Joe G. Casillas was born in San Pedro, California in October 1925. He grew up around Pacoima [Annotator's Note: Pacoima, California] and went to school there. His family moved to Mendora [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify]. His father did farm work. His brother died as an infant and his sister passed away when she was 16. After school he had to go home and do housework and make dinner for his folks. They worked as farm laborers. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Casillas where he was when heard of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] He was on a farm with the boss surveying for water. Casillas was waiting in his car and turned the radio on. There was a news flash about the bombing. The boss was in the Navy Reserve. A lot of the fellows working there got drafted. One fellow went in 1940 and he did not come back until after the war. The workers that were left took on more responsibility. He did some truck driving hauling grain to Sacramento [Annotator's Note: Sacramento, California]. A truck driver had gone by a school bus and gotten taken off the truck for not having a license. Casillas then started driving trucks. Casillas got a deferment [Annotator's Note: postponement of military service] in 1944 when he was 18 because farming was essential. Crops were classified as to essential or non-essential. Grains were essential. He got a card to tell him he was being called up. He knew it would happen after the deferment, but it ended sooner. He followed the war on the radio.

Joe G. Casillas reported to Presidio of San Francisco [Annotator's Note: in California] from Fresno [Annotator's Note: Fresno, California]. He wound up in Presidio in Monterey [Annotator's Note: Presidio of Monterey, Monterey, California] and went to Camp Roberts [Annotator's Note: in Monterey County and San Luis Obispo County, California] for basic training in September [Annotator's Note: September 1944]. He was trained by veterans of both Europe and the Pacific. There were all kinds of rumors. They finished training and got a seven delay en route [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to go home. He then reported to Presidio, Monterey. He signed up for the paratroopers to stay in the United States longer. It did not work. They loaded on trains, and they got a rumor that they were going to Washington, D.C. They went to Washington state for about three weeks for more training. They then got on a ship overseas. He was made a guard on the ship, so he was outside at night. The sea was rough getting out of there. All he could see what was looked like mountains, but they were waves. That was something. He never got seasick. They went to Hawaii zig-zagging [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver]. He was in Hawaii all of January [Annotator's Note: January 1945]. When the Marines invaded Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan], he was heading away from Hawaii and heard the news. He was not assigned yet. In Hawaii, he had jungle training. It rains pretty good there. When they landed in Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii], he saw the mess there. He was there in early 1945. He went to Schofield Barracks [Annotator's Note: Schofield Barracks, Oahu, Hawaii] on a detail and saw all the mess that was made. They did not have time to clean things up. He got to go into Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii]. It was very strict. If you bought a pineapple, you better get a receipt. Guys had been cutting pineapples out of the fields. They left Hawaii when Iwo Jima started and went to Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] which was already secured. They left in four ships and the night before, Casillas was on night guard and got to see them fuel a submarine. The ships were far apart.

Joe G. Casillas was trained as a rifleman in the infantry. He got to Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, in 1945] and had more training. He was there a couple weeks and loaded on a ship. The invasion of Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945, Okinawa, Japan] was 1 April on April Fool's Day. Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname for all female, English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda during World War 2] said they were barbarians for invading on Easter Sunday. He got assigned [Annotator's Note: to 1st Platoon, Company E, 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division] in Okinawa when he arrived 10 April [Annotator's Note: 10 April 1945] as a replacement. He was the night sentry on all the ships he was on. They unloaded off the ship and were separated into groups. They did more training which was very different from what they had gotten in the United States. They trained in crossfire there and how to throw a hand grenade so that it blasted in the air instead of when it landed. They learned about satchel charges [Annotator's Note: demolition device usually carried in a bag or satchel] for use in caves. When they were getting off the ship, they went across dead Japanese bodies and saw some American dead. He wondered when he was going to be one of those guys.

