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TI: So, let's go, after you graduated from Franklin, then, then what did you do? Is this when you went into the army?

LH: No -- that's correct. I went into the army, and I served from '46 to '48, and in fact, my last, I was a member of the 2nd Infantry Division, G-3, which is operations and training. But my last assignment, I was pulled out of the 2nd Infantry Division to go to Ogden, Utah, to serve in the Army Graves Registration Service, and brought back the first Nisei dead from Italy to Seattle for burial. There's documentary proof of that, front page of the Seattle Times and the Stars and Stripes. In fact, Mas Fukuhara was involved in something like this not too long ago, so I sent him copies of these things showing myself being involved in this, and in fact, I remember talking to the Kato family, Shuzo Kato's family. And if there's anything that tears me up, it's this aspect of life where I have to talk about, or talk about the Nikkei dead. And we were told by Army Graves Registration, "Talk the parents into not opening up the casket," 'cause you never know what's in there, the body, the skeleton, maybe just the dog tag. And you know, so many Isseis are Buddhist, they want that, that casket open for everybody to view. So you know, it's hard enough to talk the parents into it, so finally to Shuzo, the brother and others in the family, we were able to talk the parents into not opening up the caskets.

TI: And this was the first one that you brought back?

LH: These, yes, and these were the very first that came back to Seattle.

TI: And so it was, one of your roles was to actually talk to the family individually about what was coming back?

LH: Oh, yes. It was a very touching and moving and difficult assignment, but a very honorable one.

TI: Do ever recall doing this for Francis Kinoshita?

LH: No, I think Francis Kinoshita came back later. There were, I think, three or four, and like I say, I would have to look up the documents, or you can get it from Mas Fukuhara.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.