Well I guess this is as good as anyplace to post my dad's experience as I know it. I can do this in several posts here. His history is basically my back story as I usually reenact him when I come out as 442nd.

So here goes.

Henry Hisaichi Kano was born in Kauai, Hawaii, August 6, 1914. His parents immigrated to Hawaii from Japan in the wave of immigrants looking for work in the sugarcane fields of Hawaii at the turn of the century.

The Kano family recorded history goes back 300 years to our ancestor who started a school of art in Hiroshima that became so popular that it started a new art dynasty in Japan. His style of painting is still taught today. Our family continues to reside in the city of Hiroshima.

Henry's father didn't like working in the sugarcane fields so he started the first taxi service in Kauai. Started with a horse drawn wagon and eventually purchasing a Model T that Henry learned to drive in. The Kano family was large. At least 10 children and two more that were left back in Japan. Two or three children died at birth. Today only Henry and his brother Jun are alive, both in their 90's.

Henry didn't like school much. Having failed High School Henry's parents paid to enroll him in trade school in Los Angeles so in his late teens he set off for California. Henry got an apartment in Los Angeles and graduated from trade school. He went on to serve as an engine mechanic on board a fishing boat that was berthed in San Pedro.

Hunting was a favorite activity. Henry would often go hunting with many of his friends. It was during these trips he would talk about wanting to become an officer in the Border Patrol but at the time there was a height limit and he was too short. His friends introduced him to an Army General who lived in San Diego. This General offered him a deal to serve in the Army as a way around the Border Patrol height limit as they would accept people with a military record regardless of height. The General offered him a two year enlistment. Henry accepted the offer.

As part of this deal, Henry was sent to Camp Roberts and made a Company Clerk as a Corporal. One of the conditions the General made with him was to send copies of all reports and coorespondence that came in and out of the camp. As Company Clerk one of his duties was to handle all incoming and outgoing communications. Henry only had a couple months left of his enlistment when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

At the end of his enlistment, he became a draftee for the duration of the war.

Training at Camp Roberts continued. The training centered on learning to use the new 37mm AT gun.

Once the war started, duties of patrolling the California coastline against invasion were added. One of our family friends (Don Durnford, former mayor of San Juan Capistrano, deceased) told me once that Henry was sent with a patrol to Santa Barbara where a Japanese submarine had tried to shell the oil storage tanks. He also got to enjoy a USO show that hosted stars and upcoming actors and actresses like Desi Arnez, Lucille Ball, Gloria Swanson and many more. I know this because Henry made a footlocker collage of pictures that hangs in my house today. In July of 1942 training ended and everyone got shipped off to their various assignments. For Henry Kano being of Japanese Ancestory, he was headed for Camp Shelby, Mississippi to join and help train the new 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Things that happened while he was at Camp Shelby.

1. Promotion from Corporal to Sargeant.

2. Met his future wife, Jean Francis Fleming.

3. Made frequent trips to Iowa to visit Jean. On one trip his train back was late by a couple hours, he became AWOL and was busted back to Private.

4. On one of his trips to Waterloo, Iowa Henry entered a floral contest and won first prize. He got a write up in the local newspaper with his picture.

5. During one of the training sessions, the Army had a photographer doing filming for a war newsreel. This footage is currently found in many documentaries about the 442nd and has been aired on many channels including the History Channel. The significance of this? They captured my father doing the obstacle course and a close up of him going under a log obstacle as well. Although his face is partly obscured by his helmet, their names were written in chalk and H. Kano is clearly written on his helmet. A distinctive scar on his nose is very prominate. This footage is also found in the DVD documentary currently available called, 'Behind Barbed Wire'.

6. My oldest brother Stanly Francis Kano was born in 1944 just after Henry shipped off overseas.

During this time Henry wrote a personal letter to a friend in Portland, Oregon which came into my possession after his daughter cleared out his personal effects a couple years ago when he passed away and came upon this letter. She discovered my website with his pictures and emailed me asking if I was related.

Small world. It also gives a very clear picture into both Henry's mindset and the atmosphere of the times. This is the content of the letter.

