American Samurais - Wwii Camps: From Usa Concentration Camps to the Nazi Death Camps in Europe

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© 2012 Pierre Moulin. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse 09/24/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-1336-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-1335-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012909757

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CONTENTS

About The Author: Pierre Moulin

Prologue

The Dachau Concentration Camp

Life And Death In Dachau

Work In Dachau

The Last Days In Dachau

International Liberation Committee

The American Samurais At The Dachau’s Gate

Pearl Harbor-Hawaii December 7Th, 1941

Arrestation, Deportation, And Incarceration Of Americans Of Japanese Ancestry.

10 Concentration Camps In The Usa

The Surrender Of Dachau

The Death March

Survivors Of Dachau And The 522Nd F.A. Bn

The Dead In The Dachau Camp

The Final Solution

End Of The Warsaw Ghetto

Righteous Among The Nations

Visas For Life

Dachau Today

Epilogue

Bibliography

Archives

Tanks Europe & Japan

U.S.A. & Canada

Organizations And Associations

Photos

TO MARTIN AND SEBASTIEN

Attention: This book is not a novel: All facts, names, locations and dates are as authentic as possible.

The larger part of documents on the Japanese-americans comes from the US National archives as well as the Go for Broke Inc. and the NJAHS archives. The main part of documents about Dachau came from the US National Archives, the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion with Neil Nagareda, Hideo Nakamine and Clarence Matsumura, the Dachau KZ Museum with Barbara Distel, the Liberation International Committee of Dachau with Arthur Haulot. The main documents about the righteous among the Nations came from the Yad Vashem Jerusalem and Ariel Shalev, Visas for Life members and Eric Saul. Thanks to my proof-reader Mrs Susan Ware who revised my work.

READING COMMITTEE

Roby Clam

Bernard Hans

Joseph Leuthold

Clarence Matsumura

Katsuho Miho

Hideo Nakamine

Judy Niizawa

Pierre Pirard

Eric Saul

Rudy Tokiwa

John Tsukano

Ted Tsukyama

Susan Ware

Nothing would have been possible without the approval of the Authors Chester Tanaka (Picturial Go for Broke), John Tsukano (Bridge of Love) Solly Ganor (light one candle), Arthur Haulot for the History of Dachau written by General Paul Berben. And of course numerous individuals who are and were my friends, sometimes my heroes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: PIERRE MOULIN

Father of two boys Sebastien and Martin, Pierre Moulin was born in Bruyeres-in-Vosges on November 1, 1948, his passion for his region and human contact led him to take care of many activities in his native town, both in the business and the sports areas. Pierre was the Number 1 goal keeper for the Bruyeres Soccer Team who played at the highest level reached by the city in its entire history.

At 20 he discovered America along a three-month trip on Greyhound buses: 10.000 miles all over the States where he picked up his « pidgin » English. He then became part of « Visages du Monde » (Faces of the World) for 7 years, when he travelled all over the World and wrote several books as « Le Japon a l’heure d’Expo 70 », « La route des Indes », « L’Asie aux 1000 visages», « Cap Sud », « Rio et son carnaval », « A la decouverte des Incas », « Bruyeres sous la revolution francaise».

Hawaii was one of his first objectives in 1969. His active participation during the festivities of the 25th anniversary of the liberation as interpreter and vice-president of the sistercityship involved himself deeply in these unique relationships. Seven years later he brought, for the first time, a group of Bruyerans to Honolulu for an unforgettable Visit to Paradise and created the Bruyeres-Hawaii Friendship Committee which established a new bond between the two sistercities: Bruyeres and Honolulu.

When writing « Visite au Paradis », which was the title of his first book about the subjet in 1976, he never pictured himself becoming the well-known historian who he is now. Since his young years, Pierre was fascinated by history. Historian of the City of Bruyeres, Pierre was directly involved in World War II through the story of his father, leader of the FFF and OSS agent who never talked. He recently discovered an incredible page of glory written by the US Samurais and resolved to publish it and to show to the entire world the legend of his heroes.

