<Begin Segment 16>

TI: Okay, so let's go to Tule Lake now. Any memories from Tule Lake that stand out?

KY: Tule Lake stand out? Not very much. I was in cost accounting, I think, employed in camp life. I lived in the bachelor's quarters in Ward 7, which was way off in the distance. We called it "Alaska" in camp. I think it was the northwest corner of the camp. Anyway, lived in bachelor quarters there.

TI: Was there anyone that you met at Tule Lake that kind of stood out in your mind?

KY: Not really, except for this incident where there was an army recruiter, military, U.S. Army recruiter came looking for Japanese linguists, because of the big war on with Japan, and they needed Japanese-speaking and Japanese readers of text and letters, and understand Japanese being broadcast or radiocast or whatever. And they needed Japanese linguists. Says, "Hey, I'm looking for, recruiting for Japanese capable young men." And so he gave me some tests and, "Oh, you're the kind we're looking for," told me to join the group. I guess this is the Presidio that became quite famous in MIS, but to join that group. And this was, happened just before. In other words, I could have gone into the, drafted into the army right then. Of course, in camp, there were people that said, "Hey, you're crazy doing that. Considering you're an 'enemy' and you're going to be helping the guy that's calling you an 'enemy'?" Didn't think anything about it, I guess. It was one way to get out of camp. But just before I got drafted and the orders came out for this type of thing, Professor Tatsumi from the University of California, who was a professor of Japanese, and that's the professor that gave me the training in advanced Japanese language. So I took two years of advanced Japanese language from Professor Tatsumi.

TI: So Professor Tatsumi taught you two years at the University of Washington?

KY: Washington.

TI: And then he went to...

KY: And then he went to Colorado University in Boulder, Colorado, and he was the ranking Japanese linguist-type instructor who spoke Japanese, whereas other were Issei, older people, too. But he was the ranking English-speaking type professor. He was the recruiter, I guess, too. And he said, must have said, "Hey, there's a good Japanese studies, language speaking able-type among my students, and that's Yamashita. Get in and recruit him as a teacher." So he was the one that recruited me to come teach at Boulder, Colorado, at the Naval Intelligence Language School.

TI: Now, when you say recruit, did he actually go to Tule Lake to talk with you, or how --

KY: No. That happened by letter, I don't think phone, letter. He didn't come to camp, he wrote a letter.

TI: So you had, in some ways, an option. You could have gone to the...

KY: Yeah, yeah.

TI: ...Army intelligence school, Japanese language, or the Navy. Why did you choose the Navy?

KY: Well, the Navy one, you're a teacher of Japanese language, and you're a U.S. government employee. The other one, you're a draftee, man. [Laughs] Private. So I said, "Oh, heck, I've got a chance to draw a salary and so on, live a safe life, comfortable life." I'd say there's no real choice there.

TI: Okay, so it was kind of an easy choice for you.

KY: Right, easy choice. "Oh, I'm going to Boulder." So that's the way I got to Boulder and the army, maybe they should be glad that I didn't go and raise any trouble for the army. But anyway, I did not get drafted.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.