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TK: So how long did Mrs. Tsubota live in Jackson, and then what happened during that time just before you left for Europe? Did she stay there in that...

MT: So we stayed at the Harrells' there and so I was off-quarters and we stayed at there. And I had to go back to camp for reveille, try to get back there by six o'clock in the morning. And so Cherrie stayed while we were training, so shortly after Cherrie, we were married, then the Hawaiian contingent came in and the volunteers from the camps came in and so we trained all of these trainees at that time. And Cherrie was able to come into camp because of the passes. And, but it was quite interesting because, I don't know what the first contingent was, about two, three thousand from Hawaii came and they were all eighteen, nineteen, twenty year old, young, young, well, nice kids. And, but there were older, well-educated university graduate, University of Hawaii graduates that came with 'em. And I respected the, the well-educated people besides these young people that were so eager to get the Japanese combat teams going. And then, of course, it was nice to have all the Niseis in from camp that we met... from the stateside that had come from the camps. So we trained, so all the time that we were training at Camp Shelby, Cherrie was right with me.

And then in the fall we were to go to maneuvers, the maneuver was a hakujin division in Louisiana. So Cherrie was pregnant at that time and so she returned to Price, Utah and it was hard because all the... like Takayanagi, his wife Chiye, they were from California, too. They stayed there, but Cherrie... the reason I was quite anxious to have Cherrie go back, because not only she's pregnant, but if a child is born in Hattiesburg, the birth certificate had "colored" on there. And so, which didn't mean too much, but I mean, it was something that we could avoid by having her go back to... so, Cherrie went back to Price, Utah and stayed with her parents at the Price Cafe. In the meantime, we went to Louisiana for maneuvers. And maneuver with the hakujin divisions. Then they came back in the winter of, let see... that would be '43...

TK: '43?

MT: Winter '43. Yeah. And then we came back from maneuvers. My, so daughter Charlene was born at Price, in March 8, 1944. (...) We were already preparing to go overseas so I went back to Price to... I took a leave just before we were going overseas. So Charlene was born in March of 1944. But I got there to Salt Lake and then to Price, Friday evening of 1944 and Saturday, Cherrie started to get pains and one or two o'clock in the morning we took her to the Price Hospital and little Charlene was born at that time. And so, I stayed there a couple of days more. And Cherrie came back home, and I had to leave as we were preparing to go overseas. So I went back to Salt Lake and then back on into camp. So Cherrie could no longer come back to camp there. So, I only saw Charlene about three, four days, and then the next time I saw her she was two years old, when I came back from Europe, the European theater of war.

<End Segment 32> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.