On Friday morning, August 4, 1944, the first five soldiers of the Army’s 100th Infantry Battalion returned home to Kaua‘i on furlough from combat on the Italian front. Enjoying their 21-day furloughs on the Garden Island before being reassigned to
On Friday morning, August 4, 1944, the first five soldiers of the Army’s 100th Infantry Battalion returned home to Kaua‘i on furlough from combat on the Italian front.
Enjoying their 21-day furloughs on the Garden Island before being reassigned to limited service posts somewhere in Hawai‘i were: Sgt. Charlie Diamond of Nawiliwili, Sgt. Benjamin Hiroshi Tamashiro of Ele‘ele, Pfc. Toshio Kabutan of Makaweli, Pvt. Masatoshi Morita of Hanama‘ulu and Pvt. Tamotsu Nishio of Anahola.
Sgt. Diamond, one of a handful of soldiers of Hawaiian ancestry in the almost entirely Nisei 100th Bn., was a transportation sergeant in charge of getting heavy weapons to the front lines. Diamond said he was very happy to be home, yet sad to have left so many of his fellow 100th Bn. soldiers back in Italy.
Pfc. Kabutan and Pvt. Morita were hit by the same enemy artillery shell during the 100th’s third crossing of the Volturno River. Kabutan said he’d counted five shells explode nearby, when suddenly a big shell struck only three feet away from Morita.
Both he and Morita were knocked unconscious, recalled Kabutan. He’d been hit by shrapnel in the left arm and back, and Morita was wounded by shrapnel in his right leg, left arm and back. They lay where they’d been hit until they were taken first to an aid station and then to a base hospital.
Sgt. Tamashiro said he was first wounded on the same day Maj. Jack Johnson was wounded. Both soldiers had hobbled back to the first aid station and had entered the hospital together. Nearly a month later, they were both discharged and had gone back to the front at the same time. Tamashiro said he was wounded a second time the morning that Maj. Johnson was killed.
