off of the train in Chicago; there was a train from the Pacific Theater that had a bunch of Marines on it. Kanaya had the highest respect for MacArthur. On the side of the train there was a banner that said, "Stick with Mac, and you'll never get back." Kanaya realized then that he was not that popular with the troops. Kanaya met MacArthur during the occupation of Japan. Kanaya's parents were managing a hotel. Kanaya spent about 2 weeks in Chicago before he was given a 30 day leave. Kanaya stayed in Chicago and was able to meet a lot of his friends from before the war. They were supposed to have 2 weeks in Miami Beach, Kanaya got to stay a week. From there Kanaya went to Charleston, South Carolina to go to a hospital. It was a medical replacement center. Kanaya was awarded his medals there. Kanaya received a Bronze Star and a Silver Star. The war ended in September and they opened up a military government school at the University of Virginia. They were going to help out with the occupation of Japan. They were put on board a ship and they were told they were going to Korea. Kanaya stayed on for occupation duty for 6 months. While Kanaya was in Korea, they offered a regular army commission for those who could pass. Kanaya took a physical the 1st day followed by 4 hour examination tests. Kanaya did not think he had a chance to pass because he did not have any college. Kanaya had 12 days leave coming his way but he found out he was accepted into the medical program. Kanaya had a security clearance and it was a good job. Kanaya stayed in the Medical Field service. A lot of the job was administrative based. Kanaya went to college after the war. Kanaya ended up getting his Masters degree. Kanaya had friends in the right places, this allowed him to get into these units. Undergraduate work was hard for Kanaya because he had not been in school for a while. Kanaya retired a Colonel. The military changed Kanaya. He had no objective in life and it helped to guide him. His goal was to deal with whatever came along. In wartime, Kanaya could not make close friends because they would get killed. Kanaya was a loner in the service. Kanaya ran things his own way. His Battalion Commander left Kanaya alone during combat because he trusted him. Kanaya became a self-motivated person. Kanaya had certain times in his life where it hurt him, but his ability to work with others helped him in the end. Kanaya thinks it is very important that we have museums such as the National World War II Museum. People need to understand why we did certain things. Museums are great for the younger generations and for people who want to learn about WWII. Kanaya notes that the military system today is vastly different from the military he served in. Kanaya notes that the military is a great occupation for kids who have no direction in life.