He published successively: « U.S. Samurais in Lorraine », « Chronique de Bruyeres-en-Vosges », « 50th anniversary of the Liberation of Vosges », « Le Guide du Chemin de la Paix et de la Liberte », « US Samurais in Bruyeres » in English, and « Bruyeres-en-Vosges, 2000 ans d’histoire a travers ses rues».

Working toward an accomplishment of his vision of the future, he created in 1989 the Peace and Freedom Trail on the path of the 100/442nd RCT with a view to forever imprint the mark of the US Samurais onto Bruyeres soil. He worked hard to help the American of Japanese ancestry get the well deserved recognition of their wartime contributions, which was finally made into a Civil Liberties Act by President Ronald Reagan in 1988.

Pierre was made an Honorary Citizen of many cities in the United States, as Fresno (California), San Antonio (Texas) and Hawaii. Life member of the Go For Broke Ass., the National Japanese American Historical Society, the Military Intelligence Service, as well as Member of the O.S.S. Society, he is also proud to be an Honorary Member of K company 100/442nd RCT (The most decorated unit in American History) as well as of the Texas 141st Regiment of the US 36th Division (The famous Fort Alamo Regiment)

PROLOGUE

1918 : Four years of bloody war cost the life of a fifteen million of Human beings and destroyed two empires, when the representatives of the peace conference met in Paris to institute a new world order and bring peace and security in the whole world.

The Society of Nations was born and a Peace treaty imposed heavy reparation to the defeated Germany. Never would the German people get over the Treaty of Versailles. The Weimar Republic had to accept the law of the conqueror of a conflict which never has been his responsibility.

A young Austrian, fighting in a Bavarian unit, never recovered from the defeat. Firmly anti Bolshevik as well as anti Semitic, this young Austrian climbed all of the steps inside the worker party and became in two years, the President because of his fabulous speaking skills. His name will soon become famous in the entire world:

ADOLF HITLER

The Germans believing in the victory until the summer of 1918 and who never have seen an enemy in their own land, never accepted to respect the heavy redress asked by the allies. The 1929 crisis and the fall of the New York Wall Street let the world in a giant chaos. Germany left bloodless by the Treaty of Versailles, saw the number of jobless people jumping from two million in 1930 to more than six million, two years later, and could not face the unusual heavy tribute to the allies.

The crisis made the game for Hitler and his new party of the workers (NSDAP). Hitler received the German citizenship and organized an attempt to take the power which failed. Sent to jail, he wrote his biography with his personal secretary Rudolf Hess; « Mein Kampf». Out of jail after only nine months, Hitler rebuilt the party and created a special police, the S.S. (Schutzstaffeln) which, with the S.A., terrorized his political opponents. Then, Hitler launched the German Revolution.

The Weimar Republic was killed and Hindenburg ran the country through executive orders. The 1932 elections plebiscite 230 Nazis representatives in the "Reichstag". In March 1933, Adolf Hitler got a white check for four years and at the death of Hindenburg, on August the 2nd, 1934, Hitler, through a new plebiscite, was promoted as President of Germany. The national-socialist revolution started officially in Germany.

Ernst Rohm, Head of the S.A., the last threat for Hitler, was murdered by Theodore Eicke and his party was destroyed by the S.S. during the « Night of the Long Knives », Nazism had, from then, free hands to move forward.

In less than three years, all the necessary steps were taken by Hitler carrying their fruits. The number of the unemployed people dropped to one million and the German workers got an unpredictable prosperity after the world crisis. Nobody could deny that the Nazis had re-launched the economy of the country. In 1936, numerous were the Germans who joined the Nazi party, entailing a very strong mass movement.

During the Peace Conference of Paris, another nation found the study of their activities very indelicate and prejudicial: Japan. Threatening the

Japanese interests in China, the Nationalist Chinese movement ended the Japanese policy of conciliation coming from the 1921 Conference of the Nine in Washington.

