<Begin Segment 15>

TI: And so how long were you in this base in Missouri?

GH: Actually, we were under protective custody for forty days. And after that, we were assigned to various flights, in the air corps they called it flights, it's comparable to a company. And one day, the sergeant says, "Who wants to be a general's chauffeur?" So we all raised our hand. Well, the next day, we saw the fellow pushing a wheelbarrow. [Laughs] And a couple days later, he says, "Who could type?" I raised my hand, I said, "Oh, my gosh," he said, "You." So I says, I wonder what I'll be doing. But sure enough, I became a flight clerk, so I typed up all the KP lists as well as the detail lists, so you never saw my name on the KP or the detail list.

TI: Okay, but I want to back up. So the first, the first day when they asked for volunteers for the "general's chauffeur," which would probably be a, sounds like a pretty good job, the person who got it ended up just pushing a wheelbarrow. Do you think that was some, almost like a cruel joke of some kind?

GH: [Laughs] Yeah, I thought it was.

TI: Okay. But then I'm surprised. So the second day when they asked for volunteers for the typist, you raised your hand again. I'm surprised that you had the -- [laughs] -- you raised your hand. I don't think I would have raised my hand the second day.

GH: [Laughs] So...

TI: But it was okay, it was a legitimate job that you got?

GH: Yeah. But shortly thereafter, the sergeant at, training clerk was transferred, and the flight commander says, "Grant, how about taking the job?" so I took the job. But in the meantime, I'm constantly looking for the roster that gave the assignment, and my name never came up. So finally, I talked to the flight commander, I said, "I've been here for months and my name never appears. Since I'm doing the clerical work, how about sending me to clerical school in Denver?" He said, "Grant," he says, "even, even though you go to a clerical school, all they do is give you a corporal when you graduate." He said, "You stick with me, and I'll give you a corporal," and I says, "Okay." Sure enough, I did get a corporal's ranking.

TI: So you got really, got along well with the, is it commander that you worked?

GH: Yeah. As a matter of fact, he like his whiskey, and in the afternoon he was gone, and I had to take over. [Laughs]

TI: Because he was just sort of napping or whatever after that?

GH: And I was very popular, because he would, I would calculate the number of passes that could be issued, and all I do is just take it to the commander and he would sign it. And I would issue it, so I was a very popular person. I do recall there was a case where there was an emergency, and I didn't have any extra pass. So after that, I always had a couple of extra just in case. I did use it on one or two occasions. But I was treated very well as a non-com. Corporal was a non-commissioned officer. I had my separate barracks and I'm in charge of the barracks. So they would come in and clean my barrack, they'd shine my shoe. [Laughs]

TI: Because you were the one who got to decide who got leaves?

GH: Yeah. [Laughs] So I tried to be as fair as possible.

TI: Now, these were Caucasian soldiers that were doing all this?

GH: Yeah, yeah.

TI: Did you ever experience any sort of, oh, discrimination or comments because of your, of your race?

GH: Well, there were many who never saw a Japanese or a Japanese American. And some expressed some curiosity, but they were all, especially when you have two stripes, and these are all recruits coming in. They say, "Yes, sir," "No, sir," and we got along fine, yeah.

TI: So I'm curious, one of the things, when the government, later on, when they were trying to determine loyalty of Japanese Americans, one of the questions that they would ask is whether or not a person studied in Japan and for how long. And did it ever come up, because of the length of time you studied in Japan, did people ever question your loyalty? Did they ever come to you, Grant, and with the FBI or something, and ask you lots of questions about your experiences in Japan?

GH: I never, I can't recall. But I do know they did have, did a lot of background check.

TI: On you in particular?

GH: Yeah.

TI: And so how do you know that?

GH: When I applied for FBI, they had a file that thick.

TI: And this was all during wartime, sort of, your wartime record?

GH: Yeah.

TI: And when you look through that record...

GH: No, they wouldn't show it to me.

TI: They wouldn't show it to you?

GH: No.

TI: So what do you think, how do you, because you did sort of intelligence work, what kind of things do you think they did in terms of a background check for you? Did they go back to your neighbors and ask questions?

GH: Yeah, because he would... I'm sure there were some people who had some unfavorable comments about me, because they kept on asking, "Do you know So-and-so?" and the name just didn't ring a bell. On a couple of occasions they did, the same name came up on several occasions, so I do know. But the investigation was very thorough.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.