<Begin Segment 18>

TI: So when you were essentially kicked out of the MIS, were you given a, maybe not a hearing, but a meeting where it was discussed what, why?

CS: No, no. It was just, it was a built-in order, "You are now transferred," so and so. So we were transferred, they didn't have any units for troublemakers, so they were transferred to a real nice fort, Fort Leavenworth. But they didn't have regular barracks, they had barracks from prewar days, it was buildings, brick buildings. Nice fishing pond nearby, oh, it was lush, you know, it was a soft life. I was working under another captain in the motor pool department, and it was a soft life. [Laughs] Then came the order.

TI: But before we go there, so going back, you said the others, so it wasn't just you, but other men who were also kicked out of the MIS. Did they write similar letters?

CS: Not that... I don't know. We were kicked out two at a time. They didn't turn us out as a group. So two at a time go to different forts. And we didn't know who... later I found out who were kicked out. I didn't know there were twenty or what, I just thought (only) two of us were being kicked out. Then the war was going on.

TI: And how many were, from your class, how many were kicked out?

CS: From the school there were twenty. The one I came out with was a Kibei cadre member, he wasn't a student. So he was under suspicion or something, or he must have made a statement. So with this cadre man, two of us when to Fort Leavenworth.

TI: Right, but I'm wondering, so you went out in twos. How many...

CS: Twenty.

TI: Twenty were kicked out?

CS: Yeah.

TI: Out of, how large was your class?

CS: Oh, that wasn't... this was from the whole school.

TI: Right, and how large --

CS: From our class, I think I was the only one.

TI: Oh, okay. So twenty from the whole school, and you were the only one from your class.

CS: Yeah.

TI: And at that point, when you were kicked out, how large was the school, do you have a sense?

CS: It was pretty big. There were a lot of classes.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.