<Begin Segment 14>

TI: And so what happened to you at Berkeley? So you're there, did you continue your schooling or what --

CS: No. The next day, on Monday, I got my draft notice from L.A. to report. So I went to the train depot and showed them my summons. But they won't sell me a ticket because they thought I would sabotage the train, so I had to hitchhike all the way back to L.A. to join the army, so I joined the army.

TI: And so when you... it's almost ironic. I mean, you get your draft summons the day after...

CS: It was already in the mail.

TI: It was already in the mail, and what were you thinking when you were drafted?

CS: Oh, I didn't think nothing of it. 'Cause they were, all of us were expecting it, they were draft age. So just happened to ironically come on December 8th.

TI: Something that I didn't ask earlier, but when you were at UCLA, you were also part of ROTC?

CS: Well, they had two type of ROTC, the one that you volunteer for and you get your uniform and all that, and the rest of us all had to take, all of us had to take a certain amount of ROTC training.

TI: And so you were in that second group?

CS: I was in that second...

TI: Okay, so it wasn't like you were necessarily training to be an officer, but everyone had to take certain...

CS: Yeah, they did. And as far as the close order drills and all that, in the Boy Scouts, we had similar, so I was very familiar with the close order drills and all that.

MN: How did that help you when you got into the army?

CS: That close order was... during basic training, I don't know how, the sergeant knew about it, but we would be going through the close order drill and a couple times he said, "Hey, Shimo, take over." So I don't know how he knew I knew how to do the close order. So I was just barking commands. [Laughs]

MN: And you were in charge of Caucasians.

CS: Yeah, I was out in the basic training. So he must have heard from my (records) that I had ROTC training at UCLA, I think.

TI: So I'm curious, when you eventually get down to L.A., you show up at the draft board, the office. What was the reaction when you got there?

CS: Gee, I don't remember.

TI: So they went ahead and just processed you, there was no...

CS: Yeah, in fact, all the Boyle Heights boys, the same time, so we all went together to Fort MacArthur and got our uniforms and all that. So all the Caucasian guys were on the baseball team and the Cougars, and all those were in there. And it's a funny thing, at the same time, while we all were being drafted, guys were being kicked, Niseis were being kicked out. So there was no uniform command, I guess. Then some were getting kicked out, and here we were being drafted.

TI: Yeah, and that's what I find when I go around the country. It's very uneven in terms of some people tried to volunteer and they were turned away, other people were being drafted, other people were being kicked out. But it sounded like in your case, you were being drafted and processed. Was there ever any mention -- this was right after Pearl Harbor -- about you being Japanese? Were there any comments?

CS: I don't even recall. We were all together, and I think people that were processing, they had (...) interest (only) in giving us the uniform, cutting our hair. [Laughs]

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