Kanaya graduated high school and in 1940 he saw his friends getting drafted and he saw the war coming. He felt he should sign up and get involved before the war ended. He enlisted in the Army in late 1940. He went to the Marine Corps Recruiting Office, because they had nice uniforms, but they wouldn't let him join and sent him to the Navy. The Navy wouldn't take him and sent him to the Army. He knew the Army was taking everybody, so he went. He had to go through a physical before they would take him. He did good on everything, but his dental test. He had bad teeth. He had to go to his dentist and get his teeth fixed. During all of this time, he didn't tell anyone he was joining the Army, because he was afraid he may not pass the physical. He had a friend that was drafted and had a big party and going away party, but couldn't pass the physical and it was embarrassing. In fact, he skipped work a few days during his final physical and work checked with his parents to be sure he was alright and they found out he was joining the Army. Then, he got his dental work finished, but he wasn't 21 yet and had to have the signature of his parents. His father didn't mind, but his mother didn't want him to. She did reluctantly sign him up. Kanaya was sent straight to Monterey, CA where he got his uniform. He walked down the street downtown in uniform and was very proud. It was around the 12th of April 1941. From there, he was processed out of Monterey. Some went to Hamilton Field for Army Air Corps training. He hoped to be a mechanic and work on airplanes. During his basic training, his Sergeant talked about working on airplanes and that he was waiting his turn to go into that. But, about 3 or 4 weeks into basic training, he was pulled to the side and told he was now a medic. He was then assigned to Santa Barbara to the Hoff General Hospital in Santa Barbara. That was his first experience working in a hospital and he had never had any training in it. Being regular Army he was placed in the Fire Department and since he had a Driver's License, he was going to be the firetruck driver. After 3 or 4 days of fire drill and learning what was expected of them, they went through a dry run of their training and jumped in the truck, rang the bell and turned the siren on while he gunned the engine. It shot out of the barn and he tried to shift from 1st to 2nd gear, but didn't double clutch. This mistake caused the truck to stop. Everyone fell off and that ended his career as a fireman. About that time, a new ward was opened for officers. He was a Private, but was given an assistant and oversaw this ward. They had one nurse, Ms. Higgin [Annotator's Note: unsure of name] that tried to teach him how to do everything. This included cleaning the beds, giving enemas, bathing the patient. He got the hang of it. They had to be Privates for 3 months, but then they got promoted to Private First Class [Annotator's Note: PFC]. Then, he made a specialist rating and eventually had the 2nd highest rating, he made about $61, which was a big increase over the past 6 months. He was then promoted to Corporal, but lost money and made $54 a month. This is where he stayed when the war broke out on December 7th. The Medical Department being very tolerant and with little prejudice involved [Annotator's Note: towards Japanese Americans like Kanaya], they were treated very decently unlike the men in the infantry that had their weapons taken away and put on bad details, etc. Kanaya kept working in the hospital until Executive Order 9066 was passed. With that, he had to move inland in March to Fort Leavenworth and then to Camp Crowder, Missouri, which was a new Signal Corps training camp with a new hospital. He was promoted there to Sergeant. Among the Japanese-Americans there in uniform, there were few who were Sergeants. He felt like he was doing better than the rest of the Japanese-Americans in the service. He was put in charge of the Red Cross building.

When Executive Order 9066 [Annotator's Note: Executive Order 9066, or EO 9066 led the way for the internment of Japanese Americans] was implemented, Kanaya remembered everyone got a notice and said under their breath that they would never be evacuated. But when the evacuation notice was announced, they were given about a 1 week notice. When the time came to evacuate, Kanaya got a 10 day pass to catch a bus and help his parents move. He also had to help his father sell the car. His father bought it only a year or so before for about $900, but was only able to get $400 for it. The stockyard in Portland was converted into an assembly center. There was still hay and manure in the stalls. On the day that they had to move there, Kanaya went with his family in uniform and was guarded by MPs with rifles and bayonets. He couldn't go far into the camp before a Lieutenant Colonel grabbed him by the arm and said that Kanaya that he couldn't go in there. Before he could even say goodbye to his family, he was put in the office and was told he'd be given a sedan to get out of there and get to a USO and call back to let the officer know that he arrived. He went to the USO and called the train and bus station and finally got a bus out of there. He called the Lieutenant Colonel to let him know that he got a bus out of town and that he'd be leaving at about 2:30 in the afternoon. He still had a few days on leave and spent a few days in Kansas City before going back to Camp Carter. Kanaya' s parents stored a lot of their stuff in the church that they belonged to, but the church wasn't secured. Luckily, they didn't have a lot of property that they owned, because they rented a good bit. The furniture and things stored in the church were taken or destroyed. His sister says that he lost a coin collection and a stamp collection, but he doesn't know that they were worth anything. His family endured the process and didn't complain too much. His father mentioned after 40 to 50 years of dawn to dusk work on a farm, he felt like he could now sleep in, in the morning instead of getting up at 3:30 or 4 in the morning to get to the early market. But he'd lost his freedom, which Kanaya felt was important. Kanaya recalled that his father and his mother never complained. Kanaya remembered that his parents didn't express themselves too much. He grew up learning the native language of his parents, Japanese, but when he started school it was all English, so he couldn't communicate well with his parents. There was little communication unless something had to be done, which they would say in Japanese. So there was little discussion on the evacuation. Kanaya knows they must have felt as they were victims of circumstance. But they endured it. He thinks they were better off. His father lived to be 96 and was healthy. His mother died of a stroke in her 70s. Kanaya thinks his family may have been one of the more fortunate ones when compared to those that had to part with their farms or property they owned and had to sell things at cost.

