talking about what he and
the other Japanese-
American soldiers of the
552nd had found at Dachau.
"We had been chasing the
Germans for three weeks
and had been liberating
POW and labor camps. But
all of a sudden we came into
Dachau. It had snowed the
day before, and there was a
white mound of snow on the
round. Then I looked closer
and saw that in the mound
there were layers and layers
of dead prisoners in striped
clothes. We learned later
that these were Jews.
"We didn't find any
ards, any authorities in
the camp, and only a few
prisoners. We asked people
in the town where everybody
had gone, and they said the
prisoners had been marched
down the road a few days
ago. So we went after them,
and then we began seeing
people lying dead on the side
of the road, shot or attacked
by dogs, and we saw other
people leaning against trees
who looked like they were
dying.
"They were starving to
death. I was holding them in
my arms, and saying,
`Please help me,' because I
didn't have any food or med-
icine to give them. We took
care of over 1,000 people,
nd brought them into a
barn, but didn't save too
any of them."
Mr. Matsumura, who lives
in San Gabriel, just east of
Los Angeles, said that since
returning from the war, he
has spoken with several
Dachau survivors in the Los
geles area, trying to find
any who had been rescued by
his unit, trying to deter-
mine, "Did we do anything
_ for these people?" In Mr.
Ganor, Mr. Matsumura has
finally found positive, living
vidence. "This," he said, "is
what I've been looking for
for 47 years."
The Japanese-American
soldiers were ordered by
their commanders never to
discuss what they found at
Dachau, on penalty of court-
martial. But 11 years ago,
Eric Saul, a San Franciscan
researching the Japanese-
American community, was
told by one of his subjects
about the 552nd Field Ar-
tillery's part in the libera-
ion of Dachau.
"At first I didn't believe
it," Mr. Saul said. But he
began hearing more stories,
and then, working with the
olocaust Oral History Pro-
ject, he found four Ameri-
ans who said they had been
rescued from Dachau by
Japanese-American soldiers.
Gradually the connections
were made and the story was
no longer a secret.
The photographs the
soldiers took of the libera-
tion are now on display at
Yad Vashem, Israel's na-
tional Holocaust museum.
The exhibit also tells the
story of the Japanese-
American Army units of
WWII — the 552nd, the
100th Infantry Battalion
and the 442nd Regimental
Combat Team. They had
18,000 soldiers, about half of
whom came out of the
internment camps, where
they were classified 4-C,
"enemy aliens."
The U.S. Congressional
Record said that together,
these soldiers became "the
most decorated unit for its
size and length of service in
the history of the United
States." The units also had
the highest casualty rate of
the war — 314 percent —
meaning their soldiers had
to be replaced over three
times due to death or injury.
President Harry Truman
said of them:_ "You fought
not only the enemy but you
fought prejudice, and you
won." Mr. Truman, speak-
ing about prejudice, prob-
ably had no idea of what
these soldiers had done at
Dachau.
One of the camp survivors
in Jerusalem was Janina
Cywinska, a Warsaw
Catholic taken to Dachau.
"I thought, 'Oh, now the
Japanese are going to kill
us.' And I didn't care
anymore. I said, 'Just get it
over with.' He tried to con-
vince me he was an Ameri-
can soldier, but I said
American soldiers have blue
eyes and white skin. We
went back and forth, and
finally he dropped to his
knees, crying, and bowed
forward to me several times.
He said, 'I tell you, in the
name of my God and your
God, that we are your lib-
erators, and you are
free.' " El
Kollek Shuns
French Party
Jerusalem (JTA) —
Jerusalem Mayor Teddy
Kollek followed his
longstanding tradition
Tuesday of boycotting a re-
ception at the French Con-
sulate in honor of Bastille
Day, the French in-
dependence day.
Kollek explained that he
rejected the invitation be-
cause the French consul
general was holding
separate receptions for Jews
and Arabs, a situation he
found "unacceptable."
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