<Begin Segment 28>

MN: And at Fort MacArthur, you had a young WAC take an interest to you.

JM: [Laughs] Yeah. She was a, these WACs were, oh, boy. They were all from these little bitty tiny towns all over the South and Midwest, you know. And all the, all the... there was no civilian opportunities for them or anything.

[Interruption]

JM: So she worked up in the same area I did, she was a secretary over there. And yeah, I could see why they joined the WACs. The WACs were a scary bunch, 'cause we had them over at Fort Huachuca. And the guys that raised a stink about having the WACs with us was us. We didn't want them quartered with us. They said, "Oh, you're gonna share facilities with the WACs, and you would think all these horny guys would say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." But we were like, "No, no, no." 'Cause we're like... one of those guys told me, "Matsuoka, did you ever see one of those WACs?" I said, "No." He says, "Well, they got more of a mustache than I do." And I'm like, "Oh, lord have mercy."

And going back to Fort Huachuca a minute, one day we were all called into the assembly and our commanding officer said, "The border is now off-limits. You cannot go across the border into Mexico anymore." And he said, "And the reason for it is there's been an outbreak of venereal disease and, you know, we're gonna put a stop to this. You guys are going down there to the bars, spending your money consorting with these, with these women, and you're bringing back disease. We can't have that, so the border is off-limits. Month goes by, the... what do they call it? Venereal disease is still running rampant. The border is closed, and all of a sudden the word came out. And the reason I know where it came from is I was in that office. And the office also had the files from the, from the military police. They investigated all those things, and if you had venereal disease, they would investigate you, because they wanted to know where it came from. So during lunchtime, I had nothing to do, I started reading these documents. And lo and behold, where in the hell was the disease coming from? The WACs. [Laughs] Them WACs were wild. When I left, I think the last I heard of them, some of them were pushing a burning mattress out the window. I don't know what they were doing. So any of these women that we saw in the army, the WACs, we were kind of like, hmm, you know. So we had two WACs in our offices. One was from the reservation, she was married, and boy, her level of education was, geez, just not there. The other one was from Kentucky. So I think she kind of took a liking to me. For some reason, she kept calling me Lefty. I have no idea why. So later on in the evenings, someone would say, "Hey..." I forgot what it was. Was it Janice? I don't. Said, "Someone out there is calling for Lefty." Oh, god, that was... so I go out there, and it was her. She says, "Well, come on down, Lefty, and let's go have a doughnut together." "All right, all right, I'll go with you." So we used to go down there, and I've have a doughnut, cup of coffee, I'd shoot the breeze a little bit and I'd come back, and that'd be the extent of it. Well, apparently she had a boyfriend who's now really angry at me, thinking I'm beating his time.

And then, she was from Kentucky, so these were like all these, sort of, hillbilly type folks. Our mail carrier, much older man, was from Kentucky, and he was a reverend. So one day he gets me aside, he says, "Well, how you doing?" I said, "Oh, fine, fine, Reverend. And you?" He said, "Oh, I'm fine. I really like this job." I said, "Oh, good, good." How is your flock?" He says, "Oh, yes, well, I don't have all that much time to do my preaching, but I do have enough time to marry people." I said, "Oh, marry people?" He says, "Yes. You know I'm an ordained minister." I said, "Yes." He says, "I sure wouldn't mind conducting a wedding if you're interested." And I said, "Me?" He says, "Well, I hear you're very friendly with that gal down there." I'm like, oh, lord, you know, I said, "Oh, no, no, I think you, I think you heard a lot more than what it really is, Reverend. I'm sorry, but all I do is go out and have a cup of coffee with her and that's it." He said, "Well, if you ever change your mind, I'm ready." I said, "If I change my mind I'll let you know." I said, oh my goodness, I got to stop hanging around these barracks. So I bought me a car, and I began to take off. It was really nice, and it was a convertible, too, I was, flowing in and out of Fort MacArthur.

When I left, this was another group of WACs typing out the discharge papers, DD-214. She said, "Well, are you black or white?" I said, "Am I black or white?" I said, "I'm not either." She says, "Well, you got to be black or white. What do I put down here?" I said, "I don't know, but I'm not black and I'm not white." She says, "Well, make up your mind," she says, "because you're not gonna process until I type this out. And it says 'race,' and you gotta be either white or black." I says, "I'm not either white, I'm not either black." 'Cause when we went to school, we were, we were considered, I had a choice of three. I was Caucasoid, Negroid, or Mongoloid. And I said, "I think I'm in the category of "Mongoloid." She says, "Oh, okay," and she types in "Mongolia." So if they ever run a scan on, in 1960, the ethnicity, they'll find a certain amount of "Mongolians." [Laughs] They'll find a Mongolian attached to Fort McArthur, California, that was a clerk. It's still on my list, it says, "Mongolian."

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.