S2E4 From Dachau to Salvation A Story of Unexpected Heroes

In this poignant episode of the Japanese American Podcast, we explore the incredible journey of Holocaust survivor Solly Ganor and his unexpected salvation by Japanese American soldiers during World War II. Through Solly's harrowing experiences on a death march from the Dachau death camp, listeners are introduced to the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion—soldiers who defied prejudice and became beacons of hope for many. Joined by guest Naoyuki Ikeda, the episode delves into the inner conflicts faced by these Japanese American soldiers, who were fighting abroad while their families faced internment back home. Featuring real stories of courage and kindness, including the actions of Sergeant Imamura and Chiune Sugihara, this episode highlights the complexities of wartime morality and the profound impact of individual acts of bravery. 

For more information about the Japanese American National Museum, please visit our website at www.janm.org. 

This episode the wonderful voice work of actor and friend of the podcast Naoyuki Ikeda.

Here are some of the links we used to help us write this episode:

https://www.sollyganor.com/ 

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/sugihara/readings/ganor.html 

https://www.instagram.com/holocaustmuseum/p/C7pm-LxsAKy/?img_index=1 

https://442sd.org/history/eric-saul-on-solly-ganor-and-the-holocaust/

https://blogs.chapman.edu/holocaust-education/2015/09/28/witness-heart-mountain/

https://www.sollyganor.com/unlikely-liberators-virtual-exhibit

CREDITS

The music was created by Jalen Blank

Written by Koji Steven Sakai

Hosts: Michelle Malazaki and Koji Steven Sakai

Additional Voice by Naoyuki Ikeda

Edited and produced by Koji Steven Sakai in conjunction with the Japanese American National Museum