Joe G. Casillas had his baptism of fire right on the escarpment [Annotator's Note: after landing on Okinawa, Japan, 10 April 1945]. The 77th Division [Annotator's Note: 77th Infantry Division] was not there yet. They were on Ie-Shima [Annotator's Note: Ie-Shima, Japan] where Ernie Pyle [Annotator's Note: Ernest Taylor Pyle, American journalist and war correspondent] was killed [Annotator's Note: on 8 April 1945]. When Casillas got there, he saw some action and walked right through it. He went to a camp with pup tents. A Japanese reconnaissance plane came over and then they had to move camp. He could see the pilot and wondered why they did not shoot him down. His group did guard duty among the big guns. He then wound up on a water detail, purifying water for drinking. They trained as well. It rained a lot, and it was hot. On the front lines [Annotator's Note: now with 1st Platoon, Company E, 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division], it was mostly heat. They got Atabrine [Annotator's Note: proprietary name for mepacrine or quinacrine, antimalarial drug] for malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite]. Some guys did not want to take it. He caught malaria in the Philippines. He was on Okinawa when it was secured [Annotator's Note: Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945, Okinawa, Japan]. He was in a battle there that was a night attack. The Ishimmi Ridge was there. That line was fortified by the Japanese who had a lot of equipment there. The Marines on the other end tried to break through and got slaughtered. That whole operation was a standstill for about a week. His outfit got picked to hit them at night. He was in Company E of the 307th. They went in on 17 May [Annotator's Note: 17 May 1945] at around four o'clock in the morning. He was in the rear-guard 1st Platoon. They dug in. He was lucky and wound up in a hole that was deep. The rest were trying to dig, and they could not dig down. The island was coral, and it was like concrete. A lot of them threw away their shovels and picked up the Japanese shovels which were designed for it. They would even use them to guard the backs of their heads. A lot of men lost their lives. All hell broke loose around six o'clock in the morning. The Japanese were surprised. There were machine guns, and mortars. 204 of them went up and 49 came back after three days. They did not break through the lines. They were ordered to hold the position at all costs. They were surrounded. A tank came in to give them support. To his left was a mountain with caves. That tank blasted them when they came out. His company commander threw a red grenade to stop the tank. It was hitting too low and blasting the coral to pieces. A piece of coral killed their First Sergeant. Planes were strafing the Japanese. A bunch of Japanese had been killed while sleeping. The planes hit some Americans and killed them. The First Sergeant was still alive then and told a guy who had the smoke grenades, but he was killed. They hollered for Casillas, and he had to go about 75 feet to the dead soldier and get the smoke grenade and throw it. He was crawling through a mess of bodies. He had to go back again and get another grenade of a different color and throw it. The colors let the planes know where to strafe. He made it back. The Japanese used the caves like rats. He went back to his unit and during the strafing, the Japanese were throwing grenades at them. A piece of shrapnel hit him in the knee. He wrapped it with his handkerchief. Their medic had been killed. His guys were in the rear. He and a fellow took turns shooting. One shot came and went in through the other guy's knee. The island was secured 22 June [Annotator's Note: 22 June 1945]. On the 24th [Annotator's Note: 24 June 1945], he was on a ship heading to the Philippines to get ready for the big invasion of Japan. He was on patrol by them. There were not many of them left. A Piper Cub plane [Annotator's Note: Piper J-3 Cub light observation aircraft] flew by and hollered something and threw a notice out that the island was secured.

Joe G. Casillas left Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan with 1st Platoon, Company E, 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division] and went to Cebu [Annotator's Note: Cebu Island, Philippines]. They were still fighting there [Annotator's Note: Battle of Visayas, 18 March to 15 August 1945, Visayas region, Philippines]. Casillas got all kinds of stories that the Japanese were preparing the women and young kids to fight. That was the rumor. They had over 100,000 soldiers on the island and only about 10,000 of them surrendered. They would not surrender and would blow themselves up with their own grenades. The Japanese were told the Americans would use them for bayonet practice. Casillas was in the Philippines in July [Annotator's Note: July 1945] and August when the first bomb was dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945] and then the second bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 1945]. Then it was over. Everything was Top Secret, but he knew the war was over. The Indianapolis [Annotator's Note: USS Indianapolis (CA-35)] had taken the bomb over and then left. The commander did not use a zig-zag course [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] and it was bombed and sunk [Annotator's Note: 30 July 1945]. Even the ones that were there from the beginning of the war went to Japan to occupy it. Casillas missed leaving by two points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. When he got out of the mess [Annotator's Note: Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945, Okinawa, Japan], he was told to take care of his knee [Annotator's Note: Casillas had been hit by shrapnel from a grenade]. He said no way. A wound was five points. He did not want them to send a telegram to his mother saying he had been wounded in action. It was more like a scratch. So that cost him points to get home. Even so, he did not want his mother to receive that as he was the only one left [Annotator's Note: his siblings had died as young children].

Joe G. Casillas was stationed at Sapporo [Annotator's Note: Sapporo, Japan] on Hokkaido [Annotator's Note: Hokkaido, Japan] until March 1946 [Annotator's Note: as part of 1st Platoon, Company E, 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division]. He got there 8 October [Annotator's Note: 8 October 1945]. He had no interaction with the Japanese population. They were told not pick on anyone. They had surrendered and were defeated. He came home September 1946. He got to drive for an officer in charge of buying equipment. He returned to Camp Beale [Annotator's Note: now Beale Air Force Base, Marysville, California] and was discharged. He had no trouble becoming a civilian. Everybody was happy to see him in Mendora [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify]. They decided to wait until everybody got home to have one big party. When he moved to Camp Beale, he knew some men there. He spent a week there and worked driving produce trucks. Then he went home. He was treated with respect. People were asking if he had been in combat. He used the 52-20 Program [Annotator's Note: a government-funded program that paid unemployed veterans 20 dollars per week for 52 weeks]. He had to drive 35 miles to get the money each week. When the war was over, things little by little drifted back to normal. He had Japanese friends in internment camps [Annotator's Note: forced relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans in concentration camps in the United States from 19 February 1942 to 20 March 1946]. One of them was his boss. Some were in Tule Lake [Annotator's Note: Tule Lake Segregation Center, also called Tule Lake War Relocation Center, Modoc and Siskiyou counties, California; now part of Tule Lake Monument] and some in Colorado [Annotator's Note: Granada War Relocation Center, also called Camp Amache, Granada, Colorado]. They started all over again when they came back. He thinks people today appreciate what was done. His training started in September [Annotator's Note: September 1944] and in December [Annotator's Note: December 1944] he was ready to go. He was glad it was over. All of them in the Pacific were. He enjoyed a bit of the occupation and got to visit Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan]. He saw the bombing of Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: the effects of the nuclear weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 1945] and he saw Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan]. He visited Mount Fuji. He drove for the regimental commander and was put in charge of the group. He met a guy from his hometown there.