<Begin Segment 9>

TI: Okay, so you get your draft notice, and what's your reaction when you see this draft notice?

TO: Well, I was kind of expecting it. You know, I wanted to volunteer but since my dad was the way he was, my mom said, "No, no, I don't want you to volunteer." So that convinced me... but of course, when we got the draft notice, had no choice. And by then, the 442nd had made a name for themselves and everything, so I thought, well, I should definitely... I had no particular problem. I was kind of relieved that... you're always waiting for that notice to come, and so when it came, I had no problems.

TI: And so about what time, what year, what month?

TO: 1945, I think.

TI: 1945?

TO: '45. This is when the war was all over and everything else, so it was a good time to go into the army. [Laughs]

TI: Okay, so where did you do your training?

TO: I was inducted in Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, and then they sent us to Camp Lee, Virginia, for my basic training. And from Camp Lee, Virginia, they sent me to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, and that's where I trained as a heavy equipment mechanic, big trucks and tanks and those army ducks and that type of thing. And that was a great time because I think it was in the summertime, the sergeant that was doing the training, we were right on the Chesapeake Bay there. And for some reason, we spent a lot of time working on those ducks. We'd always go out and test them out in the Chesapeake Bay, he liked to do that. [Laughs] It was his call, I guess he can pretty much do what he wanted. But I thought that it was more important that we be doing, you know, getting training on trucks that were used more than these ducks, and everywhere didn't have ducks. but anyway, that was okay, it was a fun time for us.

TI: And describe what a duck is.

TO: That's the one that you see going out in the water and land in water. But it's a boat/truck type of thing.

TI: So it's those things that could kind of drive up on the beach?

TO: Right.

TI: And then they can load up and they go back in the water.

TO: Uh-huh, right.

TI: And so he just liked to kind of go around and test them out, just kind of cruise around?

TO: Exactly. [Laughs]

TI: And he brought you along?

TO: Yeah, well, all of us. I think, I don't know, there was five or six of us that were in this particular class, and yeah, we spent a lot of time out there in the water.

TI: I think you said earlier you were being trained as a replacement troop for the 442?

TO: Not really, not really. Camp Lee, Virginia, that was basic infantry training, and we didn't know what was going to happen, but for some reason, they picked my name to send me to, up to Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.