Transcript

0:00

I stared at them, unable to grasp the situation. Japanese. One of the men came up and knelt in front of me. He gently touched me on the shoulder and said, you are free, boy. You are free now. He said and then smiled. The smile has been with me ever since. That is a quote by Holocaust survivor Solly Ganor when he was liberated while on a march from the Dachau death camp by a member of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion. Welcome to season two, episode four of the Japanese America Podcast. The podcast, where we explore the blend of Japanese and American cultures, history, and traditions, as well as all the quirky and wonderful things in between. My name is Koji and I am one of your hosts. And I'm Michelle and I'm the other host, Koji. How have you been? I've been good. What about you? You've been good. What? What is your good? Alive. Alive. That's it. That's. Oh, I fell off a ladder. Oh, no. Which is. You're not supposed to fall off a ladder. I found that out recently. Was it a tall ladder? Well, like a tall stepstool. I just fell, and then I jumped, and then I landed. But I twisted my ankle. Oh, shoot. I'm better right now, though. Oh, you didn't break any bones. I didn't break any bones. But what about you? How have you been? Well. I'm okay. I play golf with my husband. Nice. Did you win? I always win. But I hit a ball in a ditch, and he went to pick it up, and he slipped and broke his wrist. Oh, no. I know, I know. I'm like. You didn't. He didn't have to pick that ball up. It's like I found those balls. Oh, no. Is he okay? He's okay. I hope I haven't seen him so. Holocaust Remembrance Day or Jan Hashoah falls on the 27th of Nissan or Nissan Nissan. Maybe in the Hebrew calendar marking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising this year it falls on April 24th, so we're a few weeks late. Nevertheless, we thought it was too important of a topic not to have an episode about Michelle. If it's okay with you, let's begin our story. Sally Ganor is a Holocaust survivor and author born on May 18th, 1928, in Heydekrug, Lithuania. He spent his childhood in Kaunas, where he lived through the Nazi occupation and the horrors of the Kovno Ghetto. Ganor and his family were later deported to the Dachau death camp, where he endured forced labor and witnessed unimaginable atrocities. He was liberated by Japanese American soldiers on the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion in May 1945. Ganor documented his experiences in his memoir Light One Candle A Survivor's Tale From Lithuania to Jerusalem, published in 1995. His story highlights resilience, the impact of prejudice, and the importance of remembering history. In late April 1945, Heinrich Himmler ordered the murder of all surviving Jews from the death camps to eliminate witnesses to the Holocaust. This led to a brutal five day death march through southern Germany, including survivors from Dachau, ending in forest near Waakirchen, Bavaria. On May 2nd, 1945. Ss guards began executing survivors of the death march in a remote forest. However, upon hearing what seemed to be an approaching American military convoy, they abandoned the massacre and fled, leaving behind hundreds of traumatized and barely alive survivors. We brought on naoyuki Uchida to help bring to life. Sorry, this is a quote. What it was like. As the allies approached. We had heard that Allied airplane bombing Munich for weeks, and we suspected that something would happen soon. In the last week of April, the Nazis began to evacuate away concentration camp located in a small German town of, adding we didn't know why. We guessed the war would be over soon. Or We might be dead soon. We marched for more than five days. It was cold and it rained heavily. We were starved and tired and afraid. I witnessed many people murdered along the way. I don't know how I was able to survive. We hadn't eaten for days. I remember just putting one foot in front of the other and somehow finding the strength to live for another minute, an hour a day. The exhausted Jewish survivors, like Solly, encountered soldiers from the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, a patrol of Japanese American troops. To the survivors, these soldiers appeared almost otherworldly, earning the nickname angels. For many, it was the first time in years they had seen uniformed men treat them with kindness. Solly was initially confused by his rescuer's appearance, mistaking him for a Japanese soldier. However, to his surprise, the man spoke English and wore the uniform of the US Army. Let's hear what Solly had to say about this moment. We eventually wound up in an open field where our worst fears were confirmed. The SS guards began shooting us down. Luckily, I wasn't hit. Soon the shooting stopped and we had no idea why. As frightened and hungry as I was, I managed to fall asleep, totally exhausted. I woke up the next morning covered with a blanket of snow. When I looked up, all I saw was white and I assumed I was dead. Actually, Surely in my weakened condition, the snow served as a sort of an insulation and may have saved me. I awoke to the sound of the truck in the distance. I strained my eyes in fear, wondering who it was. I made out that they were American uniforms, and I felt unbelievable relief as these American soldiers walked towards us. I noticed that they were not Caucasian soldiers. They were Oriental. I immediately began to fear that they might be, in fact, the Japanese army here to finish us off. I was too tired and I couldn't run. One of them came up to me, and, with a sadness and compassion in his eyes, tried to comfort me. