Banco de Dados da Experiência Militar Nipo-Americana
John H Matsumoto
Sexo
Male
Birth date
1919-12-21
Local de nascimento
Penngrove CA, U.S.A.
Inducted
1941-12-6, Presidio of Monterey CA
Tipo de alistamento
Volunteer
Ramo das Forças Armadas
Army
Tipo de serviço
War
Tipo de Unidade
Combat
Unidades onde serviu
12th Air Force; 97th Sq. - 47th Bomb Gp.
Military specialty
Airplane Armorer Gunner
Stationed
Monterey, CA; Biloxi, Miss.;Lowry Field, Denver, CO; Hill Field, Ogden, UT; England; North Africa; Italy; Corsica
Separated
Ft. Logan CO
Unit responsibility
Bombing enemy personnel - Installations and supporting our own troops - mostly in Italy.
Personal responsibility
Aerial gunner on A-20 (attack bomber) and taking pictures of our bombing attacks.
Major battles (if served in a war zone)
Naples, Foggia, Normandy
Awards, medals, citations (individual or unit)
Air Medal with 1 Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster (OLC); completed 50 combat missions; Good Conduct Medal; American Defense Service Medal; European Africa Middle Eastern Service Medal.
Living conditions
Overseas - We slept in tents with wooden floors. Four men in each tent with a stove for heat. We fly-boys had clean cots with sleeping bags. We made our own shower stalls and got water from 50 gallon drums. Our food was the same as any outfit overseas. Only we were fed three times a day all year. For entertainment, we saw movies - several times a week - saw Martha Raye entertaining troops.
Most vivid memory of military experience
Being the only Nisei wherever I was stationed, I was always treated as one of the boys. Never was I called a 'Jap' during my entire Army stint. Never felt any prejudice during my time in Service (3 yrs 8 months). During my stay in Denver, CO around 2/42, I often went to a Japanese restaurant called 'Manchu Grill'. The first time I went there, I got the cold treatment. They thought I was Chinese because they didn't know any Nisei in the Air Corp. After that , I was treated royally. While stationed at the base of Mt. Vesuvius, from where I flew 33 missions, I saw Mt. Vesuvius erupt. We evacuated from there. But the planes that were stationed on the other side were damaged or lost. From there we went to Naples.
Missed most whilst in the military
Rice and tsukemono
Most important thing, personally, to come from military experience?
Being in the Air Corp, I now realize what a clean life we led. I visited my cousin in Northern Italy and felt sorry for those guys as they slept in pup tents in all kinds of weather and died in the mud. My buddies who lost their lives went down so fast we never felt the pain seeing our comrades killed, not that I didn't care.
Additional information
Being a gunner during the war - it was nothing I could use in civilian life. But during my time in the service - I traveled across the U.S. and went overseas on the Queen Mary. Got to see parts of Scotland, England, North Africa, Naples, Rome, Isle of Capri (R & R) and finally finished my missions on the Island of Corsica.