The Manchu Chang Yso-Lin, showing a threat to the Japanese expansion in those vital mining district for the Nippon heavy industry, was murdered in 1928. To fight for the Japanese interests in Manchuria, the Kouang-Tang army increased the violent incidents which reached the highest point in 1931. The last incident created a war psychosis in Japan and started the occupation of three north eastern provinces of China by the Japanese army, creating in 1932 the Manchuquo State.

Convicted by the Society of Nations and by the Great Occidental Powers, the Japanese increased their influence in Asia. No one chance was left over to enhance the goals and the Nippon priorities. In 1937, the Japanese forces invaded China, bringing one million soldiers in a costly and endless war for almost 7 years.

The world tension climbed with the Nazism apparition in Germany, the fascism in Italy and the military dictatorship in Japan. In October 1935, Mussolini went to war against Ethiopia. His easy victory gave him some wings and he began to help the Spanish fascists who took up arms in 1936. With Hitler helping Mussolini; Stalin’s Russia went to assistance of the Spanish government. The Spanish Civil War served as a giant rehearsal for the worldwide conflict which was going to come.

Hitler had taken back the Rhenany in 1936. In March 1938, the « Anschluss » gave him Austria. The Great Germany of the Third Reich was in motion. The next step was to adjoin the Sudettes countries. On September 29th 1938, Chamberlain from England and Daladier from France, signed with Hitler and Mussolini the Munich Consent which decided on the future Czech-Slovakia. The non aggression pact with Russia, ratified in August 1939, allowed Hitler to invade Poland in full security.

The die was cast for the World. The German troops went through the corridor of Danzig. On September 3, 1939 at 11:00 am, England declares war on Germany, followed by France at 5:00 pm. World War II would destroy almost SIXTY MILLIONS human beings for the biggest conflict in Human History.

In this non-human war, the Jews were persecuted as never before in their history and suffered the Holocaust, The Shoa. The European Jews, depleted, almost wiped out from the surface of the earth by the Nazi barbarity, will stand up one more time but, kipping forever the stigmas of this ultimate affliction.

If all the people of the World were very highly concerned, we would discover in this story the curious destiny of a little town in the Bavarian alps close to Munich: Dachau and the saga of unlikely soldiers coming from the Paradise Islands of Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and from the US concentration camps in America, the U.S. Samurais.

THE DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMP

Dachau in 1933

Adolf Hitler was just named Chancellor of Germany. On March 21, 1933, he signed the "Sondergerichte" forming an exceptional court to judge the opponents (No Jury, No lawyer)! The very same day, the chief of the Hitler Police, Heinrich Himmler, announced in the newspapers, the opening of a Concentration camp created to receive the enemy of the state, near Munich, inside the little town of Dachau.

Probably the first picture of the camp, the buildings of the old explosive factory taken in early March 1933.

Adolf Hitler

The day after the official opening on Thursday March 23, 1933, about sixty inmates came inside the buildings of an old explosive manufactory, closed after the Treaty of Versailles. In the beginning of 1935, the first political prisoners came into the camp and from then, a small number of criminals would stay on.

Dachau was the Nazi’s oldest concentration camp. It was built in 1933 and made to « Welcome » 5.000 inmates. It was made to serve as a prisoner’s camp for Jews and for the German opponents of the Third Reich. Later, it will become the training camp and the center of organization for the other camps.

The number of inmates increased perceptibly in 1937 after the German annexation of Austria and Czech-Slovakia. In the middle of 1937, the inmates lived a critical period as the S.S. began the building of a huge camp planned for a long time. For over one year, with horrible working conditions, the prisoners razed the former buildings to set up the camp of the S.S. and the new compound for the inmates. Officially, on August 15, 1938, the concentration camp of Dachau was finished and in 1939, it had the same aspect as today.

The concentration camp shapes a rectangle of 300 meters wide and 600 meters long. Railroad tracks, coming from the Dachau’s station, allowed the trains of detainees to come to the north side of the camp. In the west, stands the main camp of the S.S., connected to the concentration compound by a large road which leads to the only door of the camp, the "Jourhaus\

Claus Bastian received the number 1 on the list of the detainees in Dachau

The guard-house led into a big doorway, locked with heavy iron bars, where stands a door, carrying the ironic inscription: « Arbeit macht frei » (Work brings freedom)

Everybody coming into the camp has to go through this door.