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a candy bar that said Hersey's on it. At that moment, I realized it was the American army and these were our liberators. I had somehow managed to survive the war. It was the first time in over three years in a ghetto and one year in a concentration camp, that a person in uniform showed kindness to me. This man with the strange faces were like angels of mercy who descended from heaven to lift me out of my hell. I can never thank them enough. That Japanese American soldier was Private Clarence Matsumura, who belonged to a segregated Japanese American unit in the US Army. Reflecting on the experience, Clarence recalled finding survivors along the roadside thin, frail, and clad in black and white striped uniforms, reduced to mere skin and bones. Who were the five 22nd the five 22nd Field Artillery Battalion was formed on February 1st, 1943 at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, to provide precise artillery support for the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. It consisted of five batteries, a headquarters battery for administration, a service battery for equipment and logistics, and three firing batteries equipped with 105mm howitzers. The battalion's artillery units positioned thousands of yards behind infantry lines, delivering accurate bombardment over their own troops, heads to support advances. Forward observers, the most perilous role, worked close to enemy lines to identify and direct targets. Known for its exceptional accuracy, the 522nd could swiftly locate and engage targets, earning acclaim within the US fifth and Seventh armies. The 522nd were some of the first Allied soldiers to see the horrors of the death camps. A sergeant Imamura is quoted as saying we had been ordered not to give our rations to the Dachau prisoners, because the war was still on and such supplies were needed to keep our own fighting strength up. But we gave them food, clothing, and medical supplies anyway. The officers looked the other way. These prisoners really needed help and they needed it right away. They were sick, starving and dying. We'll end this with a poem by Solly July 26th, 2010, whom he dedicated to the men of the 522nd and Clarence Matsumura. I lay in the snow, ebbing life surrounded by the dead. One looked at me with staring eyes. He had a bullet in his head. I heard the shots of the German guards, their curses echoing through the forest. I heard bullets thudding into the bodies of my friends lying by my side. They had no strength to scream before they died. Many were just lumps in the snow. Shot or frozen. A few hours before their the liberation. After years of torture, beatings, insults and dangerous humiliation, I lay in the snow, ebbing life a few heartbeats away from oblivion. I saw the shadow of the angel of death as he spread his wings over me. I felt the icy blood in my veins. Reaching for my heart. I knew my time had come. I had a last look at the sky above. And I saw another angel smiling at me. His wings were just a dirty uniform. And he had slanted eyes. He picked me up from the freezing snow and gently stroked my head. He wrapped me in a blanket and snatched me from the dead. Michelle, what are your thoughts when you hear the story? It's really. Unimaginable. I'm like. The Solly was worry at first that he saw this people looking Japanese, and he thought that was the enemy, but it was Japanese Americans. So it's but I'm Japanese. I'm like, it's like, well, I'm related to both sides. And it's so sad, you know, like the war really divides people and also the death march, like they, they were all trying they were going to be all eliminated from this earth. So they won't be the witness to what they've done, what the, what the other people done. And there's no word to describe how sad and bad and terrible it is. Yeah. I mean, it's it's crazy to imagine that and probably how confusing it would be to, you know, you're expecting to be killed. Yes. And then you see somebody who's Japanese and you're like, well, why aren't you killing me? And then find out that they're not Japanese but Japanese American. That must be super confusing for somebody. Yeah. And also, like, there are going to be all killed. And then they were led to the forest to be killed and all of a sudden, oh gotta go. Bye, guys. Like, oh that's terrible. I mean, could you imagine being a Japanese American soldier and seeing all these people who are basically being starved and, you know, they're all skin and bones and just dirty and near death door. And, you know, that must have been really hard for them. Really? I couldn't even imagine such a scenario, you know, and how terrible it was. And, you know, to me, it just reminds me how terrible humans are to each other. You know, we're basically very similar to each other as humans, you know, like, we could mate with each other, which means that we're essentially the same. But we've established, you know, these differences in people. And through those differences, we feel like we could kill or hurt or do crazy things to them, you know? The only thing that these people, I mean, for Solly is that they're Jewish. You know, that's a religion. It's not even a difference. And to be honest with you, it's not that different than Christianity or Muslim? I mean, they all kind of believe in the same Bible ish. Shintoism is much different or Hinduism is. Buddhism is way different, because I'm not Judeo-Christian. It just goes to show that when there are little differences, that's when there's more hatred and when it's big differences, they don't. People don't care as much because it's just so different. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Humans could be so cruel. But like, Sergeant Imamura was kind, but it wasn't, like, super kind. It was. He was just doing, like a human. Basic kindness and then saving people's lives. But also, people were telling him that he's not supposed to do those things. So I think that, you know, some people would just say like, yeah, you, you know, you're not like, I was told not to, so I'm not going to give. But I think any normal human with normal feelings would do that. And also, you know, that one thing that we don't mention here is that some of the five 22nd were probably their families were in camps, not in the Dachau death camp, but they were in camps where they lost their freedoms. They lost their stuff, you know? So, I mean, there had to have been some of the soldiers who were conflicted and not conflicted in, you know, like whether they should help or not, but conflicted, like, like seeing these people, seeing what could have happened to them. Probably mess with their minds a little bit. We. Yeah. We should not forget things like this because like little, you know, you could be a little bit kind to each other and there will be no war. But we're not kind to each other. I mean, you know, we've talked about this before, but it's, you know, as an older person now, it seems so silly. Yeah. Also, some of the people who have who went to the war didn't want to go to the war. Yeah. They don't want to go to war. I mean, what are they dying for? It's such a tragedy because, you know, like like I think we've talked about this, but I was