Waterloo, Iowa
July 27, 1944

Addressed to:

Harold Boyce
7645 S. W. 30th Drive
Portland, Oregon

(note, no zip code. Zip codes were not used until after WWII, a clear indication of age if you read labels on equipment and goods)

Dear Harold,

How are you and the family? I do hope that this letter finds you and the family very happy and very well. I am alright and now on my final leave from the Post prior to oversea(s assignment). It won't be long now and I do hope to get some enemy for you and my only regret is that I will not be able to send you the remains for such a decent man like you should not be tampered with dirty remains, right?

I didn't have the time to go hunting for big game etc., however I do have the feeling that it is now coming and want to make a very good job of finding a mess of them for you and me so we can go hunting very shortly after the war in the country we both like and how! Fishing is still my hobby and I want to be back in Southern California. Only regret is not that I am not able to be there now, keep the home fire burning and I can depend that you will do that very thing so the fellows in the service will return home once and for good. I went to Birmingham, Ala., Memphis, Tenn., Little Rock, Ark., St. Louis, Mo. and now here I am in this town and did enjoy the entire trip. I do hope that this (is) not my last and will see that country from all angle(s) from all side(s) after this world mess is over. Every where I went I, of course, visited the flower shops and made hope to return to them after this thing is over. I can and will hope that you will be near my shop after this war is over so I will have the pleasure to decorate your home and go fishing, hunting etc.

Give my regards (to) your Mrs. and the children. I do wish that I could say it personally, really! I bet the kids did grow up to be proud of, right? I am hoping that they will not to any extent be in this war no how. They deserve a nice place to live in and I am going over to make it so for them and you that I think so much of.

The country here is not like California and I do mean it so take care of the environments and our homes. To your future and to your trust I am very shortly leaving to return with victory in the near future for all of us.

I haven't heard from Harold Brown and I do still believe that he is still in Los Angeles. His post may have changed but his address is still the same. If and when you see any one of the boys, please give them my best regards and I do mean it. I met a man on the Rocket (train) coming here to Waterloo, and he used to work for the Border Patrol in '37 and '38. Tried to recall some of the boys name(s) to him but he don't seem to remember them, however he do(es) know the places very well. What a small world after all, right?

Will close now and I do hope the best of luck and my sincere aloha to you all.

TILL WE MEET AGAIN?

a l o h a

Sgt. Henry Kano

(Note: Henry did return to California, he did finally start his flower shop and Harold Boyce did live nearby. Henry did in fact bring flowers and plants over to his house and got to know his kids. Henry retired and closed his flower business in 1995. Henry also spent many years happily fishing and hunting.)

Recollections of Mississippi. The bugs were big and everywhere. Bedbugs... ugh... Humidity so thick you could cut it with a knife, not even showers helped. But the people... the people were friendly and kind. But by late 1944 life at Camp Shelby was over.

Demoted to Private, Henry Kano was shipping off to war.

First stop. Africa. It was dusty. Henry didn't like Africa but they also hadn't caught up yet with the 100th so off to Italy.

In Italy he became one of the many replacements that helped bring the 'Purple Heart Battalion' back up to strength. Private Henry Kano became third assistant gunner for a .30 cal gun crew in the 100th Battalion, Company B, Heavy weapons squad. As he put it, he was lucky, he wasn't up on the front line with the riflemen. What he meant by that was his squad was supporting the rifle men 50 yards behind them and didn't have to face the enemy directly!

Recollections of Italy. Cabbage was everywhere and they ate lots of it. The US Army supplied the 442nd with rice rations and they used to cook an asian version of "Hobo Stew" that always had cabbage and whatever else they could scrounge. I recall this very well as my dad would cook it for us all the time and it became a family favorite. No receipe, he would just throw stuff into it and add meat and veggies and a soy sauce based broth. Most of us kids learned to make it and it remains a family favorite to this day.

Cabbage was so widely grown because it would grow almost anywhere and would keep a long time without refrigeration. That was important after so many years of rationing, ending up in Nazi occupation. Henry also recalled seeing tons of tomatoes. The Italians would line the flat rooftops with tomatoes to dry in the sun and you could see roof after roof after roof covered with them.