In the basement, are the offices of the recorders and the guard’s rooms. The first floor hosts the S.S. Authorities, the Chief of the Camp and their lieutenant’s offices and the office of the Gestapo.

Coming inside, on your right hand side, is a huge 200 meters long building, with two aisles of 60 meters each, where are the vital installations for the life in the camp, the Wirtschaftsgebaude. On the roof, in big white letters shows: Es gibt einen wegzur Freiheit. Seine Meilensteine heifeen: Gehorsam-Fleife-Ehrlichkeit-Ordnung Sauberkeit-Nüchternheit-Wahrheit-Opfersinn und Liebe zum Vaterland.

(There is a way to freedom. His milestones are called: Obedience-Application-Loyalty-Order-Cleanness-Sobriety-Sincerity—Devotion and Love to your country)

This management building contained department stores, rooms for the personal belongings of the inmates, a giant shower installation for 150 people, a top quality kitchen, cellars, wash-house, closing stores, shoes and laundry depots, workshops for the shoemakers and the tailors.

Between this building and the south fence, starting from the Jourhaus, a street goes to the prison, the Bunker, where cells were made for the punished. In 1933, the "Bunker’ contained 10 to 12 cells. They built a new structure with 50 to 60 cells without windows. And finally, the most famous « Bunker » was able to « welcome » 120 detainees. In this special building lived the "Honorary prisoners" who I will speak about furthermore. The east wall of the « Bunker » is one of the executions sites of the camp.

Starting from the management building, a way led, through flowers-beds, to a huge open place where roll calls and the disciplinary exercises were carried out. Everyday, the workers’ columns started from the ‘‘Appellplatz" (roll call place), and came back from work in song. During some recreation times, the place served as a sport field and here, the loud-speakers proclaimed Hitler’s victories.

A strip of 3 meters wide surrounded the compound, the Neutral zone which was prohibited to crossover. Behind, a 2 meters 50 wide ditch of 1 meter 20 deep reinforces the anti escape dispositions. A concrete wall with electric barbed wires protects the formation. In the West side, a deep channel, full of water, connected to the river Amper which flows in 500 meters, closed the camp.

At the strategic points, 7 guard-towers stand loaded with two S.S. sentinels on sentry duty day and night, ready to fire, the machineguns pointed to the inside camp. The towers with their platforms were marked by capital letters, the A rise above the Jourhaus. Their positions allow them to be able to shoot any site in the camp. No one could escape their fire. At night, powerful mobile headlights scan the camp. At the single sign of movement in the Neutral Zone, near the ditch or the barbed wires, and they open fire without warning, and the prisoner who was here was killed, at once.

In the far north of the camp, lay the decontamination building, an angora rabbit farm, the Garden’s Office and in 1943, the sonderbau (brothel). In fact, in the summer, Himmler gave order to build some bawdy-house so called sonderbau (Special House) to resolve the sexual problems, fight against vices counter-nature and to increase the workers’ productivity. The "personnel" was recruited inside the Ravensbrück concentration camp, with the opportunity to be free for the women who could stay six months at work. On mid December 1944, one polish and twelve German girls were registered.

From the roll call place, we go to the prisoners’ barracks through a beautiful 300 meters long and 30 meters wide alley, bordered by poplars, Lagerstrafee nicknamed by Edmond Michelet the "rue de la Liberté" (freedom street). On both sides, serial barracks named blocks, in between was 10 meters wide Blockstrafee (Block street).

DACHAU’S BUILDINGS

Top: Dachau from watchtower Center L : the « Jourhaus » Center R : Himmler and Rohm Bottom : « neutral zone », the channel and electrified Barbed Wires

MAP OF THE DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMP

MAP Of A BARRACK OR « BLOCK »

CAMP INSTALLATIONS