Charlie Company, 100th Infantry Battalion
Early Life
Kiyoshi Harry Shimizu was a Nisei born in Mountain View on the Island of Hawaiʻi on January 28, 1925. He grew up when Hawaiʻi a territory, with a diverse mix of ethnic communities working and living together in plantation towns.
Shimizu’s father passed away in 1937, and after completing ninth grade, he left high school to work in the sugar cane fields. His mother also worked in the plantations, though in a different labor group.
On December 7, 1941, Shimizu was at home with his family when they first learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor. His older sister had been on a picnic in the volcano area with schoolteacher friends when she heard the news and hurried home to tell them.
After the outbreak of war, tensions in the community increased, and Shimizu recalled growing prejudice against those of Japanese ancestry. In some cases, long-standing relationships between different ethnic groups were strained, and Japanese workers were segregated from others while working in the sugar cane fields.
Shimizu later recalled that tensions at one point escalated to the extent that the head of a Filipino labor group approached the plantation head in Mountain View suggesting violence against the Japanese workers. The plantation head, a former World War I Army captain, intervened firmly and warned that anyone who harmed Japanese workers would be held accountable. His action helped prevent further escalation, and over time, relations improved as people returned to the familiarity of having known each other since before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
By mid-1942, large numbers of U.S. servicemen were stationed on Hawaiʻi island in temporary camps before deployment. While many conducted themselves respectfully, Shimizu also experienced incidents of hostility, including being verbally insulted while walking to the hospital in ʻŌlaʻa. He later reflected that such behavior came from “lower class” individuals rather than the military as a whole, noting that many officers and non-commissioned officers were respectful and integrated into island society. Shimizu noted that as Japanese American units gained recognition, public attitudes gradually improved. He also recalled that his mother was treated with increasing kindness after he entered the Army during the war years.
Training in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
When the War Department called for volunteers to form the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Shimizu had just turned 18 and was eligible to enlist. He volunteered in March 1943, later recalling, “luckily I got into the Army.” He explained that many of them “enlisted to show those people, and particularly those in military uniforms who verbally yelled at us, that we were as good or better than they were, and that we could prove our loyalty to our country.”
On March 27, 1943, Shimizu and other recruits from the Big Island reported to the Mountain View schoolyard to begin their military journey. They were instructed to bring only small personal belongings. There, they were given lei and attended a send-off gathering with coffee and doughnuts before being transported by truck to the federal building in Hilo, where they were formally sworn into the U.S. Army.
From Hilo, they traveled by truck to the docks and boarded a small ship for an overnight journey to Honolulu. Upon arrival, they were transported to Schofield Barracks, where they received their initial uniforms and underwent medical examinations. After several days, they returned to the Honolulu docks, boarded a troopship, and sailed to San Francisco. From California, they traveled by train in Pullman cars through Chicago and down to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, arriving at Camp Shelby.
Shimizu began basic training at Camp Shelby in April 1943 and continued through November. The new recruits trained to fight in either the 100th Infantry Battalion or the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, two separate combat units at the time. The units were composed primarily Nisei, along with a few soldiers who were part-Japanese, or of Chinese, Korean, Hawaiian, and mixed ancestry.
Shimizu recalled that Colonel Charles Pence, the regimental commander, was supportive and protective of his men, earning their respect. While some white officers initially showed prejudice, many eventually came to respect and form close bonds with the soldiers under their command. He noted, “Some became so attached to us that they actually cried when a bunch of us went overseas to join the 100th Battalion and they couldn’t go with us.”
At Camp Shelby, Shimizu lived in standard wooden barracks equipped with coal stoves for heat, metal cots, and footlockers for personal belongings. He was assigned as a bugler, a role he had never performed before but learned quickly through training. Serving as a bugler exempted him from kitchen patrol (KP) duties. He was later promoted to Private First Class, receiving a small pay increase and one stripe on his uniform sleeve.
Basic training was physically demanding, especially for recruits who had come from office or light-duty work. However, Shimizu’s years of plantation labor had kept him in strong physical condition, and he found the long marches and exercises manageable. Training included rifle instruction with the M1 Garand and M1 Carbine, grenade handling, map reading, and obstacle courses.