Most Japanese Americans didn't drink alcohol. They got rations of beer when the unit would go on R&R but Henry remembers stack after stack of beer cans sitting on the shipping flats in the sun, no one touching them. Or rather almost no one. His friend Ted Yoshiwara loved beer and it didn't go to waste on him!

Later I would recall Ted, his wife Sadie and their many kids. When we got together with them we would play baseball cuz we had so many kids we had enough for two teams. I remember dad and Ted sitting swapping war stories but I never knew then that they served together and were close war buddies. I was very young then and didn't realize the significance of the 442nd.

Henry said they didn't get a lot of meat. Sometimes someone would 'appropriate' a chicken or shoot a cow or they might get lucky and shoot some game. The military allowed them to hand out 'chits' to the livestock owners that would allow them to recuperate their loses after the war, but Henry felt real bad when someone would do that. The population in Italy was very poor and hungry after so many years of war and the Nazi's didn't save a thing, stripping the countryside as they retreated. Losing a cow could be the difference between life and starvation.

Henry also indulged in his favorite hobby of fishing. We have a picture of him fishing in Genoa Harbor, full of sunken, scuttled ships. Another story he told was going fishing in a small gully with a friend of his. Unknown to them the Germans were still there and had the whole place sighted in with machine guns. Henry got out, his friend didn't.

He did regret that although the Army supplied them with plenty of rice, they didn't give them any Soy Sauce. They used to take beef bullion cubes, crush them up and make a makeshift sauce with those.

Fighting in Italy was brutal. The terrain was a series of never ending ridges and they would measure their advance from ridge to ridge. The veterans would come up to the top of the ridge on their hands and knees and would poke their heads up peering over the top to see what was beyond.

On one particular ridge, Henry did just that. As he was looking down the other side a new replacement NCO came up next to him and hopped up on the top of the ridge. Henry didn't see anything and looked up at the NCO but he was gone! Thinking that the NCO had lost his footing Henry jumped up and looked back to see if the NCO had slipped back down the ridge. As he bent over an 88 shell ripped his backpack off.

What had happened was the Germans below were using their 88mm and sighting down the barrel at soldiers as they came up on the ridge. The 88 shell was so fast and the trajectory was so flat that it reached subsonic speeds and the sound of the round would not be heard till it was to late. This is what happened to the NCO. He had taken an 88 right in the chest and literally vaporized. They never found him.

Another ridge, another time. There were no recorded desertions from the 442nd except for a handful of guys who went AWOL from the field hospitals so they could return to their units. One in particular was remembered by Henry very bitterly. He recalled the Germans had made a stronghold in a farmhouse in the valley below and his crew had set up their .30 cal on top giving supporting fire to the assaulting riflemen. They had a grandstand view of the assault. As the infantrymen would come up to the barn the Germans in the loft would drop grenades on the GI's sheltering against the walls as they searched a way in.

After the farmhouse was taken he remembered a jeep leaving with a badly wounded man on it. It was one of the men who had previously been wounded and had gone AWOL from the hospital to get back to the lines. He didn't make it back the second time. Henry was crying when he recalled that. He said that guy had no business coming back and should have stayed in the hospital.

The assault on Po Valley. One recollection of Po Valley was climbing the steep path going up the cliff. They could see where the Germans had dug emplacements at the edge of the cliff as the dirt they had dug was white and contrasted against the cliff face where it had poured down from the top. Many positions were taken out by artillery fire because of this.

Into France.

They were somewhere near Marseilles on R&R and Henry heard someone call out his name. He looked up and was shocked. It was his brother Toku! Henry was not even aware that his brother had enlisted in the Army much less been sent to Europe in the same unit he was in.

Rescue of the Lost Battalion. A battalion of the 36th Infantry Division got cut off and surrounded by the German forces. The Army tried but couldn't break thru so they called up the 442nd.

Henry recalled the point that had stalled the attacks and where the 442nd took most of thier casualties. He said there was a raised railway embankment and the Germans had sighted in thier machine guns just a few inches above the top of the enbankment. That way as you came up and over the top you were totally exposed from head to toe to the fire until you reached the other side and left the embankment. He said alot of guys got cut down here especially with leg wounds.

