<Begin Segment 25>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: So at that point did they discharge you, or...

FT: (I got my discharge) at Camp Zama and then I went to work for ATIS in Tokyo.

TI: How long did you have that job?

FT: I worked for (ATIS) ten years (...) in the press, press section. What we did was we got the galley (proofs of the morning editions of) the major newspapers in the evening. (...) And we get the galley copies and we'd translate that. We had a bunch of (Japanese) translators (and we'd check the) language. And then there's another group that took it over and they worked it into a brief for the (GHQ) staff. So that they'd have a copy of the translations of the morning papers when the papers went out locally. And among the translators, we had one guy named Higashi (who) was a Canadian Nisei from Vancouver (that) was the first Japanese reporter to cover the Korean War. And after (that), he became office manager of (...) Associated Press (in Tokyo). (...) He also was the simultaneous translator for the Diet, official Diet translator. And then there was one guy named Jack Yamasaki from Seattle. His father ran a chili parlor on Jackson Street between Twelfth and Fourteenth. (...) We (also) had couple from Brazil (working for us). It was a very interesting crowd. (Narr. note: We worked the swing shift from four to midnight).

TI: And this was all supported by the U.S. Army. You were civilians but working for the army.

FT: Yeah, and one of the guys that was doing the language checking was Howard Iwazeki from Tule Lake. [Laughs] So after work at midnight, we'd go home together and we'd drop in at these little drinking places, sake places -- have oden and sake.

TI: So it was a fun time?

FT: Yeah, fun time.

TI: Well, eventually you became a family man, though, right?

FT: Yeah.

TI: So talk about meeting your wife. How did that happen?

FT: Oh, well, that was sort of a family-related thing. Family knew each other back, way back. And then after ten years, oh, before that, I used to drop in at (...) International News Service, INS, the Tokyo Bureau and do some work for them. (When they asked me to work full time), I left (...) federal service in '55 or '56 (...). I worked for ten years. And (...) went to work for (INS) as a full-time staff reporter.

TI: And where was this? Where did you go?

FT: International News Service, Tokyo Bureau.

TI: So still in Tokyo, okay.

FT: Yeah.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.