At times, tensions arose between soldiers from Hawaiʻi and those from the mainland United States, often due to cultural and language differences, including the use of pidgin English. Shimizu generally adapted easily, though he recalled one serious altercation. During a night assignment, he and a fellow soldier were sent to the USO club to collect leftover sandwiches for men returning late from training. On their way back, they encountered several intoxicated soldiers. A confrontation followed, during which Shimizu broke a bone in his hand and was hospitalized for approximately three weeks.
Combat with the 100th/442nd
Toward the end of basic training, a group of soldiers, including Shimizu, was selected for overseas deployment as early replacements for the 100th Infantry Battalion, which had suffered heavy casualties and urgently needed reinforcements. The announcement was met with excitement, as it meant they would finally be going overseas.
The group was first sent to Camp Meade in Maryland for about a week, then to Camp Patrick Henry in Norfolk, Virginia, where Shimizu was issued an M1 rifle for overseas service. They then boarded a ship as part of a large convoy bound for Europe. Shimizu recalled counting 125 ships traveling together across the Atlantic Ocean. The voyage took 29 days from Virginia to Naples, Italy. Although the ship was crowded, he did not experience seasickness, as the ocean was relatively calm during the crossing.
Upon arrival in Naples in early 1944, the soldiers were moved inland to a replacement camp. From there, they could see tracer fire in the distance, giving them a sense of the fighting at the front. After about a week, they were informed they would be sent toward the Anzio area. Early one morning, as the unit formed up, Shimizu was unexpectedly sent to the dispensary after a platoon sergeant noticed something on his face. He was diagnosed with German measles and hospitalized for two weeks. Several other soldiers were also treated for mumps and measles.
After recovering, Shimizu returned to the replacement camp, where he waited several more weeks to be assigned to his unit. During this time, he and four other American soldiers of Japanese ancestry (AJAs) were permitted by the replacement camp commander to travel north by hitchhiking in order to join their outfit. By then, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team had already arrived in Italy, and the 100th/442nd units had moved north beyond Leghorn (Livorno). Traveling by a combination of military and Allied transport vehicles, the group made their way north, stopping at night to eat in mess halls and sleep at nearby camps before continuing each morning.
Eventually, they reached the 100th/442nd in an area north of Leghorn and south of the Arno River. Upon arrival, Shimizu was assigned to Company C, 100th Infantry Battalion, 2nd Platoon. He and others changed out of their khaki uniforms into wool olive drab (OD) field clothing, which was standard for combat in Italy and France.
By this point in the war, very few of the original 100th Infantry Battalion soldiers remained in the unit. Shimizu recalled that in his squad of approximately twelve men, only three were original members. Despite this, the old-timers welcomed Shimizu and the new replacements and took time to teach them skills and knowledge that had not been covered in basic training, helping them prepare for frontline combat.
At the time Shimizu was assigned to the 100th Infantry Battalion, the unit was holding the left flank of the line occupied by the 442nd RCT. After several days of fighting, the regiment was given a brief rest and pulled back from the front for a couple of weeks to an area south of Leghorn, near the town of Rosignano Marittimo.
During the regimental rest period near, elements of Shimizu’s unit were still rotated forward to the northern sector near Leghorn. Small groups of soldiers took turns patrolling the city. From positions farther north, they occasionally came under long-range fire from German artillery, including what soldiers referred to as “Big Bertha” — a large railroad gun whose shells could be heard like an approaching freight train. When these rounds struck Leghorn, they tore through entire blocks of brick buildings, leaving widespread destruction. After patrol rotations in Leghorn, Shimizu and his unit returned to Rosignano Marittimo for rest and recovery, where mornings were often spent on hikes and lighter training.
During this period, tragedy struck the unit when Shimizu’s close friend Johnny Akimoto, with whom he shared a pup tent, fell seriously ill with stomach pains. Due to inadequate treatment at the aid station, Akimoto died from a ruptured appendix. The loss deeply affected the unit. Upon learning of his death, Shimizu left the area and hitchhiked approximately 25 miles north to Leghorn to inform Akimoto’s older brother, Victor Akimoto, who was serving as a platoon sergeant in another company and was on patrol at the time.
