<Begin Segment 60>

TI: So why don't we -- so after the forty days you land, finally, after several stops, you finally land in India. Why don't you talk about what it was like getting off the ship and what you saw?

RM: Well, we landed Bombay, India, well, before, meantime we stop at Australia, Brisbane -- well, before, first after left San Francisco, we didn't know where we were goin' so then toward Hawaii, then went by Hawaii and then we didn't stop there.

TI: So you were disappointed. [Laughs]

RM: Well, I tell the story that, well, we saw the Diamond Head and instead of getting bigger and bigger, see, getting smaller and smaller, and disappear, and so we didn't go to Hawaii. But then first place stop was Caledonia, New Caledonia, Noumea, New Caledonia, then pick up the people at, soldiers, the veterans from Guadalcanal and somewhere around there and form, in addition to people left from stateside. Then the next stop was Brisbane and pick up the people from New Guinea or so forth that, from they got transferred to Australia so they picked the soldiers up. Then that's, most of 'em are 3rd Battalion from there. Then we went around the Tasmanian Sea and end up in Fremantle, Perth, right there the western part of Australia, stop. Then rumor that we goin' to Ceylon, that's tip of India, this island is Ceylon. But then they said a Japanese submarine lurkin' around there so they change the course and went through Indian Ocean and the place end up was Bombay. I don't know, maybe originally from Bombay, I suppose, I don't know, that's just a rumor that we were going to Colombo, Ceylon, Sri Lanka right now, but anyway, end up India, Bombay. Then they put us on a train, then about, about three days we get to Camp Deolali and so happened to be British camp up in central India, and then stay there a while, then we were to be trained by British army --

TI: So explain, what kind of training? So you had already gone through basic training, you were picking up veterans, what kind of training were you doing?

RM: Well, this would be a long range penetration, jungle, warfare tactics and so forth, see, jungle training. Then we know gonna go jungle, but still we didn't know what jungle. But end up in Burmese jungle. But then we sent, set our own camp, called Deogarh by the River Betwa and that's why we started our own practice of the team, then platoon size. Then learned penetration go through and form four enemy unit and practice and then sneak up, things like that and how to go through the jungle, not in a single column or somethin'. Well, anyway, the tactics, British taught us.

TI: And so during this time, even though you were trained to be a linguist, you were essentially just a regular GI going through the exact same training everyone else was going through?

RM: Yes, so just forget about the linguist part. They trained, the fighting, therefore we're speciality, our job would've been linguist, but, no, they concentrate on soldiers. That's why we been classified as infantryman, not military intelligence.

TI: So you were expected and trained to be a fighter.

RM: Fighting soldier, yes. And so you have to learn all of that and so you be interpreter if we capture prisoner, or if we find a document, then you be the translator.

TI: And how did you feel about that? Because you were being trained as a linguist and you were recruited as a linguist, but, but you, during this training realized you were gonna really be a fighter also.

RM: Yes.

TI: How did you feel about --

RM: So we didn't encounter any, see, this is the training stage, but so we never expect to translate or interrogate, but main thing is survival. See, so they have to concentrate on these tactics. So even though we're linguists, but right now, of course, we have to brush up, but whereas half of us Kibei, so they don't have to do anything. Other part carried the dictionary, too, and study besides being a soldier, so I pity them. But some Kibeis carried dictionary, too, but, so extra burden because extra weight carrying a dictionary. And, well anyway, still we didn't come to a combat yet, so...

<End Segment 60> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.