<Begin Segment 29>

TI: Okay, so eventually you came back to the States, and so let's pick it up there. So where were you...

MT: Well, I think before that I should go and backtrack a little bit. The army had a point system, and depending on how long you spent, where you were at and things, you would get points. And the more points you had were the first ones to be sent home. And so by the time we were in Leghorn area, I call 'em the old-timers, but the early members of the battalion, 100th and the 442nd were all sent home. So we were left with old-timers, which I became an old-timer because I was one of the first draftees who, maybe there were twelve or fifteen in my company, but you're from PFC, one day we were PFC, next day we were getting stripes. [Laughs] So we didn't earn 'em, we just fell into becoming a non-com. And the best thing was from, oh, probably a PFC would get twenty-seven dollars a month, I think my pay jumped up to $157. [Laughs] You can imagine how big that was.

TI: So that was funny, so from being kind of the young one, the newcomer, you were now the old-timer.

MT: Yeah. And so I'm glad I was a tech sarge, but I didn't really earn the tech sarge, I just fell into becoming a non-com.

TI: Well, so I imagine now the point system, then you were next in line.

MT: Yeah.

TI: And so what happened then?

MT: So we were sent home, and then I think the next group of draftees that came, they stayed on. Some of 'em saw a little bit of combat, some did not, but they were the nucleus of the 442 when they came home and they paraded in Washington, D.C. So the group that paraded in Washington, D.C., not to take away the honor they got, but I think just a very small percentage of those fellows actually saw combat.

TI: How do you, how do you think the, kind of the old-timers, the ones who fought early in the campaign, and men like you who fought a little bit later, felt about that? So you guys did the heavy lifting, the heavy fighting, and yet this other group got to go meet President Truman and march in D.C. Did you guys resent that?

MT: Well, I didn't really think about it. All I know is I was back home and -- [laughs] -- I'm not in the army anymore. So to me, I was rather indifferent to it. But seeing them parade in those pictures now, I think that was quite an honor for the regiment, you know. But I wasn't part of that, and...

TI: Do you ever wish that you were there, that you were able to...

MT: No, I didn't ever wish that I was there because it meant an extra month or two in the service.

TI: Okay. So, you're back in the States, and then what happens next?

MT: Well, I went into the service, and most of my close friends in the army were from Ogden, Salt Lake area. And that was where I was inducted into the service, and when you were discharged, the army was obligated to send you back to where you were drafted from. But the thing they would ask fellows like myself that were, went through evacuation, "Where is your family?" And if you told them they were in Seattle or something, they would send you to, pay to Fort Douglas and then from there to Seattle or where, I don't know, can't remember. But we were kind of grapevine, the rumor, says, "Don't tell (them) you know where your family's at." Says, "I'm not sure where my family is, they're in transit." So we were discharged in Fort Meade, and we were given travel pay from Fort Meade to Fort Douglas, which at that time, I can't remember how much it was, but I imagine it was 150, 200 dollars, enough to travel from New York, or from Maryland back to Seattle and spend a little time. First fellows that went in the service from Fort Douglas, like one fellow, says, "Hell, they gave me eleven cents or twelve cents travel pay." [Laughs] Because they lived within a, you know, a mile or two of the camp itself. So that was quite a big laugh I used to have all the time with the fellows that I was close to from Ogden area.

TI: So, yeah... so okay, I get that. So through the grapevine, by just not telling 'em where you knew your family was, they, they paid you essentially to travel cross country, and that was a good deal.

MT: That gave me a good extra month vacation from the time I was discharged in the service and able to drop into different towns and see friends. I think my sister was in Chicago, we stayed with her for a while. So it was kind of a fun period.

TI: And so during this time, were your parents back in Seattle?

MT: Yeah.

TI: And so was your dad back working as a gardener at that point?

MT: I think my dad had stayed back in Idaho, he was working for a while, until the family came in to settle and got settled down.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.