I believe Henry himself recieved the majority of his wounds here. I know when I a boy he used to have me give him back massages and he had very distinctive bullet scars all over his body. A friend of his told me once that he had 13 Purple Hearts. Whether or not this is true I don't know.

How were they able to sustain such heavy losses? The 442nd had a recorded 300% casualties. Henry put it like this. When they left the US they were in a mind set that they were already dead. Nothing that happened to them in Europe mattered. If they came back they were lucky but until that moment they were walking dead.

One last recollection he had was doing guard duty at an outpost on the bank of the Rhine. He was in a postion manning a .50 cal. and it got bitterly cold that night.

Memories of the 92nd Division.

At this point I am going to relate a part of the memories that not only Henry gave me, but was backed up by many other 442nd vets I had talked to thru the years. This is NOT PC so if you are easily offended do not read on. I only include this as it was recollections told to me not just by Henry but many other 442nd vets. It is historical fact and something you will not likely read elsewhere. I do not share this view myself but then we as historians get to see a far bigger view than the actual combatants did back then.

To the credit of the 92nd Division it must be remembered that this particular unit was made up of adhoc troops that had been assembled from truck drivers, cooks and other rear echeleon troops. They had not been given proper training. It must also be remembered that outside of this account the African American units in Europe that had been given proper training fought just as bravely as the 442nd.

It is ironic that a unit of ethnically segrated and discriminated people would themselves be so bitter and slanted in their views, but then again, the view of a combat infantryman depends so much on his personal experiences and the teamwork and camaradery of his fellow soldiers.

To repeat! You will NOT read this account in just about any printed matter, but getting to know the vets themselves, I can attest that this was a widely held opinion. I myself do NOT share this opinion, but then again, this was a different time, a different era and a different world than the one we live in today.

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At one point the 442nd was attached to the 92nd Infantry Division. The 442nd was put in reserve and the 92nd was given the task of holding the front line. The Germans launched an attack on that part of the line and many of the troops had never experienced enemy fire before. Most ran.

Henry recalled. They stared in disbelief as the black soldiers dropped their rifles and ran back thru the 442nd lines. The Nisei vets bitterly recall this. They beat back the attack but were stuck holding a front that had been assigned to an entire division with only a regiment. And a regiment that was suppose to be in reserve.

Henry was always good with a rifle from his hunting pastime and had extremely good eyesight. He recalled one time where they were in a dry area and there was one water source. But when anyone approached the water to fill canteens they were shot by a sniper who no one could locate.

He managed to spot something in the nearby hills and borrowed an M1 from one of his buddies. He carefully sighted in and when he thought he saw movement he fired. That was the end of the sniper and no one got shot after that. No one could believe he had done that shot as it was at least a 1000 yards away.

One memory that brought bitterness to him was that none of the older vets would speak to the younger recruits. What bothered Henry was the casualties that could have been avoided if the older ones would have only spoken up and taught the newer ones what they learned in combat. But the older vets had seen enough death, they didn't want to know the younger recruits.

End of the war.

At the end of the war, Henry found himself as a POW camp guard. He collected a few souvieners some of which I own today. German patches and medals. Some various types of money and personal items. Here is a link to him as a POW guard.

http://kanowarrior.tripod.com/sitebuilde.../campguard1.jpg

He didn't have enough points to return home so he was in Europe till 1946. A lot of the unit had already returned home and he was left with doing alot of clean up. There as a huge amount of material collected from leaving troops that was confiscated and left behind. War trophies like weapons. Henry wanted to bring home a weapon he really liked, an MP-40 submachine gun but didn't as he couldn't see a use for it. He almost did.

Another time he remembered huge amounts of various kinds of European money. There as a whole room full of paper money stacked to the ceiling and he said to get rid of it he was ordered to burn it. He lit a match, tossed it in and shut the door.

Finally he got his orders to ship back home. There is a picture of him returning home on board a troopship and he is sitting on a huge bundle of tree clippings. His passion had always been flowers and plants and it wasn't a big surprise to see him with this. He doesn't recall any longer why he did that nor what he did with the clippings. I think it was a bit of surprise he was able to bring that amount of personal belongings with him. Here is a link to that picture.

http://kanowarrior.tripod.com/sitebuilde.../troopship1.jpg

Once home he was used to interrogate Japanese POW's as he spoke Japanese. But finally he was sent to Fort MacArthur where he was discharged. He still carries his discharge papers today on microfilm. He told me all his military records had been destroyed in big fire that destroyed thousands of WWII records a few decades ago.

