<Begin Segment 17>

TI: So tell me about the Boulder, sort of, the U.S. Navy Japanese language school. What was that like? I mean, how, like start with who were the students at this language school?

KY: Students at this language school for naval officers and marine officers, in other words, connected with the Navy side of things. And, of course, naval intelligence, so get to learn about, I'm sure, naval affairs, maybe little tactical things. Maybe some tactical things that some officers might have done in active duty aboard ships. Anyway, I do not know anything about that in the sense that what we were teaching was basic Japanese language, and did not get into military. As an instructor, now. I'm sure there were some that got these.

TI: Now, when you say "basic Japanese," so did these students come in knowing Japanese, a little Japanese already, or did they have to start from the beginning?

KY: The vast majority, aside from a few that were either born in Japan or had lived in Japan some time and knew some Japanese. The vast majority were, didn't know a thing about it. So there were some very, very smart people that knew Japanese language. In other words, I couldn't teach 'em much myself at my level, but there were others I'm sure that could have taught them.

TI: Well, for the ones who were beginners, and they would go to the school, at the end of their training, how good was their Japanese? What could they do with their Japanese language?

KY: I'm not in a position to say, but I would assume -- since I wasn't involved with the higher grades -- I assume that for one thing, if they were to serve in the occupation forces, they'd know basic Japanese, conversed with them, and read most of the newspapers and some of the letters. But letters mostly were written in cursive Japanese so that it's not as easy to learn as printed Japanese. But I'm sure they'd be able to do that. But most important, I think, in occupied Japan would be the spoken Japanese, speaking with counterparts, Japanese people in the government, and serving as public employees.

TI: For like a typical student, how long would they stay at the Navy language school?

KY: One year.

TI: So it was a real intensive...

KY: Yeah, very intensive. And to begin with, they were very intelligent. They had high IQs, and I think most of 'em were language-oriented. There's people that can absorb this type of thing, whereas other people said, "Oh, language," especially if you had to learn kanji. Kanji's not easy.

TI: Now, were the, so these were naval and marine officers, and they're going off probably in the early part to even fight against the Japanese.

KY: Yeah. Could be fighting, and then later occupation.

TI: But the early part, when they were getting ready to possibly learn the language and then go fight, was there any animosity towards you or the other Niseis or the Japanese national instructors?

KY: I know of no incident, where I personally had no such occasion to hate any student. I think they were all...

TI: Or the other way. Did any students sort of show dislike to the Japanese there?

KY: I can't say that I experienced anything. They might have been, or maybe some of the higher administrative staff of the school could have known of such incidents, but I know of none. Plus, I wasn't at that school that long either, about a year and a half or less than that.

TI: But a few more questions about the school. You mentioned, you were talking about the instructors, and Tatsumi recruited you. But when you were talking about that, you also mentioned that there were some Japanese nationals, Isseis, who were also instructors. Can you give me a rough breakdown, like about how many were Nisei versus Issei?

KY: Boy, I really can't give much with accuracy, but I would reckon less than a quarter were Japanese nationals.

TI: And how about men versus women? Were they all men, or were there some women instructors?

KY: There were some women instructors at the Navy school, some women, Nisei women as far as I can recall.

TI: And in this environment, how much freedom did you and the other instructors have? Were there, like, any restrictions placed upon you in terms of what you could do, where you can go, things like that?

KY: I know of no particular restrictions. You mean in associating with these students?

TI: Yeah, students or maybe even the other instructors. I mean, did the other instructors get together and have parties or go out to dinner, things like that?

KY: There might have been some, but I personally did not experience much of that either. Family, there were a number of families as a group that were in the teaching staff, but I don't know of any particular family that got together or parties. Of course, the bachelor instructors, we went drinking together and so on, but I don't remember a single thing about special drinking or partying, getting together as a group.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.