<Begin Segment 17>

BH: So let's talk about Bako. How old was he when he was killed?

KH: When he was killed? He was twenty-one years old.

BH: So he joined the service when he was twenty?

KH: Yes.

BH: And can you tell me about, can you tell me about him, as you knew him?

KH: He was a very good-looking boy, and smart, he was good in athletics, but especially he liked to play basketball. He belonged to the Maryknoll basketball team. I used to go to some of the games. Let's see, who did he play with? Augie Aratani, I think George Kosaka, Sam Sakai. There's some of the fellows that were on the same basketball team.

BH: And do you have any defining experiences of Bako? You had mentioned that he was running coal in the camp, so it sounds like he was kind of a leader. Can you tell me about that?

KH: All I remember is that he used to come back real dirty. [Laughs] They would have to go to the bathrooms and take a bath before they can come back into the units, they were so...

BH: And you'd also mentioned that he was a Boy Scout, he was a patrol leader in the Boy Scouts?

KH: Uh-huh.

BH: So do you have any stories?

KH: I don't remember much about him trying to work for the different badges, not like when you were a Boy Scout. I don't know, I think my mother sewed the badges for him.

BH: Also, you had mentioned that he had a girlfriend, Beth Suguro.

KH: Yes. I think he used to go -- he was very quiet about that, but maybe it developed more after I left camp, before he went into the service. I think Auntie May probably knew more about it than I did.

BH: Can you tell us what you knew, though?

KH: I knew her, we went to Maryknoll together, so... and Beth had an older sister, Carol, and she had an older brother Callio. And then her oldest sister, her older sister was caught in Japan, and the first ship that came back from Japan, her older sister was in that group.

BH: Did you ever, were you ever around when Bako and Beth were together? Were you ever...

KH: No, not that I remember.

BH: So you had mentioned that Bako wanted to fight and that he was proficient in Japanese, and that he would have been a great candidate for the MIS.

KH: Uh-huh, uh-huh. 'Cause he had as much Japanese as I did, because we were in the same class. But he wanted to go into combat, because most of that coal company that he was working, they all went into combat. I don't remember any of them going to military intelligence.

BH: So they all wanted to fight for the country. Do you know, did you ever ask Bako why he wanted to fight so badly?

KH: Well, he did mention one time that he went into combat because he didn't want to go to the South Pacific battle zone, that he thought he may run into a cousin that he had met back in 1933, Chizumi Arima. He was the son of a doctor. But we didn't know what was going on with the relatives in Japan, but he just didn't want to run into him.

BH: But did he ever say why he wanted to join the service? Was it because his friends were joining at the same time?

KH: Well, all his buddies were going into combat. Somebody like Yosh Kato, he was fluent in Japanese, he could read and write, but he also went into combat.

BH: So when he died, we talked about your receiving the news, but what about his friends? Did they come and talk to you when they got back from the war? When they returned home, did they talk to you?

KH: They came back and visited with the folks. I remember Augie coming. It was awfully hard for them to come. Some of them postponed coming for a while, and my mother would say, "Why doesn't Augie come? He's back, he hasn't come yet." He eventually came. It was hard for them to be alive, and then my mother would just cry all over them, you know. And it was a situation that a young, young man couldn't face. And I remember Sam Sakai came, too, that was a tough time.

BH: So can you tell me about those experiences when they came to the house?

KH: Well, I wasn't, I was there just when Augie came, and that was rough on my mother. I remember my mother just crying. I'm glad it's over.

BH: Did he ever say anything to you when he came over?

KH: No.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.