<Begin Segment 21>

MN: Now, you just arrived at Morningside and then in February '45 you received your induction notice.

BK: Yeah.

MN: So you're in college, did you ask for a deferment?

BK: No. Once you're eligible... I didn't know anything about the rules of registration or deferment. Once I got notice by the army I just told the school that I had received my induction notice. They returned all the (money) except for a few, few dollars, like I received all my money back. And I reported back to Manzanar. Then I went down to San Pedro (Army headquarters) to be inducted. They told me to go back to (Manzanar) camp, went to camp, waited and waited for orders to report for duty. I waited for that, then I went up to Salt Lake and was inducted (...) and then sent out to Camp Wolters, Texas, for basic army training.

MN: Going to Manzanar and you're in this camp and you're waiting to go fight for a country that has your parents in camp. How did that make you feel?

BK: Well, I guess that the people that received the notices, I mean, you're already designated as a group, returning back to camp. And I wasn't the only one that received (a notice)... I don't know how many people were notified that they had to report for duty, so we're just waiting for orders. It's not that we had anything to do in camp except wait and then take off (when ordered). There's nothing to do in camp. You can't find a job because you're not (...) there permanently, so all we're doing is just biding our time. As soon as we received our notice, then our group was driven by bus to Salt Lake and then reported for duty. Then they would assign us clothes, an (identification) number. We'd get our, (dog tag). The number assigned to us and then they'd put the Protestant or Buddhist or whatever on the (identity tag) and we had the (...) dog tag assigned to us. And then you'd go to the line and they would give you the army issue of so many shirts, so many socks, so many whatever, and your shoe size. You get a whole gunny sack full of your clothes, and once you get that they give you orders where you're gonna report for the infantry. So we were trained to be the infantry replacements for the soldiers in Europe. We were sent down to Camp Wolters, (Texas), the infantry training (unit).

MN: When you were at Camp Wolters, VE Day was declared. Did you think VJ Day was gonna be pretty soon?

BK: Well, it changed, it changed our routine, because we were supposed to be trained as replacements for the other 442nd. We were all Japanese in this contingent being trained, and I don't know if you realize that the army discriminated and all Japanese were placed in one unit. All the blacks were in another unit, all the Indians were in another unit, and you were being put in segregated (units). So we knew that our group was scheduled to be replacements for the 100th/442nd, and when we found out that the war was ending in Europe, they took us off of orders to be shipped to Europe because we weren't replacements anymore. So as soon as that happened, (Fort Snelling) in Minnesota, was looking for people (who) had Japanese background, so the language people came down from Minnesota to test us. We were all JAs in our unit, so each one was then seated and given Japanese books to read, and so if you were able to read up to a certain book, then you were sent up to Fort Snelling. So I qualified for that, so they sent me to Fort Snelling and a few other fellows. Some of the other fellows that were from Salt Lake, they didn't have any Japanese school training. They were sent somewhere else, but those that had Japanese school training, we all went up to Fort Snelling.

MN: What were these, what was the twenty-five week intensive MIS language training like?

BK: It was, it was brutal. It was very brutal. Very competitive. And we would get up in the morning, have breakfast, then march towards our classroom. We reported in our classroom and had our lesson plans and instructors gave us special problems and instruction. Lunchtime, we were marched back to our quarters. We ate lunch, and then after lunch we were marched back to our school and stayed there 'til about maybe 4:30-5, then marched back to our quarters, had dinner. And I don't know if we went back to class or not. In some cases we went back to class, then came back before 9:00, and then lights out at 10:00, and some of the guys hadn't studied yet so they would study under the blankets with a flashlight. It was intensive. Very intensive, very competitive. And so the only time we had off was on Saturdays it was half day, so the afternoon some of the guys took off for town. Sundays was off 'cause we went to church in the morning, and Sunday afternoons just catch up on writing letters and all, or study. We were always studying.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.