<Begin Segment 11>

TI: If things didn't work out and, in fact, some Nisei were unhappy that they were treated differently and assigned to a segregated unit at first, how do you feel about this? Do you think the Niseis would have fought as well if they were assigned individually to integrated units?

DI: No. I think number one, the realities of that time dictated that it should have been a segregated one. Because if I was sent in some other unit, I don't expect white men at that time or black men to treat me as their brothers, so what's the mission. But when we train together and fought as a unit with one goal in mind and one mission in mind, I think success was guaranteed. After the first battle and knowing what the 100th had done, I think most of us left Mississippi knowing that our mission would be accomplished.

TI: Something, as a Sansei, I thought about this. If we still had a segregated army during the Vietnam war because my older brother was of that era and if the infantry brigade was made up of --

DI: Officially the army became integrated during the time of Truman.

TI: No, I realize that, and this is more of a hypothetical, that if an infantry brigade was made up of volunteers from Hawaii and mainland Sanseis... I guess the question is how well do you think they would have performed compared to the 442? Sort of a Sansei generation...

DI: I think that's a bad comparison 'cause after all we had a mission. We were there for a purpose, it was not just being drafted and having to fight a war. We were there to prove once and for all that we were just as good as others, that we were Americans. In Vietnam it was not a matter of these men who were drafted, reluctantly got in. You can't make a comparison like that.

TI: Okay. I guess one of the things I'm looking for is the 442, there was a real specialness, a real togetherness, and part of that was a sense that there were all Japanese Americans, Americans of Japanese ancestry.

DI: It had to be that way.

TI: And whether or not that strength of being so close was a good thing that the military, the army, should also be thinking about in the future in terms of how do you create that closeness because that closeness can be such a powerful thing.

DI: Well, the military is a transient organization. Transient in the sense that unlike the 442nd, you do not train and fight as a unit. They go off to other units, replacements come in, and as a result it's very difficult to build up "espirit de corps." In the case of the 442nd, it was a natural. We all looked alike, we had the same mission, and we knew what we're there for -- no if's or but's.

TI: Right. And that's what I've learned, it's such a powerful thing.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.