<Begin Segment 9>

HH: Even at the port of embarkation, before we left, they issued all of us, the Japanese nationals on the team, and there were some of those people like Joe Koide, but they were all commissioned. I mean, they were issued officers, except myself. I already had the regular GI clothing, but all of the others had a simulated officer uniform. In other words, no designation of what the rank or anything like that. But pay-wise, equivalent to the pay, I'm sure, and I knew that they were getting equivalent of, some were lieutenant-colonel rank, and the others were probably captains or whatever it is. I don't know what their ranks were, but they didn't have any designation. And when we got onto the ship, we didn't know where we were going to go either at that time, but as far as the time that we were at Riverside, port of embarkation, I had to tell these guys that, "You have to salute," because other soldiers that are going overseas, they wouldn't know if they are, but they'll be saluted. And I said, "Don't just be, snag around, you got to salute them and everything else," because they wouldn't know.

TI: So you had to tell them how to be an officer, essentially, and salute them back.

HH: Yes. [Laughs]

TI: Well, that's kind of interesting. So the other members of your group, the civilians, were given sort of these, you said pseudo-officer uniforms and pay, but they weren't military. They weren't...

HH: No, they weren't in the military, but to go overseas, you couldn't go as civilians. And this is a military transport, the ship that we were going.

TI: But you were already in the military as a private.

HH: Yes.

TI: So you just got the private pay, and these other guys got paid more, they got officer pay.

HH: Yes, yes, and they were very concerned about that, the rest of the group.

TI: And they were concerned because they didn't think it was fair, or what do you mean by concerned?

HH: No, they knew that I was not getting that kind of pay anymore, even in Washington, D.C., or Collingwood. They knew that I was getting the GI pay which was only fifty dollars or whatever it was, and so sometimes we had poker games, and they would say, hey, they would put my money to play, if I wanted to play, because I didn't have that kind of money.

TI: Oh, so they would, like, give you money to play poker with?

HH: Well, they'll all chip in my money, they'll give me money so I could play with them. [Laughs]

TI: Because they all got paid more, even though you were all doing kind of the same work.

HH: Yes, they were getting equivalent, I didn't know how much. And I can't remember how much I got either.

TI: So, it's funny. So if you weren't, if you weren't drafted, if you weren't inducted and stayed a civilian, you would have gotten paid more.

HH: Well, I would have gotten the same pay as them, in twenty dollar bills or whatever, yes.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.