Kanaya didn't really know the town names of the areas they first fought. He did remember Hill 140, where they fought heavily and he received his 1st decoration for treating casualties sustained by GIs getting down a valley and across another and up another hill to get them to safety. He treated them and got them hauled back to the aid station. Kanaya thought he was getting some help from the group he was with, but when he got back to the aid station area at the end of the day, they were all asleep. Kanaya was angry with them. They had all gone back into the aid station to get some sleep while he was bringing in the last of the casualties. Kanaya was a Sergeant and he told the Captain off because he was top NCO. Kanaya got the casualties out of there by treating them and getting them over the hill out of the line of fire so he could work on them more. All the time he was working on them, he was being fired at 88's [Annotators note: German artillery, Flak-88, possibly other German artillery too]. They were shooting rounds just over his head, even with him having a medic armband on. Kanaya feels if one would have landed in front of him, then he would have died. When it got dark, the unit ended up taking that hill. The next morning, he went up to the top of the hill and there was a cave there. There was about 30 guys in there with the anti-tank company and a platoon leader. They said they were there to help, but Kanaya said they weren't needed now and to go on. He noted that you never seemed to get help when you actually needed it. By the time they got there, it was too late. For that action in saving the lives of the wounded, Kanaya was awarded the Silver Star. He didn't know about it until he got back to the United States. He was awarded it at Stark General Hospital in Charleston, SC after he recuperated at Miami Beach, FL.

Both sides honored their gentleman's agreement to meet at the river in order to collect the bodies. There was one other incident too after about 2 weeks of combat. Their battalion was the lead battalion leading the attack and it came to this town with a curved wall leading down the hill and it curved around and their troops were at the bottom of this hill. As they rounded this curve, the Germans would start shooting at them, so they pulled back. So the order was to take this town. Nobody wanted to go around this curve and attack the town so there was a Platoon Sergeant that went around this curve; there was a church steeple halfway up this hill. He was shot and nobody wanted to go and get him. They sent word back that they had a man trapped out there and they didn't know if he was alive or dead. Kanaya took a flag up and waved it around the curve and kept waving it. He went up and walked around this road. The Sergeant was off this road and had jumped off of this bank and rolled. Kanaya yelled to him and he didn't answer. He went down to check and the Sergeant didn't respond; he was dead. Kanaya didn't think he should lift him and carry him back because he'd have to go over 75 to 80 yards with the body. Kanaya motioned that the Sergeant was dead and turned around and walked back toward the American lines. As he walked back he realized that the rifle that shot the Sergeant could have been pointed at him the whole time and the man that shot him could have shot Kanaya too. He went back and reported him dead. Kanaya heard later that the regiment was criticized because the entire lead battalion got stopped by one sniper and nobody wanted to go around the curve to attack. By that time, the 100th Battalion came around the left of the battalion and surrounded the town and neutralized the threat. This was one of their 1st combat experiences, though and that is why the whole regiment got stopped by one sniper.

When a medic was killed deliberately, the word goes up to take no prisoners. This will continue for a few more days. Eventually they need prisoners and started capturing them again. Kanaya felt that for the most part he thinks they respected the Red Cross and the fact that the medics were unarmed. Kanaya notes that medics were armed after the war, but that was only 50% of them. Then you can't say that medics had a weapon. It was only for protection of the patients and of the aid station. Kanaya knows in some cases that they caught a German medic with a weapon and they saw him as just another infantryman. He felt that for the most part the Germans respected American medics and they tried to reciprocate the best that they could. He knew there were some violations involved, but sometimes it depends what was going on at that moment. Kanaya admitted that it is hard to completely abide by the Geneva Convention, because you would unknowingly violate it, like when he evacuated wounded soldiers and German prisoners and the German prisoners carried the wounded out of the woods.