I was a Staff Sergeant, F-CO 103rd Regement, 43rd Infantry Division, WW2, Pacific War from December 1943 to October 1945.My story is about my two comrade's and myself.

The 43rd Division-We were in the first wave to retake the island of Luzon,in the Philipines.We were in combat from January 9th to July 1945.

During the Battle of Luzon, we all were checked into Fox Hole Holiday Inn.Sometime in the middle of April, we battled to recapture Ipo Dam that Japanese were holding.I was on sniper patrol with Ted Gridley and John Duda.I was the leader.Shortly after we started into the area that was secure to track down the stragler's (Japanese)and bring them back to Battalian Intelligence, we encountered a Japanese soldier that, when we first seen him, we thought he was dead.Gridley was beside of me when we spotted him.I said, "Jap laying on the ground amoung the Nipa grass to my left".I told Gridley with a low tone; he told Duda a higher tone, "Jap!!!" At that point, the Jap jumped up and ran like a Texas jack rabbit! Obviously, he was not dead.He must of heard our voices (we cut his Siesta time!).So, we chased him about 50 yards and he ran into a cave.When we got to the cave, the three of us had a brief pow-wow.We had not seen the Jap with any weapons so we decided to go in after him.I had a flashlite.I left my Rifle outside of the cave.I had a .45 on my right hip.As we started into cave, Duda said that there were some of our men heading our way.The cave was narrow, so we had to go in Indian file.The cave was very dark.About twenty-five feet into it,we broke into a T.I had stopped about two feet from the end and, at that point, my light shown on my right and there the Jap stood just inside the guest room, holding a sabre, ready to play chop-chop with me.I hollered he had a sabre.Gridley and Duda ran like Impala.When we had gotten out of the cave, there were several men waiting and Lt. McClung, our leader, sent back a message on radio that one of the men were carried on his back.Lt. contacted battalian headquarters and the Colonel came to where we were with a Nisei Sergeant interptor.He asked me what he is up against.I told him and gave him my light.About 15 or 20 minutes later, the Nesei came out with the Japanese Soldier, a Captain.

2001-I got in touch with The Neisie Interporter, Sergeant Robert Nakamura.With the help of J.A.V.A., his family were very pleased to hear from me.Robert's son keeps in touch with me via e-mail.He also sent me pictures of his family.They live Pearl City, Hawaii.