at the Battle of Midway ship in San Diego, and I know I was supposed to hate the Japanese, but all I could think was all those Japanese people on the ships or the kamikaze or the fighters, and all I could think was, what a waste of life. It's so stupid because, you know, what were they? They were dying for Japan. And Japan doesn't care about them. And, you know, and then all the Americans, what were they dying for? You know, like, nobody cares about those guys either. So all the people that are dying for this country in a heroic way, you know, they're doing it for people that don't care about them. You know, and their families are going to suffer, and they're not going to have children. They're not going to grow up. And, you know, maybe that's an old thing, because when I was young, I just thought, oh, we have to go fight. We have to go kill people. And now as I'm older, I'm just like, what a waste. Like, I don't want to see my son fight. And also, it's the commercialism or the capitalism. I guess when there's a war, there's money to be made. Although the one thing about World War Two at least, like, you know, the rescuing of the of these people in the Holocaust, I mean, that felt that feels more something that was worthwhile than fighting and dying for, you know, some of these other wars. I'm not 100% sure about those. When I was one of the people overseeing the exhibitions at the museum, one of the shows that I was most proud of was about Sus Ito, one of the brave soldiers from the five 22nd. While in service, he took photos and we were lucky enough to display them. I'll put a link to a short documentary we made about him in our show notes. Michelle, there is one part of the story that we didn't talk about. According to an interview with Solly Ganor we found on PBS. He and we're quoting here, shared in an emotional Hanukkah dinner with Chihune Sugihara. Sugihara and his family. He did get a visa from him, but was not able to flee. We highly recommend that you watch the interviews. We'll put a link in our show notes. You know about Sugihara, right? Yes, I have, but I don't know how to. I've. I've seen how to write his name in kanji, but it's like Chihune is like a very different kind of name. It is? Why is it different? It's just a different way. Like not not not like Saburo. Or Ichiro. For those that don't know, he was known for writing a bunch of visas for escaping Jews from Lithuania, with the Nazis coming in. According to the story Solly had invited Sugihara to this Hanukkah dinner, where there were supposedly Sugihara heard about the tragedies of Jews in Europe, and from that point on was one of the reasons, maybe, that he started writing these visas. And these these Jews had to escape through Russia or escape through other places, and then they had to go somewhere else. So the visas just allowed them to leave, but they had to be another country that allowed them to enter. So they they went to China, they went to Japan, they went to a Caribbean nation. They came to America. And what's one of the great things about the story about Sugihara is that the Japanese government told him not to do it. We know that as Japanese people, when the government tells you not to do it, you're not supposed to do it. And so when he came home from the war or he went to he went to prison camp with his family. And then when he finally got back to war, he was kind of ostracized because he was. Because he was doing something that he's not. Supposed to do. And then until like, I think it was like the 70s or something where one of the survivors or one of the descendants of the survivors came and found him, and then he became a hero. And then the Japanese government was like, oh, he's a hero, but only in retrospect. But it took 30 some years. Yeah, because in Japan, like if somebody tells you to do something, if a higher up tells you to do something, you're supposed to do it. And anything different is not good. You know, when you hear the story, what do you think about that? Sometimes. Like you really have to do what you have to do that your heart tells you to do, even though you're not supposed to do, like writing visas. And as a Japanese person, it's even harder because there's a cultural groupthink, right? Where you know. You're supposed to be the same as the. Yeah, like a you don't want to be. You don't want to be the nail that stands out. Right? It's even more I mean, America, you're kind of taught that like, it's better to be different and be unique. But in Japan, that's not the case. That's not the case. And especially in olden days. Yes, even more so. More so. There's only two choices that you could do. You could take to get to the life that you have now, like it's either yes or no. Yes or no. And if you are the one who could write a visa, Would you write a visa to people who needs to flee? Yes or no? Like yes. You got to write, you got to rest. But a lot of people didn't. You know other other consulates did not write the visas. You know, who were, you know, were Western nations which could have saved them. And it turned out to be him. I mean, only. Yeah, like you are, right? Only Sugihara's name comes up, and there must be, like, 100 other consulate generals at least. And there was another consulate who had to accept, had to do the exit visa. So they had to be somebody who leaves and then not exit. Somebody who accepts. Right. But he found somebody who did it. So there were there was another person. Thank you Naoyuki Ikeda. And thank you all for listening to our podcast. We are deeply grateful for your continued support and enthusiasm for the Japanese America Podcast. Your engagement, feedback and passion inspire us to keep sharing stories and perspectives that bridge cultures and bring people together. Thank you for being a part of our community and for tuning in to each episode. We're excited to continue this journey with you, exploring the rich and diverse tapestry of Japanese American experiences. Stay tuned for more exciting content, and don't hesitate to share your thoughts and ideas. This podcast is a program of the Japanese American National Museum. The museum's mission is to promote understanding and appreciation of America's ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Please rate, review and subscribe to our podcast and be sure to join us next month when we tell you Michelle's immigration story. What? You act surprised. Whoa! All right. Bye, everybody. Bye.