<Begin Segment 11>

JT: And did you, where did you go after, I mean, you went to the University of Cincinnati and took your prerequisites and then where did you go?

KT: I was there maybe eighteen months. So I just still...

JT: Basics, the basics.

KT: Yeah, basics.

JT: Then what happened after that? Did you move to another school?

KT: And then we got draft notices.

JT: All four of you?

KT: Well, eventually I said, oh well, no use of starting another semester. And so I went back to camp to visit my folks.

JT: Sure.

KT: But then when I moved from Cincinnati, I know when we moved from Cincinnati to camp...

JT: To Topaz.

KT: Yeah. Then your draft board changes.

JT: Oh, registration.

KT: So I didn't get a notice until about six months later.

JT: Okay. You dodged a bullet.

KT: And so I spent six months in camp.

JT: Waiting for that letter?

KT: Right.

JT: So by now, this was, well, this was still during the war.

KT: Yeah.

JT: '43?

KT: January of '44, I guess, was when I got a notice from the Utah draft board.

JT: Oh, boy. Did it say, "We Want You"?

KT: Uh-huh. And so I went to take my basic training.

JT: Where was that? In Kentucky? It doesn't matter, I know my husband was at that one, too. Not with you, but later.

MT: I thought you said you went to Fort Knox.

KT: Well, so I took a physical and the guy in charge there said, "Oh, you have bad flat foot."

JT: You were flat footed? Your feet were like a carpenter's dream.

KT: [Laughs] So he says, "We're going to have to, we can't use you."

JT: [Laughs] Yay.

KT: But then one officer later came and said, "Oh, we can put you in the tank corps."

JT: Tank corps? What's that?

KT: Military tanks.

JT: The shooting gallery? That's not a promotion.

KT: And so they, for basic training they said, "Okay, we'll send you to Fort Knox in Kentucky." And so that's where I wound up with my basic training. When that was through, then the war had pretty much turned. Oh, and I have applied for the language school, but they said, "We don't need you."

JT: It was winding down.

KT: Yeah. It was really blooming.

JT: Oh, the language part, right. But I'm backing up a little bit, what did you think when they said they were going to send you to, what did you call that?

KT: Fort Knox.

JT: No...

KT: Basic training?

JT: No, the term where the... tank school. How did that make you feel? Kind of scary, right? Because you know that's action place, right?

KT: I don't know.

JT: You were brave. So what did you do in the language school?

KT: They told me, first, "We don't need you." But then, by the time I got through with my basic training, then the war in Europe had ended, or pretty much ended. And some of the guys were going to ports to go to Europe. But then just as the war was ending, they had no use for...

JT: For that kind of Italian, right. So did you get discharged after that?

KT: No.

JT: You had to stay...

KT: No, because it was then that they would send you to your language school and accept you, and Japanese were almost all given an opportunity to go to language school. When I went to language school, I got stuck... my Japanese studies were pretty good, I remember. Because I went to the language school for the entire period that I was in Japanese language.

JT: At Fort Snelling? Or where did you go to language school?

KT: Fort Snelling.

JT: Yeah, okay.

KT: That's right.

JT: And did you ever get to use your skills in the war?

KT: No.

JT: You didn't have to go to...

KT: Well, let's see. Around...

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.