<Begin Segment 14>

TI: Okay, so let's get into the second hour. And where we kind of left it was you had, you were drafted and you were inducted, and we had just started talking about getting your military training. So let's pick it up there. So where did you do your basic training?

TT: I did my basic training in Camp Shelby. I was assigned to Headquarters Company, (to) the anti-tank (platoon).

TI: Now, when you say headquarters, I always thought that they didn't really, they weren't really trained necessarily for, kind of, fighting stuff. I mean, you're anti-tank.

TT: Well, regular, other companies are regular infantry training. But then we went through... in fact, the Headquarters Company for the training part, they had, split into anti-tank or what they consider A&P, that's more like an engineer group. So, well, along with being anti-tank, we (went) through regular infantry training, too.

TI: Okay. And so you're doing this, and then, and we talked earlier, but you kind of, I guess, got a transfer to another group. So talk about that. I mean, how did you go from being, essentially, a 442 replacement to doing something else?

TT: Well, by the time I was finishing, finish up basic training, some notice was put up on the bulletin board saying that, "We will now accept volunteers for paratroop." So there were four of us in our group that were staying in the same hutment, volunteered. In fact, one of them you probably recognize the name. You know Mike Masaoka? His younger brother volunteered with us. And there were, I guess, about ten or twelve at the most, from the whole group. When I say group, all our companies combined. And within four, we got ready to leave, one guy backed out. And later I found out -- no, we had a mutual friend that we corresponded with, and I got a letter right after the war saying... his name was Kinoshita from California, he was killed in action. Another -- well, maybe not funny thing -- but when I got ready to go to Fort Benning, my platoon leader, a Hawaiian, he and a few other cadre guys took me out to a beer garden for a final goodbye or whatever you want to call it. And when I was leaving, his name was Takeuchi, anyway, he says, told me, he said, "How come you want to go die with the haoles and not go with us and die with the Buddhaheads?" When he said that, I said, "Oh, Sarge," I said, "we'll both be okay, we'll both come back." But after the war I ran into one of the guys in my training outfit, told me that Sarge was killed. That's, I don't know what you call it, that's life or what.

TI: When the sergeant took you out for that beer and said that, how did you feel? I mean, it sounded like that he...

TT: Oh, we just went out for fun, you know.

TI: Right, but it sounded like he was sad that you were leaving him, that he wanted you to stay.

TT: Well, he was old. He must have been in the late twenties. [Laughs] He was a weather-beaten old man, you know, so he was treating me like a little, you know, younger brother or fatherly type. You know, when you get close to somebody, it gets kind of sad to leave. It's like they say, when you transfer companies, the outfit, it cancels all debt in friendship.

TI: So going back to his question, let me ask you: so why did you, why do you want to go essentially fight with this group of white soldiers rather than Japanese? Why did you? What made you decide to volunteer for the paratroopers?

TT: Well, one thing we knew, paratroopers were considered more (of a) lead outfit and everything. So what we had to do is prove that we were just as good as them, as a soldier and as a citizen.

TI: And so that's kind of some of the things you guys talked about, the ones who volunteered, that if you guys could do a good job, that would show others that Japanese could be really good soldiers? Was that some of the discussion that you guys had?

TT: Yeah, just among our little group, yeah, we said, "We'll show 'em up." [Laughs] So it was known, they were known for rugged training and everything. But then when we came out of Camp Shelby, we were in tip-top shape, too. [Laughs] So I must have been ten, twelve (of us) at the most. But nobody washed out, we all made it through.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.