Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Hideo Hoshide Interview II
Narrator: Hideo Hoshide
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: February 1 & 2, 2006
Densho ID: denshovh-hhideo-02-0016

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TI: So with the bombing of, with the dropping of the atomic bombs, the war ended, Japan surrendered, and you had orders to return to Washington, D.C. But I'm curious, when the group sort of then broke up, how was that? You guys were pretty close, being together for a long time.

HH: Yes, well, I had to leave by myself first, and at that time, we all left to go back to New Delhi. That was where the headquarters of the OSS was, not Calcutta. So we had to take the plane and go to New Delhi, which was the first time we went. And it was much, much cooler, because it was closer to the Himalayas Mountains. Anyway, that's where I left them and I continued on into Persia, which was Iran, by plane.

TI: Now, was it pretty sad leaving the group at that point? Because you were the only one who left, right?

HH: Yes. They had to wait for a ship to bring them back. So that's where I left them, and I haven't seem them since then, except for one person.

TI: Did they, was there any special send-off for you, or did they just say goodbye?

HH: No, no. We did take, I think, a little trip around New Delhi on a bus one day, and then the next day I was shipped out, flew out, on to Iran, which is now present-day Iran, because of the army base there, and then on to Cairo and Bengazi and Tripoli, and then Casablanca, which was on the last flight out to Washington, D.C.

TI: So you got to go, literally, around the world.

HH: Just about, yes.

TI: You started in D.C. and you went all the way across the United States, took a ship all the way to India, and now you're going across through Europe, now, aren't you?

HH: No, I didn't go into Europe.

TI: Africa, I mean.

HH: Africa, but now I came all the way back to Washington, D.C. from India, and was waiting for my new assignment with the Strategic Services Bombing Service with the Air Force.

TI: Now, when you were, when you got your orders to go to Washington, D.C., did you know what they wanted you for?

HH: Yes, because that was the reason for my leaving the group, because I was assigned to... and if I remember right, in those days, it's hard for anybody to travel by, these are all military planes. But I was given the equivalent of number two priority, I think, which was like generals and such.

TI: So what would be a number one priority?

HH: Number one would be, well, I guess, generals, and the other rank, lower generals and officers, and I would think that possibly three might have been for pick-up of the GIs from Europe on emergency return to home or something. Because we didn't have any injured soldiers on the flight that we were going back. Because every place we stopped, like in Egypt and everything, Cairo, I was put on the number one priority. You know, the next plane that's going to be going back to Washington, D.C., I had to be ready to leave. So I could never unpack anything of my gear, because I had to be always... unless they told me that it won't be until the next day or whatever it is, that I was able to spend with the rest of the people maybe sightseeing into town or something like that.

TI: So they really wanted you back fast, and so they gave you that top priority.

HH: Oh, yes. So I was so surprised in a sense that I was able to keep on going, and I was never with them in the next lap or flight, because they were dropped off. And some of those people that I got to know were USO workers or WACs, because they were in service. But every place, they got on, next thing you know, they were not on the next flight. I was the only one that kept on going.

TI: That's good. I'm curious, you were in India. Why didn't they just send you to Japan from India?

HH: I don't know. [Laughs]

TI: Because it was so much closer, rather than going all the way around the world again?

HH: On that, there's another little interesting thing. I was on a detached unit of the OSS, and I was only a buck private. So getting this kind of a special thing was surprising; I was not even an officer. As an enlisted man, I was only a buck private. [Laughs] Anyway, that's kind of interesting. And it did occur to me later, why can't they just send me over, but I don't think there was a plane that was going directly from India to Japan, which would have been closer, really.

TI: Yeah, because they essentially sent you the long way to get there, at least, by the map.

HH: Well, I was attached to the air force, because the air force was the one that was conducting this Strategic Services Strategic Bombing Survey program that I was assigned to.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.