Interviews
People with talent in the 100th infantry battalion
The 100th was a rare collection of people. We didn’t lose anybody. The average American unit, in those days, anytime you showed any ability or had any education or had anything, often you were promoted and then left to form another unit. Well no one’s gonna go form another unit so in the 100th everybody stayed. We didn’t lose anybody and when you stop to think of the educational average in our group was very, very high. He later became the first sergeant of B Company, but at the time, when we were training, he was my platoon sergeant, my platoon sergeant was a graduate of the Texas law school. He later became the first Japanese American federal judge in Hawaii; he became the judge of Maui, that’s after the war. But a man of that caliber is a platoon sergeant and then later a first sergeant, no you don’t have law school graduates in the average outfit, you know. But we had all kinds of people with talent.
Date: August 28, 1995
Location: California, US
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
