FIGHTING IN ITALY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1943, Page 3

FIGHTING IN ITALY

JAPANESE-AMERICAN UNIT. EAGER TO FIGHT IN FAR' EAST. LONDON, November 5. The first details ane now available of a Japanese-American unit which is fighting in the mountains of Italy under General Clark. The unit is composed entirely of men from Hawaii, and includes doctors, lawers, accountants and fishermen. Only a handful of them speak fluent Japanese. Lieutenant Masayuki Matsunaya, a former' school teacher who is a firstgeneration American, told Reuter’s correspondent with the Fifth Army that 90 per cent, of his comrades would rather be fighting the Japanese in the Far East than the Germans in Europe. “Many of us when the war is finished in Europe would immediately volunteer for service in the Pacific,” he said. “Many of our relatives and friends were killed at Pearl Harbour. The majority of us were in the army before Pearl Harbour, and we underwent vigorous training in the United States. The Germans here were surprised to see us. One quivered with fear when he was told he would be handed over to us.”