Densho Digital Archive - Thomas K. Kobayashi Interview (denshovh-kthomas-01-0020)

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TI: So after you volunteered, tell me what happened next. Where did you...

TK: 'Course, then we were sent to Camp Douglas, Fort Douglas in Utah, that's where we were inducted. I guess there must have been about twenty of us, each group.

TI: And then from Fort Douglas, what --

TK: Oh, I want to tell you something about Fort Douglas. [Laughs]

TI: Okay, good.

TK: At mess hall, you line up and get your tray full of food. I must have been hungry, so I must have ate that, and I went back for seconds. The seconds is as big as the first one, so I couldn't eat at all. So I went to dump it. The garbage can is clean. So the sergeant says, "No, you're not gonna dump that, you gotta go eat it." [Laughs] I remember eating a second helping of all that food.

TI: So in the army you learned that if you take it, you use it or you eat it.

TK: If you get it, you eat it. And that garbage can that was for refuse had to be clean. And it was clean. [Laughs] That's what I remember.

TI: That's good, that's a good story. So after Fort Douglas, where did you go next?

TK: Of course, we went to Camp Shelby.

TI: And so at this point, what was the status of the 442?

TK: Oh, 442, we joined with the 100th Battalion in Camp Shelby. So those of us at Fort Douglas were 442. I mean, we were sent to 442, and we joined up with the 100th Battalion in Camp Shelby.

TI: So let me make sure. So the time you went was even before the 442 was formed? It was still the 100th?

TK: Well, I guess we didn't know about the 442, but we were sent as a group. And your 442, you join up down in Camp Shelby.

TI: So describe when you first met up with the other men in the100th. What was that like?

TK: What distinctly I remember is trying to get along with the Hawaiians at first. You're not Hawaiian, are you? [Referring to videographer]

TI: [Laughs] No, she's not.

TK: No? Okay. Well, we couldn't understand 'em because they spoke pidgin English. Until you got used to pidgin English... well, we got along after that.

TI: But initially it was a little bit more difficult because it was hard to understand them?

TK: It was because pidgin English, I can't... "You go come," you know, contradictions. "You go come," "We go." But there was Portuguese and Hawaiian all mixed up in their language.

TI: And so you had a hard time understanding them.

TK: That was only about two weeks, (after) one week, two weeks. We got along okay.

TI: And how do you think they looked at you, or the mainlanders, the people from the States?

TK: Well, they called us Kotonks, or Buddhaheads, I forget which now. Buddhaheads are one of us, or them. But we were Buddhaheads and Kotonks.

TI: And so describe your training. What was the training like?

TK: Oh, it was... let's see. I think we got up at six o'clock, at reveille. Then you had to go to the latrine, the bathroom or whatever. For thirty of us, I guess, there was only about six seats. [Laughs] Crowded, you had to be there first. It was a tough life.

TI: So any other stories or memories from basic training?

TK: Basic training, oh, yeah. I remember the chiggers, you sleep on the ground, and those little chiggers would crawl over your belt and you'd get all itchy. And then you sleep on your tarp and it's all wet from your sweat, 'cause it's hot in Mississippi.

TI: So it sounds like it was pretty...

TK: Oh, it's tough training, yeah.

TI: And so how long did you train?

TK: I think it was, as I recall, it was about... I was gonna say three months, but it must have been more than that. You can't get trained in three months. I suppose you could, but I'd say six months, maybe.