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TI: Now that the war has started, did any of your older brothers go into the service?

SO: Yeah, my brother, my second brother.

TI: So he's Isamu.

SO: Yeah.

TI: And which branch of the service did he go to?

SO: He was with the engineer group in Honolulu. That was all Nisei boys.

TI: So the 232nd?

SO: 299.

TI: Oh, 299, okay, right.

SO: And for me, the following year, he was inducted May, 1944. And me, I was inducted May 1945. And then for us, they had this 299, that was more for Hawaii boys, Hawaiians, Chinese, and they were in that group. They went down South Seas to fight the war. But these boys, the Hawaiians are known for drinking. So instead of fighting the Japanese, they were fighting the Caucasian soldiers. So they sent them back to Hawaii to train us, now. [Laughs] That's what happened.

TI: So you're... because, so you were inducted 1945, so at a time when the war was just ending or already over. And so you were being trained to, I guess, for the occupation primarily, the after the war?

SO: No. At that time, not even occupation yet, because there was a lot of prisoners coming down from the mountains in Okinawa. And then now they wanted interpreters badly. To train a new interpreter takes three years, whereas they can just train us overnight.

TI: Because you already understand Japanese.

SO: Yes. So we had a half a day (Japanese language) training, half a day basic training. They were just rushing us. And here this navy lieutenant came, because Okinawa was controlled by the Marines. So a naval officer came and said, "You know, I'm here to pick up your ninety boys, we need you right away, because we cannot wait three years. So we want you right away, so start this study camp, Japanese language. I said, How can you study hard Japanese language? When you get out of Schofield Barracks camp, they said to, "speak American." That's right. Speak as much as you can when you go home. [Laughs] That's how we were trained.

TI: So this is interesting to me, because the people on the mainland who went to the Pacific, the Japanese Americans, most of them got their training in Fort Savage...

SO: Yeah, first Fort Savage, then Fort Snelling.

TI: Fort Snelling. But for you, you got your training in Hawaii.

SO: No choice. You're just, "You're going to be an interpreter. We need you badly."

TI: So essentially you're just going through basic training, and then, because you spoke Japanese, they were gonna make you an interviewer, interrogator, interpreter.

SO: And those who didn't do well, they sent them to a regular thirteen-week basic training on the mainland, whereas we were sent overseas on the first available cargo ship.

TI: So you were, you got a really, really short...

SO: That's right. There were ninety boys, so we were assigned with the Navy going to Okinawa. So the first cargo ship available at Pearl Harbor, they put us on that Aiea dock, and then went on the cargo ship. And then the cargo ship took one week to Marshall Islands. It took one week because the boat had to go zig-zag.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.