Upon his discharge the first thing he did was catch a train to return to Waterloo, Iowa. Finding my mother they started to return to California after that and ended up in Los Angeles once again. It was shortly after that another son was born. Henry did various jobs and traveled up and down the length of California. He did jobs as a mechanic at gas stations, prospected for gold and silver, and worked as a flower delivery person in Newport Beach.

Finally he decided he needed to settle down and once again contacted the General in San Diego who got him started in all this prior to the war. The General lived in a house that had antenna's all over it and overlooked the harbor in San Diego from LaJolla. The General (whose name he can no longer recall) told him he had kept track of Henry's record and asked him if he wanted a medal or something. Henry told him what he really wanted was a piece of land he could live on to raise his family. The General gave him a letter and told him he could use this to live on any US Military base. When I asked my dad about this letter a few years ago, he started searching thru his wallet for it, but was unable to find it and couldn't remember where he put it.

Henry settled on Camp Pendleton, specifically San Onofre where at the time there was a small village with a one room school house. Today if you know where to look there are still a couple concrete foundations left next to Interstate 5 just before you reach the nuclear power plant. You used to be able to see the fields Henry worked on the slope of the hillside but they are mostly gone now. While living here my sister and another brother was born. Henry said they lived there for a couple months before the MP's showed up demanding to know what they were doing there. Henry showed them the letter from the General and he never saw the MP's again.

To feed his family he hunted deer in hills, caught fish and lobster at the beach nearby (mom says she has forever been sick of the sight of lobster since then) and grew flowers for sale to the wholesale flower market on his ranch. They had livestock and a pretty good life with four children. However, this was not to last. The Marine Corps did not like the idea of a civilian town within their borders so they cut off the water supply to the town forcing everyone to leave. San Onofre became a ghost town overnight and the marines knocked down all the existing buildings.

That was sometime about the middle of the 1950's. Henry moved his family into the nearby town of San Clemente. Back then the population was only a couple thousand. The first place he tried to buy the neighbors put together a petition to keep him out because he was Japanese. Finally he found another house for sale and lives there to this day.

Henry finally opened the flower shop he always dreamed of owning. And a couple years after moving into town I was born. The last of five children. I grew up helping with the family business but eventually moved out and lived on my own. I always lived close by though whereas all my bothers and sister all moved to far away to help that much. I continued to help my parents run their business during busy holidays. The 1990's saw great changes. My oldest brother died. My mother had a third heart attack and my dad finally decided it was time to sell the business and retire.

Today they still live in San Clemente. Unfortunately Dad is now suffering from signs of Altimer's disease and cannot consistently recall things. His short term memory is sporatic and his long term memory is good but fragmented.

I did ask him many questions during my life about his equipment and service which is where all this information came from. He can recall little of this now. I remember lots of his stuff he had brought back from the service with him. His mussette bag he used as a fishing bag for many years till it finally fell apart. A PAL fighting knife he carried during the war he used as a knife for cleaning fish that he might still have, but in bad shape by now. I have a scar on my hand today from this knife as he kept in it in razor sharp condition. His M43 coat that I passed down to my daughter. I myself wore it at my first reenactment. He had several khaki shirts all size 14 that I wore in High School. All worn out eventually. He also had his Class A coat he was discharged in. It was a khaki coat and I remember when he threw it out, it had the Ruptured duck and 442nd patch on it. He didn't want to see it anymore and I tried to save it but he caught me and made me throw it back. I was able to cut the patches off and save those.

I have one picture of him in Italy moving out somewhere. This is the picture.

http://kanowarrior.tripod.com/sitebuilde...ures/moving.jpg

He has wools on, helmet without any netting, double buckle boots, pistol belt, first aid pouch, some kind of bag slung over his right shoulder and some kind of weapon we have never been able to identify slung over his left shoulder.

There you have it. That is my dad's story.

August 6, 1914 - September 22, 2007, Thanks Dad, your war is over now.