<Begin Segment 39>

JM: And then, after I came back, I came right back to family but, things were still kind of, not really settled yet, you know. And I had to look for a job and all that sort of thing, so I said, "Well I'll try another hitch." So I went down to Fort Lewis and joined up, and I volunteered to go to Japan. Mainly because I was kinda curious to, as to see where my roots were. And of course I thought I spoke Japanese. Well, I just spoke enough to get along with my folks. My mother, she spoke English, my dad, well, he wasn't with us long but he was, spoke English, and wrote English, stuff like that. So, I had not much use, to use Japanese. But I know what it sounded like, and I just knew enough to talk to my parents. So (...), I went over there, and I thought I could get along, but I was wrong.

At that time, lot of the information was classified so (...), the army couldn't use a Japanese national for a lot of things. At that time I happened to get in a radar outfit. They were setting up radar stations along the, it would be the, see, west coast of Japan on the China Sea side. So what did they do, they took me and one officer, and one civilian technician, he was an electronics type. And I was supposed to be liaison, and go to all these different areas. And the areas that they want to set the radar up was real isolated. And consequently, why, these places where people, they'd never seen a American uniform or, they didn't know, don't know anything. And I'm supposed to converse with these people to try to get property to set the radar up.

AI: That must have been very difficult.

JM: Oh, it was tough. But, they, I went, oh, I went by jeep, boat, airplane and railroad, and everything else, to these different areas, mostly out in the country. One was down south, well, it was near, it was opposite side of Osaka, around the Japan Sea side. Another place was at Niigata. Well, now Niigata, that's where my folks came from. So I asked this officer, I says, my -- I just happened to remember the town that they came from, see. This town is located on the train route to where we were going, which was going to Niigata city, it's farther north. So I asked him if, if he'd stop the train and let me off. And stop there so I can see if I can look up my roots. So I, so they decided to, they could, they would do that. So I stopped at this town, this Itoigawa, that's, that was the town that they were from. So I got off the train, I went down to some police station. I asked 'em if they knew a person by my name. Yeah, they said they knew him, because well, that's a, it's not a big city but it's not a small city, either. (...) But he ended up being a schoolteacher. (...) So I went downtown a little bit, trying to look for him, and I don't know how word got around, but he heard about it. And so, my brother got an interpreter, and a newspaper guy, and I guess he took him up to the station. And when I came back to the station, they were there.

AI: Your brother.

JM: My brother. And, I knew what he looked like, I think. But he knew what I looked like, because I had a uniform on, see. And, he brought an interpreter along because he thought, well, I couldn't speak. Well, I could speak enough to greet him and, you know, simple, real simple things. That I would say to my father or mother, see. [Laughs] But anyway, we got along. At that time, why, he knew that he had folks. Because he was left there when he was a little baby, see. And they never did come to the States. So, and then one thing after another, my dad got sick, like I said earlier. And so he couldn't go back there and call him back. And then the Depression came along. Well, he was getting older. And then the war came along. And there was not very much contact at all, and he started thinking, well, maybe he, he was abandoned. So, anyway, after I got to that station, why, he saw me. And he knew right away that he was, I was one of the family. And since then, why, we've been corresponding. And then after I was in Japan there, I think, well, this was the second trip, I guess. This was later.

But that first trip to Japan, I went to these different radar sites, and we set 'em up. One was down south, that's a place called Wajima. That's on the peninsula. And then went up north and went to Niigata city, it's a big city. Then off of Niigata city, there's an island called Sado. Sado Island? That's where these drummers come from, the original drummers? Then I went north, going towards Hokkaido. There's another little peninsula there that we picked out to set up a radar site. And so, we got 'em all, well, we just located 'em, we didn't set 'em up then. So, every now and then we used to make trips going up to just check on 'em. And I got stationed up there, where that northern part was, the northern radar site was. And so I was up there, oh, quite some time, and that's... then I met this gal in the country, she's a fisherman's daughter. [Laughs] Well, one thing after another, we got married. That's why, that's where she's from.

<End Segment 39> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.