Densho Digital Archive - Joe Yamakido Interview (denshovh-yjoe

<Begin Segment 11>

AI: So you passed your physical, they accepted you...

JY: Yeah. They sent me to Tacoma for my basic training.

AI: And then where did you go after basic?

JY: Oh, they sent me to Presidio San Francisco, because I don't want to kill nobody. So I told 'em I want to be a cook, so they sent me to cooking school. Yeah. Then the war was over, so they started discharging, I got out in 1947. So it was about eight month, I got out in '47. But they told me they want, they wanted Japanese cooks in Japan for the army, but they offered me master sergeant. [Laughs] I didn't want, I didn't want to go. I had enough of that getting up at a certain time, like in jail we had to get up and eat, line up for eat and everything, I was tired of that. So I had to sign up for two years to get that master sergeant, so I said, "No thanks."

AI: Well, the time that you were in the army, what kind of treatment did you get? I mean, this was right after the war. Did, were they negative to you for being Japanese American, or how did they treat you?

JY: Oh, pretty bad, 'cause I was the only one in the outfit Japanese in Washington. I was lined up for chow one day, one big tall guy, over six foot, he figured I'm a "Jap," and he could do whatever he wanted. So he got in front of me in the chow line, so I told him, "Back of the line, buddy." He got pissed off at me. So we started fighting, and I threw him on the floor, got an arm lock on him, I was gonna break it, and everybody else... 'cause he started kinda, he getting, started sobbing, and other guys said, "Let him go, let him go." Says, "He's had enough," and I let him go. After that I had no problem. And our... what the hell you call that? Well, my company, that... what the hell you call that person that runs, the head of the company. He was back from Japan from South, South Pacific, and he fought the Japanese. And he saw that and, and he just, he just respected me, and he didn't do anything. So I never had trouble after that. He backed me up after that.

AI: So, so then after you were discharged -- well, in the meantime, this, while you were in the army, what was happening to your family? They were, were they all back in Japan?

JY: Yeah. Except my younger brother, he was in Ohio.

AI: That was Johnny?

JY: Yeah.

AI: And so was he able to stay in Ohio?

JY: Yeah. He was on indefinite leave. Yeah, and I had enough money saved up during that six, eight months in the army, and I came back L.A., no jobs, so I worked for the Chinese farmer for fifty cents an hour. But I had enough money saved up to sponsor my sister in '47, then in '48 I sponsored my other sister. And they were, started working and saving enough money to sponsor our parents. They came back. And Tad, he stayed, he volunteered for the air force in Japan, he came here, married a Japanese girl and came here. And my older brother, he was successful in business, so he stayed. So everything turned out okay.

AI: So, then did you continue to live in L.A.? Stayed in the L.A. area?

JY: Yeah. I went, I started working in, first I went to San Pedro, I worked in the cannery. It was better pay than working on the farm. And then, and I worked at the Ontras cafeteria. It's a chain, chain restaurant. I worked there for a while, but not enough money unless you're a chef. So I worked for a Catholic school, as a second chef at the school where, what do you call those dormitory? And my sister's coming so I quit and got me apartment up in L.A., started working in the wholesale market. Fruit and produce, (...) wholesale market, that's where I met my wife. I married the boss's daughter.

AI: When were you married?

JY: 1950.

AI: Did you have any kids?

JY: Yeah, I had six kids. Well, she was married before. She had one kid. I adopted him and I had five of my own. I got five kids living right now. One of 'em murdered. So they're, they're all doing okay. They, they say they don't feel no discrimination on their job.