<Begin Segment 35>

GY: And I... one good thing about Fort Snelling was that, was again an opportunity to play swing music. A dance band was organized, and it was a real neat band because it was a collection of men from different camps who had played in bands in camp. So it was a kind of a all-star band. [Laughs] Not really all-star, but we called it, called it an all-star band because it was a collection of some of the better player, playing members of the, of these camp bands. And it was a neat band. Called itself the Eager Beavers, and the Beavers was sort of the, sort of the mascot of Fort Snelling or the, related to the Fort, and Eager Beavers was a pop tune which was very much a part of Stan Kenton's repertoire. I think it was their theme song, sort of a jump, swing number. It's kind of neat, too. And we played dances at the field house, and we invited girls from the local PXs -- not the -- excuse me. Not the PX. Sorry. What were they called?

AI: USO?

GY: USOs. PXs, PXs are stores. [Laughs] That would have been, may have been girls from PXs. Anyway, USO. And among them was quite a few Niseis who lived there, too -- Nisei women, that is, in Minneapolis. So they came to these dances. And it was very enjoyable. Enjoyable in the sense that we enjoyed playing the music. And there was one trombone player, said, "Oh, I'd rather be out there playing with -- dancing with the girls. And I'd rather, didn't want to play that trombone," but anyway... and among the members of the band was an outstanding musician. His name was Jimmy Araki . And Jimmy, he was a little bit younger than I was, and he was -- let's see. Where did he go now? What camp? Oh, Gila in Arizona. And when he was there, he was maybe high school or junior high school, but he learned how to play, play the clarinet in camp. Pretty soon he's moved into the saxophone. And soon enough he's playing the saxophone in the dance band. Well, there aren't too many people like that. And he was so proficient that when he, when eventually he was inducted in the Army and he ended up at Fort Snelling, and I don't think he knew -- well, he may have knew, known some Japanese, but eventually he became an instructor. I mean that was, he was so sharp musically and language-wise, too. And I think he was the leader of the band at Fort Snelling. But he was so good. I mean he loved music. He had, all by himself, every so often I'd see him in the auditorium all by himself, he was playing his saxophone or playing the piano, self-taught, playing the piano. He -- I said good-bye to him after, when I graduated Fort Snelling. I mean, next thing I knew, years later he ends up in Hawaii as a professor, and he's teaching Japanese language, translating Japanese, these classical Japanese plays, songs into English so forth, there. So it's -- Professor Araki, University of Hawaii. And he plays -- during the occupation, he taught bebop to Japanese musicians. He was so good they called him kamisama, god. That's so far out. But anyway, that -- that was Fort Snelling for me.

After Fort Snelling, I didn't -- oh, I was on my way to Japan with the rest of my group, and in, ready for overseas duty, and I was ready to debark when I received, there was a message: "Yoshida, report up to the whatever, top side." I had received a discharge which I had applied for earlier through the Red Cross because about that time, my family was leaving Poston to return back to California. And they were rather elderly then, and I, I asked for permission because they were rather, they didn't have much strength and they were old, to pack, and they needed some assistance. And so the Army said, okay. The war was over, and there's no need to keep Yoshida in the ranks, so I received my discharge, and I went back to Chicago.

<End Segment 35> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.