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TI: So you said you finally got, I guess, orders, or you got the --

MK: We got the permission to, yeah. And then we got the transportation orders from the Department of War that we would be, we were allowed to sail back to, back to Hawaii. And we were trained down to San Francisco, and we boarded a ship. And we boarded the same ship with the 442.

TI: Oh, so tell me about that. That's interesting. So, so...

MK: The 442 had gone to a parade in New York City. They had the grand parade for them in New York City, Fifth Avenue parade. And they'd all come across country. They had some, they had some time off and they were supposed to get back to San Francisco, so then they... and we boarded the ship and here's the same guys we had come to camp, Jerome, on the same ship with us. And they asked, I remember one said, "Where you guys been? What you doing on this ship?" He says, "I thought you guys were in Jerome." Says, "No, we went to Tule Lake." Said, "What you guys doing in Tule Lake? If you're in Tule Lake, what you doing here?" And we explained to him that we finally got, we were able to come home, so we're going home, and we stayed on the same ship until we got to Honolulu.

TI: And was there any... oh, what's the right word? What was the feeling from the 442 guys when they, when they knew that you went from Jerome to Tule Lake? No bad feelings? No...

MK: No bad feelings. As far as they were, as far as they were concerned they weren't involved with the politics. They didn't know the background of why we were in Tule Lake. All they knew was that we'd been in Jerome and all of a sudden we come from Tule Lake, and figuring that, I guess they figured that those... fate of war that they were moved around. Just like we were in Jerome to begin with. [Laughs]

TI: Now tell me about the mood of the men on the 442. Were they, did they ever talk about their experiences in Europe with you, or did you hear them talking about it?

MK: No. I have a brother-in-law who was a 442. He was a, one of the color guards and that was exhibited at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. He was the second one from the left, I think. But he, he didn't say very much until way latter part about the war, what it was like in the war.

<End Segment 30> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.