Within infantry squads, each unit included a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) gunner, who carried a 22-pound automatic weapon capable of both single-shot and automatic fire. Shimizu’s squad BAR gunner, Nagao from Hilo, initially lacked an assistant and asked Shimizu to serve as his assistant gunner. Shimizu agreed and learned to assemble, disassemble, and maintain the weapon.
After the end of the regimental rest period, the unit moved up to positions along the south bank of the Arno River. Nagao was later killed in action by a German sniper firing from across the river. Despite resistance, the unit advanced and entered Pisa as German forces withdrew, before later being pulled back to Leghorn.
In October 1944, Shimizu and his unit were transferred from Italy to southern France. They sailed from Leghorn to Marseille and were then moved north into the Vosges Mountains, where the unit was attached to the 36th Infantry Division.
In the Vosges, Shimizu experienced his first sustained combat in dense forest terrain, fighting in the battles around Bruyères. Fighting often took place in complete darkness, where Shimizu recalls having to locate and occupy foxholes by feel alone. He served as a BAR gunner during this period, as his assistant gunner was killed in action.
He also fought in the Biffontaine area, where his platoon leader, Lieutenant Takeichi “Chicken” Miyashiro, was wounded, and Victor Akimoto was also wounded and captured by German forces. Akimoto died while in captivity.
Shimizu also took part in the rescue operation for the “Lost Battalion.” His squad, initially six men, was gradually reduced by casualties; his squad leader was injured by a mine, leaving only Shimizu and one other soldier by the end of the engagement. He noted that other squads in the unit suffered similar losses, with only two or three men remaining in each by the end of the battle.
Following the Vosges campaign, Shimizu was first stationed in southern France in the mountain town of Isola, approximately 35 miles north of the coast. He was later ordered to Menton, a coastal town on the French-Italian border, where he served in two areas: one along the inland road leading from Menton, and another on a high mountain ridge overlooking Italy. Christmas passed quietly during this period, marked by continued front-line duty and the arrival of replacements to rebuild depleted ranks.
In mid-March 1945, Shimizu and his unit returned to Italy to take part in the fighting along the Gothic Line, a heavily fortified German defensive position in northern Italy. The day before leaving France, a memorial service was held for soldiers who had been killed in the Vosges campaign. Shimizu was selected to serve as the bugler for the ceremony and, after months without practice, had to rehearse beforehand. He later recalled the service as a meaningful tribute to fallen comrades.
Shimizu and his unit were transported from Marseille to Leghorn, Italy. From there, they were moved by truck to positions near Carrara, where additional replacements were assigned to the depleted ranks.
During the fighting in Italy, Shimizu was wounded in action when he was struck in the leg by a .38 caliber round of German fire. The injury left him hospitalized, and approximately two weeks later, he spent Victory in Europe (VE) Day in a military hospital in Leghorn. For nearly a month, his leg was paralyzed.
After about a month in the hospital, Shimizu was transferred to a U.S. Army hospital ship bound for Naples, and then returned to the United States via Camp Patrick Henry in Norfolk, Virginia, which by then functioned as a hospital receiving station. He was then transported to Chicago and Denver, where he continued his recovery at Fitzsimons General Hospital, being admitted on May 23, 1945.
By late November 1945, after extended physical therapy, he was transferred to a Army hospital in California and finally to Tripler Army Hospital in Honolulu. Shimizu was officially discharged from the U.S. Army on December 22, 1945.
Life After the War
After his discharge, Shimizu returned to Mountain View on the Island of Hawaiʻi, where he worked at the docks, on a macadamia nut farm, and as a mechanic’s helper. Finding limited long-term opportunity there, and having developed an appreciation for Denver during his recovery period, he decided to return to Colorado in November 1947.
Using the GI Bill, he enrolled in trade school and trained as a mechanic. He went on to work for 37 years with the U.S. government at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal on the outskirts of Denver. During this time, he built a family with his wife, Betty Saito, and they raised two sons, Chris and David. He retired from the Arsenal in 1987 and lived in Westminster in the greater Denver area.
Reflecting on his service, Shimizu often expressed pride in the contributions of Nisei soldiers during World War II. As he put it, “I think we Nisei fought hard to show the American people we were good, loyal citizens and we succeeded! The 100th Battalion and the 442nd RCT made military history, and we helped the Japanese American people in the United States become better accepted by the white population. i am proud to have been a part of it!!”